A recent study in Nature Sustainability reviews 45 years of EU fishing access agreements with countries across Africa, the Pacific, and beyond. It shows how a small number of EU fleets have consistently captured the lion’s share of fishing opportunities and economic benefits, leading to lasting power asymmetries.
In April 2024, the Liberian National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) invited several fisheries stakeholders to validate a draft fisheries management plan for a multi-species deep-water shrimp fishery, which are very vulnerable and already over-exploited. LAFA deplores the absence of an appropriate stakeholder engagement during the development of the plan.
The Coalition marks its support to the document by a letter to CFFA’s main partner, CAOPA, and pledges to abide by it in its work with artisanal fisheries organisations. By this action, the network wishes to lead by example so that other partners wishing to support small-scale fishing apply these standards too.
From 8 different African countries, representatives of coastal fishing communities participated to a seminar on the external dimension of the CFP hosted by the EU Long Distance Fisheries Advisory Council (LDAC) in Sweden and then travelled to Brussels where they exchanged with decision-makers from the Commission and the European Parliament.
