The St. Lucia-based Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission today said the sub-regional grouping is dedicated to promoting sustainable solutions for environmental and development challenges.
It noted in particular, the brown colour and foul stench of sargassum algae that has periodically plagued beaches in the Caribbean in recent years, impacting sea life, tourism and livelihoods of those who work in the blue economy.
The commission said in keeping to this commitment, representatives of the OECS participated in a study tour with the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland and AlgalTek, an algae production company.
The OECS team was led by Ambassador Colin Murdoch of the OECS Mission in Geneva as well as colleagues from OECS Commission in St Lucia.
The Paul Sherrer Institute (PSI) is a leading research institute for natural and engineering science, while AlgalTek specialises in algae products, algae bioproducts, research, consulting, and development.
“AlgalTek has an aim to produce high-quality products from algae biomass in an environmentally friendly manner, including food, cosmetics, packaging and other materials,” the commission said, noting that the main activity of the study tour was to identify a baseline for research and technology, and help participants build capacity to support projects aimed at effective management and use of sargassum algae.
“Participants had the opportunity to see some of the innovations in algae production and studied various methods to process each component of sargassum algae that can be adapted for different uses – pigments, proteins, lipids, minerals, microfibrillanted cellulose, biofuels and bioplastics, residue etc,” the commission said, adding that they were also able to explore modern methods to collect sargassum algae and discussed possibilities for export for the OECS region.
The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
