Tuesday, July 23, 2019. San Salvador, El Salvador. The General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA) participated in the inauguration of the “The Regional Training Workshop for the Population Evaluation Model of Caribbean Spiny Lobster Populations.” The objective was to build technician capacity in the SICA member countries in order to apply the information platform created to evaluate the Lobster population in the Caribbean.
Created by the Fishery Sector and Aquaculture Organization of the Central American Isthmus (OSPESCA), the information platform is a tool taking a sustainability and preservation approach for fisheries resources in Central American and all the Caribbean. The tool will be applied through the project titled “Ecosystem Based Focus on Adaptation for the Spiny Lobster Fisheries of the Caribbean,” supported by the Nicaraguan Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INPESCA).
“We are working to have the best technical and scientific conditions that will allow us to advance decision making so that our fisheries will be responsible and sustainable.”
The platform will be available for use by the technicians of the National Office of Fisheries and Aquaculture in the SICA member countries. This initiative forms a part of the SICA Digital Strategy, which was developed with the technical support of the General Secretariat of SICA and will function through the technological platform.
Rigoberto Soto, the Presidential Pro Temp Representative of El Salvador, spoke on behalf of the Vice Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, stating “the fisheries resources should be managed correctly to ensure their sustainability, given their importance for food security and nutrition as well as job creation and alternative economies.”
This initiative forms a part of the Regional Management Plan for the Spiny Lobster Fishery of the Caribbean (PLAN MARPLESCA). Vinicio Cerezo, the General Secretary of SICA, mentioned, “this platform will allow us to collect important data to then formulate recommendations to monitor the responsible and sustainable management of this resource that directly impacts more than 16,000 fishers in the region.”
The workshop was presided over by Rigoberto Soto, the Vice Minister of Agriculture and Livestock and the Presidential Pro Temp Representative of El Salvador; Vinicio Cerezo, the General Secretary of SICA; Reinaldo Morales Rodríguez, the Regional Director of SICA/OSPESCA; and Efraín Medina, the Executive Director of OIRSA.
This work was made possible by the support and cooperation of project titled “Ecosystem Based Focus on Adaptation for the Spiny Lobster Fisheries of the Caribbean,” by ResCA Langosta. This is a project focused on the Spiny Lobster that backs the regional objective of defining agreements and implementing alternative ecosystem-based adaptation foci.
