A subregional grouping that must get back on course

A subregional grouping that must get back on course:

Founded in 1997, the seven-member BIMSTEC includes the littoral states of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Thailand is a member too) and the land-locked states of Nepal and Bhutan.
BIMSTEC has identified 14 pillars for special focus.

BIMSTEC summit: Priority areas

• Marine environmental protection: It must become a priority area for cooperation in the Bay of Bengal by strengthening enforcement and sharing information on best practices.
• Regional protocols: These need to be developed, along with establishing guidelines and standards on pollution control.
• Home-grown solutions: There is a need for home-grown solutions based on capabilities of local institutions. Also, there is a need to create regional frameworks for data collection.
• Participatory approaches must be evolved for near-real-time stock assessment and the creation of an regional open fisheries data alliance.
• The summit should come up with the measures to curtail unsustainable as well as IUU fishing. Steps could include:
  • setting up an international vessel tracking system and making it mandatory for vessels to be equipped with automatic identification system (AIS) trackers;
  • establishing a regional fishing vessel registry system and publishing vessel licence lists to help identify illegal vessels;
  • increasing monitoring, control and surveillance in IUU fishing hotspots;

Challenges:

• Emergence of a dead zone with zero oxygen where no fish survive;
• Leaching of plastic from rivers as well as the Indian Ocean;
• Destruction of natural protection against floods such as mangroves;
• Sea erosion;
• Growing population pressure and industrial growth in the coastal areas and consequently, huge quantities of untreated waste flow.
• Security threats such as terrorism, piracy and tensions between countries caused by the arrests of fishermen who cross maritime boundaries are additional problems.
• Increasing sea levels: It is predicted that the sea level will increase 0.5 metres in the next 50 years.
• Cyclonic storms: Moreover, there have been 13 cyclonic storms in the last five years.

Conclusion:

The challenges that confront the Bay of Bengal region brook no more delay. BIMSTEC must arise, awake and act before it is too late.

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