Report of the Sustainable Ocean Initiative Capacity-Building Workshop for the Wider Caribbean and Central America on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures in the Marine Fishery Sector

The Sustainable Ocean Initiative Capacity-Building Workshop for the Wider Caribbean and Central America on Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in the Marine Fishery Sector was co-organized by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Secretariat and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The workshop was held online on 20–21 April and 27–28 April 2022. It sought to establish a way forward to identify fisheries-related OECMs in the Caribbean and provide technical input to prepare and test FAO’s practical guidance for identifying, evaluating, and reporting OECMs in marine fisheries. The main points covered during the expert meeting related to introducing participants to the OECM concept; providing an overview of the regional initiatives for biodiversity conservation, and exploring the current and potential place of fisheries management and OECMs in these regional initiatives; providing participants with an overview of the criteria and subcriteria for OECM identification; and providing participants with an overview of the OECM reporting process and the potential capacity-building needs to identify, evaluate and report OECMs in the Wider Caribbean Region. During the expert meeting, participants conducted practical exercises by applying the OECM criteria to eight real-life case studies from Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, and the United States of America. Participants also discussed the role of OECMs in recognizing conservation efforts; the need to recognize fishers’ local culture in the OECM process; the incentives provided by OECM recognition; OECM identification and evaluation; and the use of international guidance to support the identification and evaluation of OECMs.