JAMAICA'S
fishers have reached a compensation agreement with oil explorers
surveying the Pedro Banks, but the deal is pending final legal
review.
"We
have not signed off on the document yet," said Haveland
Honeyghan, chairman of the Jamaica Fishermen's Cooperative Union
(JFCU), an organisation of some 7,000 fishermen and women.
"Our
lawyer is perusing the document. When he peruses the document,
he will communicate to us his findings. On completion of that,
we will have a meeting with the stakeholders on Wednesday."
It
took two days to hammer out the provisions of the agreement,
said Honeyghan, in workshop sessions held in Kingston on February
23 and 24.
The
draft sets out financial compensation for loss of fishing traps
and loss of earnings for each day of lost fishing equipment,
to the tune of $5,000 per trap lost, and the attendant loss
of a day's catch, valued between $500 and $700 each day, said
Honeyghan in a Sunday Observer interview.
Parties
to that meeting included the Fisheries Division and Fugro, the
Dutch company contracted by oil exploration licensee Finder
to undertake seismic surveys in four of 20 exploration blocks
off the south coast. Finder is spending US$3 million to determine
whether Jamaica has any exploitable oil and gas resources.
The
Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica is negotiating another licence
with an unnamed company.
Other local interests have been negotiating on a different level,
to safeguard livelihoods and marine life, a key component of
which has been the interest of fishers whose seafaring activities
are at subsistence levels.
Key
to those discussions over the last few weeks has been compensation
for fishers, should their traps, other equipment and fishing
grounds be impacted.
Honeyghan
said Wednesday that the fishermen's co-op was taking due care
to work out the details of that compensation, saying it was
to become a standard agreement.
"We
have been taking care in the document that we sign and in the
proposal that we are putting forward, because it is not a document
for today or tomorrow but for the next 500 years," said
the fisherman, whose base is in Whitehouse, Westmoreland, another
high density community for fishers.
"If
and when oil is found in other parts of Jamaica, this document
is sufficient to protect the interest of the fishers around
the island."
At the same time, he said a committee, comprising a representative
from the JFCU, the Fisheries Division and Fugro, was to be set
up to receive complaints of lost traps and catches, and, it
is proposed, will review and approve requests for damage compensation.
"That
committee is the oversight committee that will look at all claims.
And that committee will review the claims," said the JFCU
chairman, adding that the compensation agreement also provides
for the establishment of a tribunal to hear appeals against
the committee's decisions.
"There will be a tribunal that if the applicant is not
satisfied with the findings, he will appeal to the tribunal,"
he said.
Details
of how the tribunal is to be constituted are to be worked out.
The fisherman's co-op, meanwhile, has three representatives
working with Fugro's team as independent observers.
They
are Sean Taylor, a Treasure Beach fisherman who serves as vice
chairman for the JFCU and head of the Calabash Bay Fishermen's
Cooperative Union; Ruel Myrie, a fisherman from Rocky Point;
and Clovis Williams, a fisher and member of the Old Harbour
Bay Fishermen's Cooperative Union.
"These
persons were recruited through the Jamaica Fishermen's Cooperative
Union," said Honeyghan, who is also chairman of the Gillings
Gully Fishermen's Cooperative Union at Whitehouse.
"Theirs is the duty to observe the clear passage of the
research vessel, to talk to the other cooperative members and
tell them 'there are some traps to your right or traps to your
left', if there are any traps in the area where they are."
Fugro
has been conducting surveys off the south coast since mid-February
from the Akademik Shatskiy, a Russian ship it contracted for
the job.
One
JCTU representative stays on the Shatskiy, another travels aboard
the vessel ahead of the Shatskiy, and the third on the vessel
travelling behind the survey ship.
Andre
Kong, director of fisheries and head of the Fisheries Division,
a state regulator of the sector, said Friday that efforts to
safeguard fishing interests extended beyond the issue of compensation
for damage to preventing damage, explaining the importance of
the observers on the Shatskiy.
"We
are in negotiations to ensure that there is a proper system
to deal with any eventuality, to preserve the integrity of the
system. We are trying to put things in place to cover the entire
gamut of possibilities," said Kong.
"We have a stringent observer system we are putting in
place. There will be up to four observers, one from Fisheries
and three from the fishing community."
JFCU
manager Ionie Henry said Thursday that co-op members would likely
sign off on the compensation agreement sometime this week, saying
the attorney, Carlton Melbourne, should have completed his review
by then.
"After
he checks back, our members will have to meet and sign off on
it," said Henry.
Kong also indicated that there was to be a meeting of all stakeholders
on the issue about mid-week.
williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com
Jamaica
Observer
Sunday,
March 12, 2006
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