ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC—Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said Wednesday that Grenada had been selected as the location for the regional sargassum secretariat and information hub.
At the end of the second European Union-Caribbean Global Gateway conference on SargassuSarMitchell gassumeporters, the decision to place the secretariat here was among the decisions taken at the meeting.
“Coming out of the conference, there are a couple of things Grenada intends to champion and lead regionally on this issue. Some of our proposals include the creation of a regional sargassum secretariat and the creation of a regional information sargassum hub.
“We think this is critical to ensure that we have a central coordinating body for policy development, research, collaboration, and sustainable management of sargassum efforts throughout the region,” Mitchell told reporters.
“This is important if we are going to share best practices to facilitate resource mobilization to ensure that we can have successful valorization strategies. Gre. Nada has put its hands up, and we are happy to become the secretariat and the information hub,” he added.
The details of the secretariat are yet to be worked out, but it’s expected to become the focal point for Sargassum-related activities in both the private and public sectors.
The two-day conference, held under the theme “Turning the Tide: Sustainable Practices and Economic Opportunities for Sargassum in the Caribbean Basin,” was an initiative to address the growing environmental and socio-economic impact of sargassum seaweed across the Caribbean Basin.
It sought to build regional capacity, attract investment, and promote innovation to transform this environmental challenge into sustainable economic opportunities. Since 2011, the Caribbean region has been grappling with unprecedented amounts of sargassuSargassum ashore, impacting beaches, disrupting marine ecosystems, and threatening vital economic sectors, mainly tourism and fisheries.
Mitchell told the conference that sargassum influxes have far-reaching consequences for the region’s coastal economies and communities. The conference will offer an exceptional platform for fostering dialogue, mobilizing action, and securing investment in sustainable solutions.
The Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, Dr. Didacus Jules, told the more than 400 participants that a coordinated regional approach is needed to handle the influx of sargassuSargassume Caribbean seas and onto Caribbean beaches.
“Sargassum knows no boundaries, and neither should our response …the influxes we face require national efforts and a coordinated regional strategy. We need to work together on forecasting, collections, storage, and processing,” he said.
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