The EU should guarantee rights-based and equitable decision-making processes about ocean uses, ensuring the protection of the most vulnerable facing more powerful blue economy industries. Taking into account the role of artisanal fisheries in food security and poverty eradication in developing countries, the EU should also support SSF and sustainable fisheries management in its ocean partnership with African countries.

SSF are threatened by competition from foreign industrial fleets, declining fisheries resources, and management measures that undermine its sustainable development. While EU-funded projects aim to address these issues by promoting sustainable fisheries governance, structural challenges, including inadequate enforcement of the Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ), remain.

The Joint Committee of the EU-Mauritania SFPA will meet in Nouakchott from 4 to 6 December 2024. In this article, the author makes a number of recommendations in the light of the conclusions of the Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF). In its latest report, CECAF described the catastrophic situation of shared stocks of small pelagics and recommended a substantial and immediate reduction in fishing effort of 60% for flat and round sardinella.

Although the protocol does not allow European fleets to fish for small pelagics because they are overexploited, at least 4 European vessels have reportedly reflagged to Guinea-Bissau and are fishing for these species in the region, jeopardising the region's food security and competing with small-scale fisheries.

Closing the funding gap for biodiversity conservation is one of the critical topics at COP 16 and has been estimated at US$700 billion in the report "Financing Nature" published in 2020. However, this article critiques the estimate, arguing it is based on flawed assumptions. Using fisheries as an example, the author questions its validity and urges rejection by those opposing the financialisation of conservation.