In April of this year the funding that Coastal Zone Management Authority and Institute receives from the United Nations Development Program will be no more.
Chief Executive Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Hugh O'Brien today confirmed this. But he says that the government has already put in place mechanisms that will ensure the sustainability of the Coastal Zone Management. While this is done however, he says that there's a lot of what's called "rationalizing" that needs to be done. Studies will be conducted to come up with an organization, which will be self-sustainable. In fact the government has already taken on the management of marine protected areas and will in the upcoming tourism season implement visitation fees to the various national marine parks.
While this occurs, staffers fear that they'll lose their jobs. To this O'Brien conceded that he cannot guarantee everybody's job but that everything will be done to ensure that the expertise that is concentrated at the CZMAI is not lost to other organizations - hardly a heartening assurance.