Sei­joong Kwon

The Caribbean Sea serves as a vi­tal link be­tween North and South Amer­i­ca, and is a key route to the At­lantic Ocean, rich in ma­rine re­sources and ecosys­tems. The Greater Caribbean com­pris­es 25 coun­tries and 12 ter­ri­to­ries, boast­ing a coast­line of 25,738 km, which rep­re­sents 1.6 per cent of the world’s to­tal coast­line.

Ac­cord­ing to Tri­pAd­vi­sor (2023), six of the world’s top 20 coast­lines (30 per cent) are lo­cat­ed in the Greater Caribbean, mak­ing it a pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tion renowned for its stun­ning beach­es. In many Caribbean na­tions, tourism con­tributes sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the econ­o­my, ac­count­ing for 25 per cent to 40 per cent of gross na­tion­al prod­uct, dri­ven by the re­gion’s unique ma­rine en­vi­ron­ment and di­verse ge­o­graph­i­cal fea­tures.

On Oc­to­ber 16-17, 2024, a small but sig­nif­i­cant event ded­i­cat­ed to the pro­tec­tion of the Greater Caribbean was held in Port of Spain to mark the con­clu­sion of the Sandy Shore­line Project, a sig­nif­i­cant ini­tia­tive aimed at pro­tect­ing coast­lines of the Greater Caribbean.

This sev­en-year project, ex­e­cut­ed across nine coun­tries from 2017 to 2024, was a col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort be­tween Ko­rea’s In­ter­na­tion­al Co­op­er­a­tion Agency (KOICA) and the As­so­ci­a­tion of Caribbean States (ACS). The Ko­re­an gov­ern­ment con­tributed US$4 mil­lion in fund­ing to com­bat coastal ero­sion in the re­gion. The Ko­rea In­sti­tute of Ocean Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy (KIOST) part­nered with Caribbean na­tions to fa­cil­i­tate coast­line restora­tion and es­tab­lish co­op­er­a­tive re­la­tion­ships. ACS Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Rodol­fo Sabonge thanked the Ko­re­an gov­ern­ment for its help and ex­pressed his will­ing­ness to con­tin­ue co­op­er­a­tion, not­ing that KOICA’s sup­port has helped pro­tect the coast­lines in the Caribbean.

De­spite fac­ing chal­lenges ear­ly in 2020, in­clud­ing dis­rup­tion in the sup­ply chain caused by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, which de­layed ship­ment of coast­line mea­sur­ing equip­ment, the project suc­cess­ful­ly reached com­ple­tion. It com­prised six main com­po­nents, such as es­tab­lish­ing fo­cal points in each par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­try, en­hanc­ing ca­pac­i­ty and hu­man re­source man­age­ment, cre­at­ing a re­gion­al mon­i­tor­ing net­work, de­vel­op­ing method­olo­gies for mea­sur­ing and restor­ing coastal ero­sion, com­pil­ing a restora­tion guide­book, and host­ing of the Con­fer­ence of IPReM (Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, Pro­tec­tion, Restora­tion,and Man­age­ment of Caribbean Beach­es).

The ACS in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Tech­ni­cal Ad­vi­so­ry Group (TAG) iden­ti­fied three beach­es—Vien­to Frio in Pana­ma, Run­away Bay in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da, and Bonasse in Trinidad and To­ba­go—to serve as case stud­ies for fu­ture coastal restora­tion projects.

The Greater Caribbean re­gion’s di­verse ge­og­ra­phy presents unique chal­lenges, in­clud­ing vary­ing coastal types and en­vi­ron­men­tal fac­tors such as wind, ocean cur­rents, sea lev­el rise, and hur­ri­canes.

To ef­fec­tive­ly im­ple­ment the project, it was es­sen­tial to de­vel­op an in­te­grat­ed method­ol­o­gy based on the ex­tend­ed de­f­i­n­i­tion of the coast as out­lined by the project’s tech­ni­cal ad­vi­sor. Par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries un­der­took the chal­leng­ing tasks of mon­i­tor­ing coastal ero­sion and de­vel­op­ing restora­tion meth­ods.

Their ef­forts cul­mi­nat­ed in a clos­ing work­shop to pub­lish the “Guide­book for the Pro­tec­tion and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion of the Greater Caribbean.” Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sen­a­tor Amery Browne, at­tend­ed the work­shop, ex­press­ing grat­i­tude to the all hard work­ing mem­bers and en­thu­si­asm for a sec­ond phase co­op­er­a­tion.

The Ko­re­an gov­ern­ment has been ac­tive­ly en­gag­ing with the Caribbean re­gion since 2012, main­tain­ing a close part­ner­ship with the ACS. In cel­e­bra­tion of the ACS’s 30th an­niver­sary, the Sandy Shore­line Project has laid the ground­work for con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion over the next 30 years.

Dur­ing the ACS Sum­mit and Min­is­te­r­i­al Meet­ing in Guatemala from May 11-20, 2023, for­mer Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs Park Jin pre­sent­ed the vi­sion for the “K-Ocean Econ­o­my Ini­tia­tive,” aimed at pro­mot­ing the con­ser­va­tion, man­age­ment, and sus­tain­able use of ocean re­sources. He high­light­ed the Sandy Shore­line Project as an ex­em­plary case of co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Ko­rea and ACS na­tions and ex­pressed as­pi­ra­tions to tran­si­tion in­to a sec­ond phase fol­low­ing the suc­cess of the ini­tial stage.

For­eign Min­is­ter Park fur­ther an­nounced the es­tab­lish­ment of a Ko­rea-Caribbean Joint Ocean Re­search Cen­ter, lever­ag­ing cut­ting-edge sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy to analyse and im­prove ma­rine life in the Caribbean. The re­search cen­tre will be es­tab­lished at the end of 2024 with sup­port from the KIOST. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, an in­tern­ship pro­gramme was launched in Sep­tem­ber to pro­vide young Ko­re­ans with valu­able ex­pe­ri­ence with­in the ACS.

While the Sandy Shore­line Project has yield­ed mean­ing­ful re­sults in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Caribbean na­tions, there is still much work to be done. The project has marked the be­gin­ning of iden­ti­fy­ing co­op­er­a­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties, and fu­ture ef­forts must fo­cus on en­hanc­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion to pro­tect the di­verse ecosys­tems along the Greater Caribbean’s coast­lines.

The re­gion, while stun­ning­ly beau­ti­ful, is high­ly vul­ner­a­ble to cli­mate change and hu­man ac­tiv­i­ties. There is an ur­gent need for ef­fec­tive mea­sure­ment and mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems, in­clud­ing com­mu­ni­ty-based mon­i­tor­ing ini­tia­tives and na­ture based so­lu­tions. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, it is es­sen­tial to fo­cus on ca­pac­i­ty-build­ing train­ing, and sys­tem­at­ic coastal pro­tec­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in small is­land de­vel­op­ing na­tions. Giv­en the vary­ing con­di­tions and ca­pac­i­ties of dif­fer­ent coun­tries, cus­tomised sup­port will be es­sen­tial, un­der­scor­ing the im­por­tance of re­gion­al co­op­er­a­tion through or­gan­i­sa­tions such as the ACS, Cari­com, and OECS.

The key take­away from this Sandy Shore­line Project is the re­al­i­sa­tion that the en­tire ocean is in­ter­con­nect­ed and that col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­forts can yield so­lu­tions. It is hoped that the Sandy Shore­line Project will serve as a cat­a­lyst for more ef­fec­tive strate­gies to com­bat coastal ero­sion and en­hance re­silience for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions.

Sei­joong Kwon is the Am­bas­sador of the Re­pub­lic of Ko­rea to T&T