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.
For small-scale fisheries organisations it is important that the international push for transparency is not dominated by anti-IUU campaigns. Poor information sharing between governments and small-scale fisheries affects a much wider set of issues relating to tenure rights and ensuring fair and sustainable access to fish.
Masifundise explain the new policy in South Africa for securing community rights to fisheries, which they describe as promoting human rights and the well being of small-scale fisheries in ways that will undo the harms of the previous 'rights based approach', based on individual transferable quotas. The new policy for small-scale fisheries is however yet to be fully implemented.
