International experts are recommending that Barbados consider the introduction of environmental taxes, also known as “blue levies”, among a suite of innovative solutions to scale-up sustainable financing of the country’s fisheries and aquaculture industries.
The advice, which is also being given to Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines, follows research by Professor Pierre Failler, director of the Centre for Blue Governance at the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom and researchers Michael Bennett and Antaya March.
In their study Blue Economy Financing Solutions For The Fisheries And Aquaculture Sectors Of Caribbean Island States, the trio reviewed various financing solutions available for fisheries and aquaculture development in the three islands.
A primary recommendation is the introduction of blue levies which the researchers said are “special fees that help finance research and conservation projects, directly benefiting the fishing industry”.
They also suggested the use of blue tokens, where financial technology and blockchain technology are used to raise money for blue economy development projects, and natural asset companies that allow fisheries and aquaculture projects to fund themselves by leveraging natural capital as public equities.
Failler, Bennett and March argued that the use of blue levies is recommended and applicable in almost every scenario, as they allowed the fisheries and aquaculture sectors to “drive their own development in financing research and conservation projects to their own benefit”.
“There is an opportunity for increased environmental taxes and fees in countries like Barbados for development revenue generation, where existing taxes and fees fall below regional averages or when the current taxes as a proportion of national GDP are generally limited, for example, less than three per cent of national gross domestic product,” the study advised.
The researchers noted that several countries impose levies that are targeted at environmental protection, usually in the form of environment or tourism enhancement levies.
“Similarly, this kind of mechanism can be used to enhance the fisheries and aquaculture industries in various ways, such as environmental protection, marine protected areas management, and infrastructure development,” they explained.
“These levies are usually applied in different ways, at different rates and at different levels of organisation, like on importation, consumption, accommodation, service, or travel.”
They pointed out that the British Virgin Islands (a known SIDS country) imposed an Environmental and Tourism Levy of US$10 to be paid on arrival at all ports of entry.
“The tourism, hospitality, cruise and charter, extraction, and ports and ship-building industries could be potential targets from which the proceeds of blue levies could be directed to support fisheries and aquaculture in Barbados, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines,” the study said.
Failler, Bennett and March said that environmental taxes or levies “could be applied to organisations that rely on natural resources on which fisheries and aquaculture industries are reliant as well and are known to negatively affect those environments”.
They suggested that the revenue from these taxes “could then be used to reverse the degradation and further improve the environment or intensify the ecosystem service these areas provide to fisheries”.
“Similarly, an organisation can be incentivised to proactively develop these environments of importance and, in exchange, receive specific tax exemptions, thereby fostering an enabling environment of coastal systems protection, which would ultimately benefit the fisheries and aquaculture sector,” they added.
The study said in this regard that “potential industries that can be targeted are tourism, terrestrial agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, and maritime transport”.
Further, the researchers said that “a regional environmental tax could be established to support fishing grounds shared by multiple states or multiple sectors, ensuring that no one country or industry is more negatively affected by another”.
They said this would require “transparency and control over the number of vessels from each country allowed to access such a particular fishing ground”.
