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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.
Back in 2022, African artisanal fishers asked that the implementation of the FAO guidelines on sustainable small scale fisheries be a standing item in the agenda of the new Sub-Committee and insisted it was essential to allow artisanal fisheries organisations to participate actively to its discussions.
14 organisations, representing small scale fishers’ organisations, environment, and development NGOs have issued a joint statement arguing at the occasion of the first meeting of the newly created FAO Sub Committee Fisheries Management, which is held this week online.
The FAO organised a workshop in Accra (Ghana) from 5 to 7 December on the theme: "Optimising food and nutritional security and the benefits of small pelagic species production in sub-Saharan Africa". In a joint presentation, CAOPA and CFFA warned of the impact of the decline in sardinella in West Africa on fishers, women fish processors and consumers.
The outcomes from the Civil Society Consultation in preparation of the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference recommend more attention to small-scale fisheries (SSF), with an “Ocean Action Panel building on the Call to Action” which was released at UNOC 2 in Lisbon (2022).
At a COMHAFAT workshop held in Abidjan end of October, several regional and pan-African institutions and stakeholders discussed issues of transparency and economic spin-offs of current agreements.
In this Op-Ed, published first on EUobserver, former PECH MEP Isabella Lövin argues that the Common Fisheries Policy has all the provisions needed for Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements to successfully work as a “race to the top” rather than to the bottom.
The Coalition marks its support to the document by a letter to CFFA’s main partner, CAOPA, and pledges to abide by it in its work with artisanal fisheries organisations. By this action, the network wishes to lead by example so that other partners wishing to support small-scale fishing apply these standards too.
Two years after receiving funding from the EU-Côte d'Ivoire SFPA to buy a refrigerated container, we examine how the women of the Société Coopérative de Femmes Mareyeuses Grossistes et Détaillantes in the fishing port of San Pedro are faring. Beyond fish preservation, enabling women to become autonomous remains a challenge.
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.