In January 2023, the European Commission gave a ‘red card’ to Cameroon, identifying it as a non-cooperating country in the fight against IUU fishing. Yet, another Directorate-General of the Commission (INTPA) is supporting via FISH4ACP the shrimp sector, which is dominated by opaque joint ventures with Chinese operators.
The main reason given by the European Union for the red carding is that “Cameroon continues registering fishing vessels under its flag without demonstrating its ability to effectively control and monitor their fishing activities, particularly when operating outside waters of Cameroon.” Indeed, in 2021, CFFA reported, and was echoed by the media, that vessels reflagged to Cameroon included a dozen of trawlers owned or managed by companies based in EU member states, like Belgium, Malta, Latvia, and Cyprus. These vessels are fishing for small pelagic all along the coasts of Africa, from Mauritania to Mozambique, with several of them having a history of illegal fishing in West Africa.
Industrial fishing operations in Cameroon’s EEZ are dominated by trawlers of foreign origin who entered into joint ventures (‘sociétés d’économie mixte’) with local entrepreneurs. A recent report highlighted that, when looking at industrial fishing vessels licensed to fish in Cameroon waters in 2022, “56% of the fishing vessels authorised in 2022 for which ownership information could be retrieved have non-Cameroonian ownership; 83% of these vessels have been found to be connected to offshore ownership entities in China.” These trawlers are allowed to exploit fish stocks beyond 3 nautical miles of the coastline, including the highly prized shrimps.
Over the last years, numerous cases of illegal fishing by these Chinese origin trawlers have been reported, including fishing without a license, encroaching on the 3 miles zone, using of illegal gears, such as pair trawling (prohibited since 2000). Recent research also suggests that Chinese operators fraudulently declared less tonnage than the real tonnage of the vessels they were operating, something which has also been denounced in the past in other West African countries.
Illegal fishing by trawlers of Chinese origin is harming Cameroon fishing communities
Cameroon’s fisheries sector is of considerable social and economic importance to the country. The sector employs more than 200 000 people, mostly in the artisanal sector, 40% of whom are foreigners (from Nigeria and Ghana in particular). In the last years, artisanal fishers have been catching an average of 180.000 tons of fish each year, for local markets essentially, whilst the industrial sector accounts for about 9 000 tons of catches, mainly shrimps destined for export. The shrimp trade in Cameroon is worth around USD 85 million per year, with industrial fishing accounting for some 80% of the catches, while artisanal fishers catch the remaining 20%.
At least 83% of trawlers of foreign origin in Cameroon have links to China. They operate in opaque joint ventures and numerous cases of illegal fishing have been reported. On the photo, coastal trawlers of Chinese origin near Locodjro artisanal landing site in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, by CFFA.
Like in many other African countries, many issues plague the development of artisanal fisheries in Cameroon, like the lack of equipment, and access to basic infrastructure. A research article from 2018 underlines that the working conditions in the artisanal sector are also getting increasingly difficult. Fishers are forced to go further out to catch a sufficient quantity of fish to make the trip worthwhile. For Cameroonian fishers, travel could be as far as the maritime border with Equatorial Guinea, where they risk arrest for trespassing national boundaries by law enforcement, naval, and immigration authorities. Other risks include collisions with foreign trawlers, for instance in the Niger Delta region. This scarcity of resources due to overfishing is made worse by illegal operations within the country’s EEZ.
IUU red card – what effect will it have?
The EU decision insists that “from now on, EU Member States shall refuse the importation of fishery products from Cameroon even when accompanied by catch certificates validated by the national authorities.” However, in as much as Cameroon has not exported fish to the EU market since 2006 because its products do not meet EU sanitary standards, highlighting this particular aspect of the decision seems a bit incongruous.
“Since the IUU dialogue was initiated with Cameroon before FISH4ACP took effect, we would have expected better guarantees on governance and transparency before investing EU taxpayers’ money in a sector plagued by IUU fishing.” ”
In practice, according to a report from 2018, an ‘alternative channel’ already exists for products caught in Cameroon waters to reach the EU market, circumventing the existing ban. Following the suspension in 2006 of Cameroon from the list of countries allowed to export fishery products to European Union, an increasing amount of catches made in Cameroon EEZ are landed in neighboring countries, in contravention of the law - Cameroon obliges all industrial fish landings to be done in the country. The report highlights that ‘There is good prove to think that a very high percentage of shrimps are caught in Cameroon by Nigerian flagged vessels having export agreement with the EU, end up illegally in Nigeria, from where they are exported to EU under Nigerian label’.
That is not to say that the EU decision is toothless, in particular given the recent history of vessels of EU origin reflagging to Cameroon: indeed, the IUU regulation prohibits [See article 38, ed.] the reflagging, the chartering, the export of Community vessels to a red carded country, as well as private licensing arrangements.
DG MARE, DG INTPA: Where is the coherence?
Whilst the European Commission’s Directorate General for Oceans and Fisheries (DG MARE) has been sending strong signals to Cameroon about the fact that IUU fishing needs to be urgently addressed, with a ‘yellow card’ in 2021, and now a ‘red card’, another European Commission Directorate for International Partnerships (former development and cooperation, DG INTPA)-, does not seem to received the memo.
Indeed, DG INTPA supports a project in Cameroon, part of the FISH4ACP initiative, “dedicated to improving the sanitary quality of shrimp products, in order to promote their access to lucrative markets such as the EU.” On its webpage, it is announced that “FISH4ACP will pay special attention to small and medium-sized businesses; because of their potential to stimulate inclusive growth and bolster food security, particularly those for women and young people.” Yet, in Cameroun, - a country that has a deficit of fish for its national market of almost 200.000 tons of fish-, FISH4ACP supports specifically “the increase of the productivity and competitiveness of Cameroon’s shrimp sector” for accessing lucrative international markets. In a context where the industrial shrimp sector, dominated by opaque joint ventures with Chinese operators, is involved up to its neck in IUU fishing and threatens the future of local artisanal sector, how the FISH4ACP project will contribute to food security and to the fight against IUU is anyone’s guess.
End of March, CFFA sent a letter to DG INTPA highlighting this apparent lack of coherence. On the one hand, the EU is sanctioning Cameroon for mismanagement of its fisheries and fleets, stopping its products from accessing the EU market. On the other hand, it is supporting Cameroon shrimp fishing sector to meet standards to access the EU market, whilst turning a blind eye to the impact such support, provided in a context where IUU is rife, will have on the future of local coastal communities: “Since the IUU dialogue was initiated with Cameroon before FISH4ACP took effect, we would have expected better guarantees on governance and transparency before investing EU taxpayers’ money in a sector plagued by IUU fishing.”
If not tackled quickly and decisively, IUU fishing in Cameroon EEZ will continue to hamper the sustainable development of the sector. It will also affect thousands of fishers livelihoods and further compromise the population’s access to essential food and nutritional security. In that context, it is of the utmost importance that the European Union, including DG INTPA and DG MARE, speaks with one voice, and acts in a coherent manner.
Banner photo: Illustrative photo of shrimps in Sri Lanka, from Unsplash.
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.