David @ Tokyo

Minister of Agriculture Cedric Liburd said a declaration would be issued following IWC 58, explaining the significance of pro-whalers winning the vote.

“The matter of winning the vote does not mean that we are out there fighting NGOs and others, we are making sure that we, the people of the Caribbean and those of us who use the sea for natural resources, are given fair opportunity to use the sea in a sustainable way and I’m hoping that all of us could come to that realisation.

“If the vote is in sustainable use, we believe that in many parts of the world including the Caribbean, that would contribute to sustainable coastal communities, sustainable livelihood, food security and poverty reduction and that placing the use of whales outside the context of the globally-accepted norm of science-based management and rule making for emotional reasons would set a bad precedence that risk our use of fisheries and other renewable resources.

“We believe that this declaration will speak to those matters and we want to further emphasise that the use of marine resources as an integral part of development option is critically important for a number of countries in the Caribbean as we see the experience the need to diversify our agricultural sector,” Liburd, who is leading the Federation at IWC 58, said.

posted by David  # 12:28 pm