The African Confederation of Artisanal Fisheries Organisations (CAOPA) organised a webinar entitled ‘Who owns the fish?’ on 5 October 2021.
This videoconference, which brought together several panellists from the African and European continents, addressed issues related to fisheries, particularly in relation to access to this resource from a sustainable perspective that prioritises the food security of populations. The online event, which gave the floor to six experts in different fields related to fisheries, was an opportunity to talk about transparency, access of foreign fleets to African waters or exclusive fishing zones for artisanal fisheries.
Click on the invitation to access the webinar recording.
In his speech, Dr Alassane Samba, fisheries researcher and former director of the Dakar Thiaroye Oceanographic Research Centre (CRODT), explained that "fish is a national heritage, which implies the responsibility of the authorities to exploit these resources sustainably for the benefit of the population." Dr Samba stressed that this principle should guide the authorities' negotiations with third countries when they want to grant them access to surplus fish. To do this, transparency on catches but also on the number of licences is necessary in the decision making process.
A relevant example of the importance of transparency, raised by Maïmouna Saleck, can be found in the authorisation given by the Mauritanian authorities to a Turkish seiner to fish in an area normally reserved for artisanal fishing. Although the authorities claim that this decision comes to increase the population's access to affordable fish, several actors suspect that the real purpose is to supply fishmeal factories. Ultimately, the seiner's access to this area would put the food security of Mauritanians at risk. Ms Salek, who last August raised the alarm about this exceptional authorisation, insisted that the expansion of the fishmeal and fish oil industry is undermining the fisheries resources of the West African region and deplored the lack of sustainable management by the Mauritanian authorities.
Béatrice Gorez, coordinator of CAPE, welcomed in her speech the importance of the role of professional organisations and civil society for a truly sustainable management of resources. In the case of the fisheries agreements between the European Union and African countries, she explained that the advocacy of these actors has led to an improvement in the situation of small-scale fishermen through the various revisions of the agreements. For example, in the past, it was Spanish trawlers that fished octopus in Mauritanian waters, but now they no longer have access to these resources. For Ms Gorez, a simple but fundamental principle must be followed: "Everything that can be fished sustainably by artisanal fishing must be left to artisanal fishing."
Other topics discussed by the various panellists included the impact of restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic on artisanal fisheries. Dr Hamady Diop, Head of Technical Cooperation and Advisory Services at the African Union Development Agency, spoke about the shortcomings on the continent that have been highlighted by the health crisis and then presented the solutions proposed by the African Union. Dr Ndiaga Gueye of the FAO Regional Office for Africa, spoke of "specific challenges for women in artisanal fisheries, such as difficulty in accessing goods and resources, illiteracy, lack of infrastructure and competition with other sectors." He added that improving working conditions must involve implementing the FAO's voluntary guidelines to ensure the sustainability of small-scale fisheries.
In her intervention to conclude the webinar, Micheline Dion, from CAOPA's women's programme and a woman processor in Côte d'Ivoire, said that artisanal fishing should be protected from other competing activities such as industrial fishing, oil exploitation and coastal tourism. She said it was necessary to protect artisanal fishing against "other sectors that invade our coasts... and displace our communities from their workplaces." She concluded her speech with three main demands to the African Union and its partners: exclusive access rights for artisanal fishers in coastal areas, decent living and working conditions and protection from competing sectors.
Header photo: Illustration photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen/Unsplash
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