Impediments to Increasing the Role of Marine Science and Technology in the Developing Country Setting

Impediments, such as a lack of adequately trained human resources and institutional arrangements, must be overcome in order to utilize science and technology to optimize marine resource development opportunities. All too often, technology is viewed as a solution to a problem when in fact technology should be appreciated as a tool for revealing issues that may have escaped attention. A view of introducing only technology as a solution for national development problems is bound to fail without simultaneously introducing an appropriately integrated package of acceptable policies and institutional analysis. Therefore, the question that should be asked is not what appropriate technology can be identified to address national needs, but what appropriate institutional arrangements are required to optimize the opportunity for appropriate technology to succeed.