Securing transparency and sustainability in African Fisheries: Artisanal fishing representatives, civil society organizations and journalists from 16 African countries meet in Senegal.
Belgium 30 November 2011. Over 120 participants from 16 African countries and from 4 countries in the European Union gathered in Mbour, Senegal’s second most important fishing town, to celebrate World Fisheries Day on 21 November 2011, and to attend a 3 day Conference on Transparency in the Maritime Fisheries Sector in Africa.
Mbour town is the capital of the Department of Mbour, whose landing centres account for some 60% of the Senegalese fish catch. Here on Senegal’s South West facing “Petite-Côte” some 4,500 artisanal pirogues, or 25% of Senegal’s artisanal fleet, average annual fish landings of 170,000 tonnes. So too, fishermen from this region have pioneered grass roots co-management and Marine Protected Area initiatives, whose example conservation organizations like the WWF and IUCN are trying to emulate and otherwise replicate elsewhere in West Africa.
The theme chosen for the World Fisheries Day celebrations was “Securing Sustainable Small Scale Fisheries”. One of the main objectives was to discuss and draft recommendations for the new international instrument on small-scale fisheries being developed under the auspices of the FAO - the Voluntary Guidelines on securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries (VG SSF). Similar civil society consultations are being held across Africa, Asia and Latin America ahead of FAO’s July 2012 Fisheries Committee meeting (COFI 30) which will launch the process to develop the VG SSF guidelines.
The event was hosted and organized by the African Confederation of Professional Artisanal Fisheries Organizations (CAOPA) in collaboration with the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF), the Mbour Association for the Promotion of Responsible Fisheries (APRAPAM) and the Coalition of Economic Groupings from the Mbour Fish Landing Centre. Invited participants included fishermen leaders, leaders from the post-harvest sector including women fish processors and traders, civil society organizations, and local authorities. Also present were members of the West African Journalists’ Network for Responsible Fisheries (REJOPRAO), Seafood Choices Alliance Seafood Champion award winners in 2010.
In the opening ceremony primary school pupils from the Abbé David Boilat Training Centre highlighted the importance of conserving resources for future generations. After addressing the audience, they presented pictures they had drawn depicting how fishing had become unsustainable and highlighting the need for fishworkers to stop fishing blindly, and to open their eyes to future as well as current needs.
Discussions focussed on the technical, social, economic, cultural and political aspects that characterize artisanal and small scale fisheries in African countries; those aspects that make artisanal fisheries the preferred model for the EEZ – focusing on its good practices, community based activities and co-management; and the most serious problems facing artisanal and small scale fisheries in the African context.
Artisanal fisheries were characterised as being small in scale, low in environmental impact, diverse and versatile, producing fresh fish for direct human consumption, for both export and local markets. The lack of cold chain and storage facilities, and the dependence on traditional handling and processing techniques often leads to losses of product and income. At the same time it was highlighted that fishing communities are vulnerable and exposed to risks, lack access to training and education, and have high levels of illiteracy.
Participants called for the elimination of destructive fishing practices and the development good artisanal fishing practices as the preferred model for the entire EEZ without compromising sea safety or decent working conditions.
Over the next three days around 60 participants attended a Conference on Transparency on the Maritime Fisheries Sector in Africa, also hosted by the CAOPA, and in cooperation with the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA) and other partners. Participants shared and learned about how massive investments being made in aid projects for the development of artisanal fisheries are not benefitting fishing communities, and where transparency is lacking on where the aid monies end up.
So too massive flows of speculative transnational capital are being invested in industrial fishing operations in African waters. These may be connected to irregular fishing authorisations for foreign fleets, where local businessmen, government functionaries and foreign companies hide behind opaque agreements involving billions of dollars. Recent arrangements entered into in Senegal with Eastern-bloc vessels that had brought thousands of Senegalese fishworkers onto the streets in protest violated the United Nations Law of the Sea and national fishery regulations. What is more, these “sunken billions” don’t recompense fishing communities for their loss of access to valuable food resources or the damage done to the marine ecosystem.
The conference highlighted how transparency is an emerging issue in fisheries, highlighted by the FAO in its State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report for 2010, and with the World Bank and other major donors beginning to adopt transparency programmes.
Amongst other issues, Conference participants called for Standards and Principles for transparency in fisheries to be developed and adopted. These would include making information available in local languages using simplified terminology; setting time limits for processing and responding to requests for information; making information readily accessible in the form that best suits the country where it is disseminated; and ensuring proper participation and prior informed consent in policy making and implementation.
Brian O’Riordan, ICSF Liaison Office Secretary
For more information, contact: Brian O’Riordan, Secretary ICSF Liaison Office, Sentier des Rossignols 2, 1330 Rixensart, Belgium. Tel: 0032 2 6525201. Email: briano@scarlet.be |