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Fair and sustainable fisheries arrangements
EU fleets access African waters through a variety of schemes…
![Call to Action from Artisanal Fisheries](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d402069d36563000151fa5b/1673513964910-L1Q6R77XUONJIFTCB6ZL/Samuel%2BAboh.jpg)
Call to Action
from Artisanal Fisheries
In 2022, the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture, small-scale fishers from 6 continents gathered to….
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More transparency
Publicly available and credible information is essential
for sustainable fisheries management…
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The dangers of Blue Growth
The international governance agenda often forgets small-scale fisheries…
In this article, the author underscores the ecological and social impacts of Norwegian intensive salmon farming, including the impact on food security in West Africa. The author remarks that while on the one hand, the European Union promotes fish for human consumption in Africa, on the other, the EU also opens wide its market gates for Norwegian farmed salmon, which is fed West African fish.
In this article, the author delves into the impacts of climate change and other challenges for São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) small-scale fishing communities. To develop the sector, the government is looking to develop offshore artisanal fishing. The author examines the factors that need to be considered for the upcoming renewal of the protocol of the EU-STP Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA).
The author discusses the design of access fees for foreign fishing vessels in African countries and explains why these fees are low in most African nations. He also debates conditions under which industrial fishing vessels of foreign origin should be given access, or not, to African coastal countries waters, and argues for a re-think of access fees design.
In a joint contribution to an open call for civil society organisations, CFFA and CAOPA raise the alarm about the challenges for small-scale fishers to take part in decision-making processes of international ocean governance and ask for a human-rights-based approach.
In this article, Pieter van Welzen argues that states have an obligation to act against their nationals who are beneficial owners and are involved in illegal, unreported, and unregulated IUU fishing activities. For this, the author talks about the challenges for flag and coastal states to fight against IUU fishing in many cases, introduces indications in international law for beneficial owner state responsibility and summarizes key state practice.
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Photo: Samuel Aboh.
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14.b calls on states to secure access to marine resources and markets for small-scale fisheries.
Action is urgently required to address the key challenges so that small-scale fisheries are protected and restored, and that they continue contributing to economies, health, culture and wellbeing.
Small-scale fishers (SSF) from six continents identified five areas of action for their governments.
The annual report on exports of fishery products confirms the trend: Senegal is becoming, after Mauritania and the Gambia, one of the countries that favours the production and export of fishmeal and fish oil to the detriment of the nutrition of its population.
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.
In an effort to promote transparency and fight overfishing, the new Minister of Fisheries, Dr Fatou Diouf, has announced the publication of a list of the vessels authorised to fish in Senegal. The African Confederation of Artisanal Fishing Organisations (CAOPA) comments on this.
In a position paper, APRAPAM questions the government's proposal to support the production of fish feed and insists instead on the importance of a management plan for small pelagics and the prioritisation of human consumption.
For the first time, several countries in the Gulf of Guinea have implemented a closed season for this traditional fishery, which is practised all year round by coastal communities in West Africa.
Mr. Michael Fakhri, UN special rapporteur on the right to food presented his latest report on fisheries and the right to food in the context of climate change at the 55th Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, putting a special focus on small-scale fisheries.
In this article, we take a look at the day-to-day running of four cooperatives of women fishmongers and fish processors in Benin, describing their challenges and the value of mutual support to survive.
Organisations representing European and African fisheries stakeholders sent a joint advice to both the African Union and the European Union, looking at how EU policies, in particular SFPAs, could be better used to promote women’s activities in the African fisheries sector.
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No caminho para a costa da Guiné Bissau
A portrait of the West African country’s artisanal fisheries value chain, by photojournalist Carmen Abd Ali.
At a time when the fisheries agreement is being renegotiated, Senegal is initiating a formal dialogue with the EU on the fight against IUU fishing. As part of this dialogue, the European Union has a responsibility to improve controls on vessels of European origin, and to impose heavy penalties when they fail to comply with the rules.