At a webinar organized by the FAO and the German Presidency and hosted by Members of the European Parliament, CFFA partner CAOPA calls on EU and AU, their members and their citizens to work together to develop, through transparent, participatory and gender-sensitive national action plans to implement the FAO Voluntary Small scale Fisheries Guidelines
Ahead of the EU-AU Summit in October 2020 and in the context of Germany’s presidency of the Council of the European Union (July to December 2020), the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the European Commission and the FAO Brussels office organized a policy webinar to promote a stronger joint support for Africa’s fisheries and aquaculture sector.
During his intervention, Mr. Gaoussou Gueye, president of the African confederation of artisanal fisheries organizations (CAOPA), emphasized the need for the EU and the AU, their members and their citizens to collaborate for setting up national action plans to implement the FAO Voluntary Guidelines to secure Small-scale fisheries in the context of food security and poverty reduction. For CAOPA, this is the best way to improve the livelihoods of all the men and women working along the fisheries value chain. He insisted on the necessity to put priority on developing infrastructures that will provide decent working conditions, particularly for the women fish processors.
Several of the panellists recalled the importance of fisheries in the fight against malnutrition and food insecurity, but also as a job provider. Indeed, it is estimated that more than 12 million men and women make their living from artisanal fisheries in Africa, although Michael Phillips, from the World Fish Centre, described how the true value of the African artisanal sector is “hidden” because of the lack of data on artisanal fisheries.
CAOPA presentation also focussed on 2022, the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA), which will draw the world's attention to the role that artisanal fisheries and aquaculture play in food security and nutrition, poverty eradication and sustainable use of natural resources. In the ongoing dialogue between the EU and the AU for a future EU Africa partnership, it is important to recall that IYAFA will take place in the context of the reform process of fisheries policies in Africa, initiated by the AU and supported by the EU, but also of the review of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in Europe, including the international dimension of this policy.
Regarding the future of this international dimension of the CFP, Ms. Veronika Veits, Director of the International Ocean Governance and Sustainable Fisheries unit at the European Commission’s DG MARE, underscored the importance of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements for the EU-Africa partnership, and explained that they are undertaking an evaluation to “further improve” them and “keep [them] attractive.” Mr. Leonard Mizzi, Head of Unit Rural Development, Food Security and Nutrition, at DG DEVCO, also suggested the EU should be leader in leveraging investments for sustainable livelihoods in African coastal communities.
The webinar was hosted by the Members of the the European Parliament PECH Committee, Ms. Isabel Carvalhais and Mr. Pierre Karleskind, who, in his closing remarks insisted on the socioeconomic potential of fisheries and noted he had heard the “vibrant call from artisanal fishermen to protect and promote local artisanal fisheries.”
In this article, the author underscores the ecological and social impacts of Norwegian intensive salmon farming, including the impact on food security in West Africa. The author remarks that while on the one hand, the European Union promotes fish for human consumption in Africa, on the other, the EU also opens wide its market gates for Norwegian farmed salmon, which is fed West African fish.