• CLME TDAs
• CLME CCAs

Three perceived, region-wide transboundary areas of concerns have been identified during the preliminary, sub-regional TDAs which were developed during the preparatory phase (2006-2008) of the CLME Project:

- Unsustainable exploitation of fish and other living resources;

- Habitat degradation and community modification;

- Pollution

The impact of climate change on the member countries in the region, particularly the SIDS and countries with low-lying, flood-prone areas, was also identified as a significant area of concern. However, given the linkages of climate change and sea level rise with the other priority areas identified above, climate change is not discussed separately, but is treated as a cross-cutting issue within each of these areas of concern.

During the full-sized CLME Project (2009-2013), these preliminary Transboundary Diagnostic Analyses (TDAs) were updated using a Fishery Ecosystem-based approach:

The main fisheries in the Wider Caribbean Region were considered to be associated to 3 key ecosystem types:

- Reef Ecosystems (incl. mangroves & seagrasses)

- Pelagic Ecosystems

- Continental Shelf Ecosystems

Consequently, and with the aim of implementing an Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) approach, the updating of the TDAs was conducted at the level of each one of these key ecosystems.

The ecosystem-based TDAs were then further complemented by the overarching "Governance Framework" and summarizing "Regional" TDAs.

The TDAs included the development of Causal Chain Analyses (CCAs), which clearly visualize the linkage between problems and their direct, intermediate and root causes.

The CCAs constitute highly valuable aids in the identification of the priority measures (policy, legal & institutional reforms, management options & investments) that are needed to ensure the sustainable provision of goods & services from the shared Living Marine Resources in the CLME.

As such, the TDAs and CCAs are the outcomes from a technical-scientific process, and constitute the basis for the political process of defining and agreeing upon priority actions for a healthy Large Marine Ecosystem (through the development and adoption by all countries of a Strategic Action Programme or SAP), that support sustainable development in the Wider Caribbean Region.