David @ Tokyo

Fisheries ODA news from St. Kitts:

Japan and St. Kitts and Nevis value relations

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, FEBRUARY 21ST 2007 (CUOPM) - St. Kitts and Nevis' Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas said Tuesday the twin-island Federation values its relationship with Japan.

"Japan continues to be a very important development partner, not only in St. Kitts and Nevis, but also in the region by your non-borrowing membership in the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)," Prime Minister Douglas told visiting
Japanese Ambassador to St. Kitts and Nevis, His Excellency Koichiro Seki.

Dr. Douglas, in welcoming the Trinidad-based diplomat, who is in the Federation for Wednesday's handing-over ceremony of the new fisheries development project at Old Road, six miles west of Basseterre, noted that Japan and St. Kitts and Nevis have had good relations over the past several years.

"We want to thank you for the continued assistance for our economic diversification programme as fisheries plays a major role in the transition from the production of sugar to a non-sugar agricultural programme coupled with an economy based on tourism, financial and information technology services," said Prime Minister Douglas.

The Japanese diplomat noted the current visit was his third, having presented his credentials early last year and also attended the International Whaling Conference at the Royal St. Kitts Marriott Resort.

"Japan thanks and appreciates the support of St. Kitts and Nevis in the international arena and hopes the relationship will continue to prosper," said Ambassador Seki, who told Prime Minister Douglas, that he is inspired by the efforts of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis to diversify the economy.

The Japanese diplomat promised to assist in other areas of agriculture.

The St. Kitts government website has stories about the development here (Sep 8 2006) and here (Dec 7 2006), while the Embassy of Japan site from Trinidad and Tobago has details of the grant (Jul 1 2005).

Of note:

Minister Liburd said that the output from the Old Road Fisheries should reduce the overall imports of fish into the Federation.

Let's hope so. This important message received coverage in the Caribbean, where Minister Liburd was quoted elsewhere saying:

“We have all these tourists coming here, what are we going to feed them with, are we going to ask the United States to send the fish here?"

...

"That's not what we want. We to want to be able to benefit from tourists coming to our country and that's what we have to look at."

...

"The Windward Islands have suffered with their bananas. St Kitts and Nevis have suffered with their sugar industry. Our tourism industry is moving at a pace and we don't want to see the importation of fish coming into our country.”

Securing sources of foreign currency income (exporting rather than importing) appears to be a common theme for developing nations, as seen in my previous posts regarding Suriname and Honduras.

Good luck to the Old Road Fisherman’s Cooperative and the Fisheries Ministry with their management of the new facilities.


Some western NGO's have made statements to the effect that developing nations such as St. Kitts have to make a choice between the development of their marine resources or the development of their tourism industry. The suggestion demonstrates no consideration for the independence and sovereignty of such nations, but rather a mix of pure ignorance and arrogant self-interest. A certain western NGO even went so far as to illegally enter St. Kitts and Nevis at the time of the IWC 58 meeting, breaking their own accountability charter in record time.

Labels: Fisheries ODA, Old Road Fisheries

Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) has news of a new Fisheries ODA project in Suriname.

Suriname was originally colonised by the Dutch, but gained independence in 1975. It appears that Netherlands still enjoys pulling strings there however:

The Dutch relationship continues to be an important factor in the economy, with the Dutch insisting that Suriname undertake economic reforms and produce specific plans acceptable to the Dutch for projects on which aid funds could be spent. In 2000, however, the Dutch revised the structure of their aid package and signaled to the Surinamese authorities their decision to disburse aid by sectoral priorities as opposed to individual projects. Although the present government is not in favor of this approach, it has identified sectors and is now working on sectoral analyses to present to the Dutch.

Also,

It is attempting to broaden its economic base, establish better contacts with other nations and international financial institutions, and reduce its dependence on Dutch assistance.

Japan's history of assistance to Suriname appears to go back quite some way, with Fisheries ODA activity alone having occurred in 1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, and most recently 2004. The projects in 1994, 1998 and 2000 all involved improvement of facilities at the Paramaribo central market.

This new project for the "Construction of Small-Scale Fisheries Center in Paramaribo" will see the provision of up to 817 million yen (6.7 million USD) in Grant Aid.

According to the MOFA news release, the fisheries industry of Suriname contributes 5% to GDP, and with around 5000 workers accounts for 3.2% of the total working age population. Paramaribo, the capital city, is the nations largest fisheries base, with approximately 16,000 tonnes landed there according to 2004 statistics, and an annual landings of shrimp and sea bream amounting for 10,000 tonnes. On the other hand, while small scale fishing boats land around 6,000 tonnes of mainly catfish and small shrimps each year, there are apparently no public facilities for landings by these vessels. Switching into my best-effort translation mode (this also from the MOFA release):

It is with this background that Suriname applied to our country for Grant Aid in support of the "Construction of Small-Scale Fisheries Center in Paramaribo" project that, through the construction of a functional landing facility (landing wharf, ice making, ice storage, gear repairs, etc) at the west bank of Paramaribo's Suriname river, aims to improve operational efficiency, production volume, and quality assurance.

It is expected that the execution of this plan will contribute to a strengthened economic platform through the reduction in the amount of time required for small scale fishing boat preparations and landings, the achievement of increased trust in product quality for both domestic and export markets, market expansion, the promotion of small scale fisheries, and the acquisition of foreign exchange.

But, despite all of that apparently some reports wondered whether this is a "bribe" for a vote at the IWC. Suriname joined the IWC in July 2004, many years after it's first receipt of ODA from Japan, but nonetheless, the story has been reported in several western news outlets. Here's the Caribbean News Net's article:

PARAMARIBO, Suriname: Japan and Suriname on Wednesday have signed an Exchange of Notes to construct a small-scale fisheries centre in Paramaribo. Japan granted US$7 million for the construction.

Responding to questions from reporters, minister Lygia Kraag-Keteldijk denied that the donation was a favour from Japan in exchange for Suriname's vote to resume commercial whaling at the meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in May. Japan is pro-whaling, maintaining that whaling is a one of its national traditions.

Suriname and the other CARICOM nations have constantly sided with Japan and other pro-whaling nations and voted to end the moratorium on commercial whaling at last year's IWC meeting.

“This project fits within the framework of the cooperation between the two countries. It has nothing to do with the whaling issue,” argued minister Kraag-Keteldijk. Japan, along with a number of countries, including Norway, Nicaragua and Iceland, advocates the lift of a 20-year-old ban, while other nations, including Brazil, Spain, Chile and Peru are against.

Japan’s consul Kiyoshi Takeuchi stated that “the main objective of this project is to improve the working environment for artisanal fishermen and assure and upgrade the quality of their products while ultimately aiming at maintenance and encouragement of sustainable fisheries”. Takeuchi further noted that the fishing industry in Suriname “holds great export potential”.

Jagdies Bhansing, director of Suriname's ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, stated that in 1992 Japan had already financed a similar fishing centre in Suriname. According to director of Fisheries, Jaswant Sathoe, Suriname in 2006 exported US$ 40 million of seafood products to the United States, Europe and Japans. It is expected, he said, that with the new centre the fishery exports will increase.

Good luck to the fishermen of Suriname with this new project.


The Nichigo Press, based in Australia, has an opinion piece (in Japanese) from Nikkei's Sydney correspondent on the situation in the South Pacific, where tensions between "big bullies" Australia and New Zealand and their smaller island neighbours have recently been coming to the fore. A section of the article mentions Pacific Island nation support for whaling at the IWC. Again, with my best effort translation:

... The reason these small nations support Japan at the IWC, even though doing so makes them enemies of Australia and the European heavyweights, is not to receive Japan's aid. It's because they believe that superpower-led nature protectionism threatens the survival of their nations.

The movement behind the whaling ban will eventually spread to dolphins, turtles, and tuna. "Dolphins and tuna have traditionally been important sources of nutrition", points out a foreign diplomat of one island nation. This official says that the expansion of the whaling ban to other species will "lead to impediments to securing nutrition for our people". If the existence of the main industry of fishing is threatened, "our entire economy may no long be able to continue".

The anti-whalers of Australia say that instead of whales and dolphins, people simply need eat beef. Yet how can an island nation having had it's fishing industry, a source of foreign currency, stolen away from it expect to pay for beef? Saying that they will be provided with sufficient aid amounts to telling them that they are to become subordinate states. The posture of support for Japan at the IWC by such island nations is ladled with the bitter anguish of dignified independent states...

A lack of respect for the world's island and developing nations from the self-righteous anti-whaling NGOs of the western superpowers and their willingly gullible supporters is certain to keep them blind to the true reasons for the positions taken by those nations. To my mind, the offensive and disrespectful anti-whaling NGO "votes for sale" allegations, while successful in stirring up irrational emotions amongst western donors, are likely to continue to serve more benefit to the pro-sustainable use movement over the medium to long term, rather than their own.

Labels: Fisheries ODA, IWC vote influence, Suriname

UPDATE 2007/02/03 - I started this article translation late last year, and have finally gotten around to finishing off the second half of it today.

Japan's National Research Institute of Fisheries Science (NRIFS), Fisheries Research Agency has an article describing a Fisheries ODA "mini-project" in Honduras in during 1990's. My best-effort translation is as follows, below:

Honduras small scale fishing promotion and fisheries related official development assistance (ODA) - Yukio Tasaka

The country of Honduras lies in the middle of the narrow strip of land that connects the Northern and Southern American continents, facing the Caribbean Sea. It is not a country that we are used to hearing about frequently, but as of recently a large number of Japanese technical experts reside in the country in relation to a variety of official development assistance projects. Amongst them, since 1991 a new fisheries project that challenges the concept of Japan's fisheries related official development assistance (ODA) policy is underway. "Model Peska", as that undertaking is called, is a small scale project focused solely on the Trujillo region in the central northern area of Honduras. Amongst the Japanese it is called a "Mini project". However, the tide of fisherman systematization that took root there is currently spreading throughout the rest of the country, and is changing the whole fisheries industry of Honduras. As a specialist in distribution and distribution facilities for fisheries, I received the opportunity to lead the operation in 1995 in relation to Honduras' northern coastal small scale fisheries promotion and planning study. Here, while introducing the "Mini project" in Honduras, I will describe the order of business of our country's Fisheries ODA.

1. The mini-project and the budding of the fishermen's movement

The fishing industry of Honduras, which accounts for approximately 14% of the total value of exports, is valued as a source of protein for Hondurans. At the same time, there are also promotion targets in terms of food security and acquiring foreign exchange. However, while production methods including gill nets, traps, and seines are used in some areas, most small scale fishermen employ hand line fishing methods from canoes without outboard motors. Due to the inefficient fishing method, undeveloped distribution systems and storage technology, fishing activity has stagnated, and the approximately 8,000 fishermen (mainly consisting of Garifuna and Miskito peoples) live in poverty. Also, fishing operations are unstructured, without even the concept of fishing rights. There is no attitude of putting a portion of the landings into savings and planning for the modernization of production methods. One cannot help but get the impression that the people are living just one day at a time.

What such fishermen as these ask of ODA is outboard motors, power-driven vessels, and landing facilities such as cold stores and ice makers.

This tendency is not limited to Honduras but common in developing nations, where there is a background of developed nations offering ODA in the form of material provisions. However, materials alone have often been provided without appropriate transfer to the recipient nation of the various skills incidental to the uptake of those materials. As such, one problem with existing ODA is that there are considerable numbers of cases where the material provisions have been abandoned due to breakdowns or situations where they could not be operated sufficiently. Honduras is no exception. While in the past power-driven vessels and freezing facilities have been provided by the EC, Taiwan, etc., the recipients were not able to master the use of these items, and they have been left to rust away on the foreshore (Photo 1). Even still, the fishermen expect the provision of materials as the means to escape from poverty, and a tendency to take the provision of these items for granted is evident. In response, for the "mini project" that started in the Trujillo region, the first step was to gain the trust of the locals by having technical specialists dispatched from Japan firstly integrate themselves into the fishermen's society. Next, the fishermen were taught about the merits of cooperating together in conducting fisheries activities, and the wives were taught to put to use items with no associated costs, for example by making souvenirs out of shells that they had been throwing away. Also, through the thorough teaching of skills to manage the freshness for marine products, there was even success in raising quality to levels such that American brokers came to recognise the products as fit for export to the USA (Photo 2). As a result of the project's execution, the sales price for the catch increased by almost double.
Another goal of the operation was to improve the everyday lives of the fishermen by promoting savings, and a compulsory savings scheme putting aside 15% of the money from the landings was created. As a result, the everyday lives of the fishermen improved significantly, and eventually with the fishermen's capital alone, fishing equipment storage facilities and a pier were constructed (Photo 3). Also, the Honduras Fisheries administration's Trujillo branch conducted training sessions (with around 4,000 participants), including bookkeeping and outboard motor skills. This made possible the repair of fishing gear and boats as well as sales management within the district, and along with the organization of fisheries, the groundwork for receiving technical assistance was complete.

2. Expansion to a nationwide movement, and Japan's role

The Mini-project did not plan to simply promote the fisheries industry. An additional characteristic of the project was that reform of the fishermen's society and improvement of gender issues were also in-scope. In fact, with the stabilisation of their livelihoods, the fishermen's expressions brightened, and set off positive effects in the fishing village community. Further, one might say that true technological transfer to the fishermen, which other nations had not been able to achieve, was made possible through the reform movement of the fishermen's society. After this, a fishermen's representative of the Trujillo region independently, and at his own expense, travelled across the country advocating the need for organization of fishing activity to other fishermen, which led a high level of interest from other region's fishermen in the Mini-project. This makes one realise what had been lacking in previous efforts to that attempted to transfer technological know-how to small scale fishermen.

It was in light of this heightening movement amongst fishermen that saw the Honduras government apply in 1993 to our country for grant assistance and development investigations with the aim of developing their fishing industry. Assistance commenced in 1994 based on this application, and it is this project that I am now participating in. The skeleton of the project consists of 3 components; (1) Development project based in 6 regions in the west of the country, (2) Development investigations in the lesser-developed eastern area of the country (the Gracias a Dios department) where the topography features many marshes and swamps, and (3) assisting the Honduras side with their master plan for all regions along the Caribbean sea coast. The aim is to expand the Mini-project that has taken root in the Trujillo region throughout all regions of Honduras, and make for the nationwide organization of fishermen, who are the recipients of technical support.

The assistance projects have seen us visiting regions that the Honduras government had selected as candidates for fishing industry development bases, and holding meetings with local fishermen. We exchanged opinions with the fishermen at these meetings covering (1) what is required by Honduras' fishing industry today, (2) what does "organization" entail, (3) topics regarding the form of fishing village societies, (4) distribution topics, (5) how the domestic market should be developed, and the role of the fishermen in this, and finally (6) that the organization of fishermen and fishing village development projects are those of the Honduras government, and that Japan's role is in supporting and assisting the Honduras government's direction (that Japan is not simply going to provide Honduras fishermen with material items). We have held as many as 10 such meetings, which have on occasion seen us continue discussions amongst the banana and palm trees to the sound of waves until past 10 pm in the evening. At the outset, some fishermen left the meetings the instant that they realised that the assistance would not see them provided with equipment, but many fishermen participated enthusiastically in the discussions. There was an occasion when a fishermen came pushing through to the entrance of the charter craft to voice his opinion to us. Also by coincidence, in the second year of the investigation project, I found myself inside the craft with a Miskito woman who had participated in a meeting one year earlier. She spoke passionately about her aspirations for the project and how, as a woman, she was participating in the activity.

There is tendency to overlook how to evaluate technical assistance in smaller nations. Certainly the Mini-project in Honduras, which started out as a meager activity in a single area, was never likely to become the subject of praise. However, the effort put into the reforms of the livelihoods of those fishermen was recompensed, and the movement is now being carried on by the Honduras fishermen.

The Honduras "Mini-project" will continue to live on inside me as the "Big project" that taught us what was lacking in past Fisheries ODA efforts, and what the role of assistance donors will be in future efforts,

(We hear a lot of allegations of "vote buying" at the IWC in relation to Japan's Fisheries ODA from western anti-sustainable use NGOs. Honduras has never been a member of the IWC.)

Labels: Fisheries ODA, Honduras

One area of focus of the Government of Japan's Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme is fisheries related development assistance.

The Overseas Fisheries Consultants Association (OFCA) foundation is apparently one organization involved in the programme. Their homepage (sorry, Japanese only it seems) describes their activities.

You can however get an idea of where in the world they are active from the following pages (which have maps)

• "Preliminary Activity Operations"
• "Technical Personnel Dispatchment Operations"

I might come back to some of this an translate later, but for now here is my translation of their first page which basically covers what OFCA is, and what they are about:

About OFCA

A great many countries including Japan rely heavily on marine resources, and in people of developing countries also seek animal protein from this source. As such, considering the fact that the global population is increasing, marine resources play an important role as supply source for animal-based protein. However, as seen from the decrease in resources due to unregulated fishing and excessively developed coastal areas, year-by-year the environment for the fisheries industry is becoming increasingly severe, and an important current concern is how we may manage and most effectively utilise these limited marine resources. Above all, amongst developing countries that are in a transition phase from small time fishing to commercial fishing, there are those aiming to move from a "taking" fisheries mentality to one of "fisheries cultivation", those encouraging increased production in fresh water based aquaculture under restricted conditions, and so on, resulting in a variety of development plans being made to promote fisheries in a range of different environments. In such nations, however, from economic and technical perspectives the true situation leaves much to be desired, with operations not proceeding as planned in many places. Therefore assistance from developed nations is required. OFCA is actively working to contribute to fisheries promotion in these developing nations, by utilising our experience and high-caliber technology in the fisheries field, of which our country is placed at the top level in the world.

Founded: 1989 February 28
Jurisdiction: International section, Resource Management Department, Fisheries Agency
Representative: Toru Morikawa (Chairman)

The state of the fisheries industry

The global population broke through 6 billion in 1999, however amongst those, 14% or 840 million people are in a situation where they are not receiving adequate food. Moreover, the UN estimates that by 2050 the global population will reach 10 billion. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that 35% of the world's important fisheries resources are in an overdeveloped state, and 47% are currently developed to the maximum levels possible. The 1998 Rome Declaration on the Implementation of the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries states the importance of striving towards the following.

* The suitable and sustainable use of the world's fishery resources
* Access through an ecosystem approach to fisheries management
* The contribution of fisheries towards the national economic and social goals of states and the attainment of world food security

In light of this, Japan, as the world leader in the fisheries field, is proactively working towards fishing effort reduction, marine resource aquaculture, and maintenance and preservation issues. In developing nations, besides marine resources being a precious source of protein for citizens, they are also indispensable for advancing the livelihoods of small time fishermen, as they are a source of foreign exchange income. Therefore, there is a need for us to continue to proactively expand our co-operation in this field. In turn, in order to plan for future production increases within the fisheries industry, it is necessary to make efforts in new fields, such as of course the further development of aquaculture industry, the servicing and creation of fishing grounds, and the new development of marine resources which are currently not being effectively utilised. In particular, because of excessive protection due to some developed nations and the egos of environmental protection groups, effective utilization is restricted. Due to the over-increase in some species such as whales, ecosystems may be damaged leading to negative repercussions for fishing. Thus it is necessary to plan for the effective utilization of yet-to-be exploited and un-exploited marine resources. OFCA is contributing to the world fishing industry taking into consideration these circumstances.

More to come on Fisheries ODA.

Labels: Fisheries ODA, sustainable use