In view of the global evaluation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs) that will be carried out by the Commission in 2021, the author highlights the key points which will need to be assessed from the perspective of the impacts on African coastal communities. The author also suggests essential improvements to be made for the future of SFPAs so that they better respond to the needs of these communities.
This week the European Parliament is discussing a first draft by rapporteur Izaskun Bilbao on the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Mauritania. This agreement is of great interest to the EU fisheries sector and is the most expensive of all fisheries agreements between the EU and third countries.
The new EU regional programming for Africa gives fisheries and oceans greater importance. It also focuses more on small-scale fisheries stakeholders and civil society organisations, which is an opportunity for them to make their voice heard. This article covers a summary of the 2014-2020 and the ongoing 2021-2027 programming, calls for more policy coherence and recommends increased participation of stakeholders for greater and efficient use of the EU funding.
In view of the summit that will bring together the leaders of the European Union and the African Union in Brussels on 17th and 18th February 2022 and in the context of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA), six civil society and professional organisations call the EU and AU to take concrete action in three key areas. Click on the link to read more.
In this third article in the series on fisheries in Mauritania, the authors review the state of overexploitation of small pelagic stocks, look at the ways the EU SFPA seeks to address the issue and come back to the demand of several stakeholders for a regional fisheries management organisation for shared small pelagic stocks.
Nowadays, aquaculture provides more people with food than capture fisheries, and the tendency is growing. The accompanying demand for fishmeal and fishoil, driven mainly by China, is increasingly being covered by West African fishing. However, putting the blame for the threat to fish stocks in the region solely on China’s appetite for seafood falls a little short.
African and European artisanal fishers, together with their international partners, issue a joint declaration before the UN Food Systems Pre-summit underscoring their concerns about the overall process, the lack of consultation of small-scale fisheries stakeholders, and the promotion of large-scale industrial aquaculture by some of the UNFSS organisers.
Seychelles is the first country in the world to publish a report that assesses the compliance against the transparency requirements of the FiTI standard. The author comments on the main findings of the Multi Stakeholder Group and highlights the recommendations for foreign fleets and the importance of understanding the value of local fisheries.
Coinciding with the celebration of the International Women’s Day, and looking at the upcoming International Year of Artisanal Fisheries in a year from now, the author reviews the dedicated Gender Guide for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Small-scale Fisheries, published by FAO and ICSF in 2017.
In view of the global evaluation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs) that will be carried out by the Commission in 2021, the author highlights the key points which will need to be assessed from the perspective of the impacts on African coastal communities. The author also suggests essential improvements to be made for the future of SFPAs so that they better respond to the needs of these communities.
In this declaration on the occasion of World Fisheries Day, CFFA calls on the European Union to integrate the FAO Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale fisheries into all its policies that have an impact on this sector, particularly in the Blue Economy and Farm to Fork strategies and in its external action.
