GEORGETOWN – CARICOM observed World Oceans Day on Tuesday, indicating that harmony with ocean life and livelihoods is the only way to achieve climate safety, healthy and wholesome societies and sustainable economies for generations.
In a message to mark the occasion, the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat said recognition of World Oceans Day coming on the heels of World Biodiversity and World Environment days is an exclamation point for small island and low-lying coastal developing states.
“Our dependence on the natural environment for life and livelihoods is actualised in our coastal communities, industries and productive sectors,” a CARICOM statement said. “CARICOM is committed to promoting the protection and sustainable use of ocean life.
“This is enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas where Member States acknowledged the Caribbean Sea and its resources as a key factor in supporting the long-term vision of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and skills across the region.”
CARICOM said resilience of human life too, is a central development strategy of the Community by necessity not luxury.
“The threat of sea level rise and coastal hazards from extreme events causes the Community to give priority to improving its relationship with the sea and its critical coastal habitats,” the CARICOM statement said.
The Secretariat said that through the plethora of challenges the Caribbean faces from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and ever-intensifying annual extreme events, the tremendous potential of ocean-based economic growth as a recovery-engine is more and more apparent.
(CMC)
