12 November 2012: The Caribbean Fish Sanctuary Partnership Initiative (“C-FISH”), a four-year (2012-2016) project on the management of 15 community-based “no take” zones or marine reserves in five Caribbean countries, was launched on 9 November 2012, in Bluefields, Jamaica.

The five countries are Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

C-FISH will partner with tourism companies to involve the tourism sector in support for the targeted fish sanctuaries. C-FISH also plans to: provide financial and technical support for community management of the sanctuaries; create a micro, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) program of capacity building, training and market access support for activities that fund fish sanctuaries, while providing livelihoods to coastal communities that are not linked to fishing; implement the Aquacam Research Programme, monitoring fish populations outside the sanctuaries; and engage regional and international stakeholders in supporting Caribbean fishing communities and coastal ecosystems.

The UK£2.1 million funding for C-FISH is provided by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) through the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) and implemented by the CARIBSAVE Partnership (“CARIBSAVE”), a non-profit regional organization formed in 2008 by CCCCC and the University of Oxford to address the socioeconomic impacts and challenges of climate change in the Caribbean Basin. [CCCCC Press Release] [CARIBSAVE Webpage on C-FISH]