The United States is “committed to the task” of working with the governments and military forces of Colombia, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Panama to protect the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Conservation Corridor (CMAR) and stop illegal fishing, drug and human trafficking, US Secretary of the Navy Carlos del Toro said this Friday.
“We have to work as a community to achieve our goal,” said Del Toro, in a forum organized by the Wilson Center, based in Washington, and held within the framework of the VIII Our Oceans Conference, in Panama City.
The senior US official called attention to the “critical” importance of tackling climate change, one of his country’s government priorities, and along with it, illegal, unreported and undocumented fishing due to the consequences it brings to the ecosystems and biodiversity.
Del Toro, the second secretary of Hispanic origin in the history of the US Navy, emphasized that illegal fishing is “a direct attack on the sovereignty of nations” and pointed to China as one of the “bad actors” in this sense.
“We cannot allow this to continue. We have to expose the bad behavior on the part of China and all other countries that are not conducting themselves the way they should.” regarding illegal fishing in the territorial waters of other nations, Del Toro insisted.
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Likewise, he emphasized that in addition to having serious consequences for the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity, illegal fishing has serious economic, food and national security implications, and how solutions to this scourge have to be based on science and technology. that make possible a better detection of illegal activities.
“I’m very excited about the possibilities that drone technology can bring to collect information that can help promote accountability for these bad actors,” he said.
Protecting an invaluable maritime ecosystem
In July 2022, as part of the IX Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, senior officials from the US, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama, they signed a memorandum to create the CMAR.
The US Department of State qualified this agreement as an unprecedented regional conservation effort covering more than 500,000 square kilometers, in one of the most productive and biologically diverse areas in the ocean.
The area is home to the world-renowned Cocos, Coiba, Galapagos, Gorgona and Malpelo Islands, with unique and vulnerable habitats, and is home to a rich diversity of flora and fauna. The region is widely recognized as one of the most important areas for the protection, conservation and management of biodiversity in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean.
According to official data, this corridor generates around 3,000 million dollars a year, mainly from fishing, tourism and maritime transport.
Within the Our Ocean Conference, the Connect to Protect Eastern Tropical Pacific coalition, which includes the Development Bank of Latin America, the Bezos Earth Fund, the Blue Nature Alliance and the Green Climate Fund, announced a commitment of some 118, 5 million dollars in public and private funds -disbursed in the next four years- destined for the preservation of the CMAR.
shared efforts
“We are working with our allies in Panama, Costa Rica and Ecuador to detect the ships present in our protected waters,” said the commander of the Colombian Navy, Francisco Hernando Cubides, at the meeting.
Cubides added that, although the initial task of the maritime military forces is to defend the countries, they are currently also engaged in other no less important efforts, such as detecting and combating illegal fishing activities, trafficking in drugs and human trafficking.
“Every day we are detecting vessels in our two reserves in the Pacific: Malpelo and Gorgona,” said the Colombian admiral, who reported that only in 2022 they detected some 40 metric tons of illegal and undocumented fishing. “It’s a big number and the idea is that it should be zero,” he said.
Cubides insisted on “good communication” and the exchange of technologies and spices between allied countries in the Pacific and the Caribbean, which has made it possible to apply strategies for a better confrontation, not only with illegal fishing, but also with human trafficking and the transfer of drugs, which they put into practice “even in the rivers”.
Senior intelligence officials from the US Army and the Department of Defense insisted during the forum on their country’s willingness to share knowledge and technology.
“Illegal, unreported and unreported fishing is a global problem and it will take a long time to solve,” said director, US Office of National Maritime Intelligence Integration, Michael Studeman.
For Studeman, “if there is silence, there is consent” so the “idea of taking responsibility” is very necessary, otherwise countries like China will continue their illegal activity.”
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