The Report of the Partnership on Sustainable Coastal Communities and Marine Ecosystems in Newfoundland and Labrador

RELEASED
1995

By the Newfoundland and Labrador Round Table on the Environment and the Economy and the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy The collapse of the cod fishery off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador is a classic example of unsustainable development. The impacts and implications on an ecosystem, on an economy and on a way of life never seem to stop. In the fall of 1994, both the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) and the Newfoundland and Labrador Round Table on the Environment and the Economy NLRTEE) decided to collaborate on a project that would look at the fish crisis from the perspective of the sustainability of coastal communities and marine ecosystems in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The NRTEE intended this to be a case study, from the viewpoint of the affected communities, in which the crisis created by the current moratorium on northern cod could be analyzed and the prospects for future sustainability investigated. The NLRTEE shared these goals and also saw the potential of promoting the round table model for consensus decision-making as a method of planning for sustainability at the community level.

To this end, both Round Tables selected two of their members to create a small task force, augmented by three members from the fishing industry in the province. The effort was named a “partnership” to reflect its collaborative nature and to avoid any suggestion that this was a “commission” or another government committee. One of the fishing industry representatives, Bernadette Dwyer from the Fogo Island Fishers Co-operative, agreed to chair the partnership.

The Report of the Partnership on Sustainable Coastal Communities and Marine Ecosystems in Newfoundland and Labrador is the most tangible result of this process. It is the “voice of the communities” and both Round Tables believe it is important that this “voice” gets as wide an audience as possible, not only for what it says but as a contribution to the ongoing debates, deliberations and decisions surrounding these vital issues.