The shut down of the United States Agency for International Development has resulted in a pause in University of Rhode Island programs working with USAID, which were set to receive $66.7 million, according to The Providence Journal.
Several of the USAID partner programs are housed in the URI Coastal Resource Center. The projects paused when the center received stop work orders, according to Elin Torell, the director of the URI Coastal Institute and principal investigator of the Fish Right program.
The university administration is undergoing review of all CRC projects so all current coastal resource workers can continue their work.
“So all those [benefits] are the types of outcomes that are now delayed or paused until we find out the fate of the projects,” Karen Kent, URI Coastal Resource Center director of international programs, said.
The center implemented projects with USAID since the mid-1980s, according to Torell. The center is leading on three large USAID projects, one in Madagascar, one in Fiji and the Fish Right program based out of Manila, Philippines.
Two other fisheries projects are the Women Shellfish Harvesters, led by Kent, and the Fish Innovation Lab based out of Mississippi State University, according to Torell. The Women Shellfish Harvesters runs out of Rhode Island and partners with TRY, a group of women in Gambia who help families who depend on harvesting shellfish live a better life, according to Rhody Today. URI is a sub-awardee of the Fish Innovation Lab that works on aquaculture research across the world.
All planned engagement activities involved with the projects are impacted by the freeze, according to Kent. These projects focus on managing coastal ecosystems, with a specific focus on biodiversity and economic growth. Ecosystem management benefits livelihoods, food security, environmental benefits and coastal protection.
“It’s a very delicate situation right now, because of course, we would really love to get cleared to work,” Torell said.
The Phillipines project started seven years ago under the previous Trump administration, according to Torell. Torell said it is an important project, geopolitically, because the center operates in field sites facing the South China Sea. The project supports the Philippine government in implementing large fisheries management areas.
Before the center’s support, fisheries in the Philippines were managed at a national level, according to Torell. The project’s goal was to help the government operate fisheries.
“Yes, we’re paused, but it doesn’t mean that our work is not lost in the Philippines, for sure,” Torell said.
For the project in Madagascar, the contribution is geographic, according to Kent. This is because the work is in the Western Indian Ocean.
Madagascar’s coast has major trade routes geopolitically and a unique biodiversity for pharmaceutical research, according to Kent. There are species in the Madagascar that exist nowhere else in the world – so the work is a global contribution to the blue economy.
The Coastal Resource Center feels that their work is well aligned with the university administration’s and hopes that their work will continue, according to Torell. If the projects get terminated, then they would have to close down and enter into a settlement negotiation with the United States for each specific case.
“[The situation] is uncharted territory for all of us,” Torell said. “It’s something we’ll have to learn as we go along.”
