As climate change continues to intensify threats to marine ecosystems and fisheries across the Eastern Caribbean, a senior Dominican agriculture official has issued a urgent call for coordinated cross-border action to protect the region’s critical fishing sector. Parliamentary Secretary Lakeyia Joseph, who serves in Dominica’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Blue and Green Economy, made the appeal during the September 15, 2026 official inception meeting for the Climate Change Resilience in the Caribbean Fisheries Sector Project, widely known as CC4FISH-II, hosted in Dominica.
Backed by $12.55 million in funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), CC4FISH-II represents the second phase of a regional initiative designed to help Caribbean fishing communities build long-term adaptive capacity to climate-driven disruptions. Joseph emphasized during her opening remarks that the interconnected nature of climate challenges facing the regional fisheries industry makes isolated national action ineffective. “No single country can address these climate change challenges alone,” Joseph noted, framing the new project as a landmark opportunity to strengthen collaborative frameworks across Eastern Caribbean nations.
She went on to stress that intentional regional partnerships are foundational to supporting all fisheries stakeholders as they navigate shifting marine conditions, and to safeguarding the millions of livelihoods that rely on a healthy, productive fishing sector across the Caribbean. A core priority of the effort, Joseph added, must be equipping frontline fishing workers with the tangible resources they need to adapt to a changing climate. “We must ensure our fisherfolk, fisheries officers and other stakeholders have access to knowledge, tools, technology and training necessary to operate sustainably in an increasingly challenging climate,” she said.
Joseph’s call for action comes at a moment of growing crisis for Caribbean fisheries. The sector is already grappling with overlapping threats: declining wild fish stocks, irreversible damage to critical marine habitats such as coral reefs and seagrass beds, and accelerating biodiversity loss. These threats do not only harm marine ecosystems — they put regional food security, tens of thousands of jobs, and broader economic development across small island Caribbean states at severe risk.
CC4FISH-II is being carried out by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) in formal partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), alongside a network of national and regional implementing partners across the region. The initiative builds on the lessons and progress of the first phase of the program, the original CC4FISH, which ran from 2017 to 2022 and laid the groundwork for expanded climate action in the sector.
Unlike the first phase, CC4FISH-II will extend its reach to benefit more than 21,800 people across five participating nations: Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago. The project will run through 2030, engaging a full spectrum of industry stakeholders including small-scale fisherfolk, boat owners, fish processors, market vendors, cross-border traders, and entire coastal communities. A key equity-focused priority of the initiative is strengthening livelihood resilience and expanding economic opportunities for women and young people, groups that are disproportionately represented in frontline fishing work but often face barriers to resources and decision-making power.