CAOPA and the French-speaking fishing schools have started collaborating to make artisanal fisheries stakeholders more responsible in the protection of the oceans and fight against plastic waste
Dakar
The African Confederation of Artisanal Fisheries Professional Organizations (CAOPA) and the French-speaking fishing schools (REPF) have started a collaboration to combat plastic waste in the oceans. Following the observation of the enormous quantity of plastics on the seabed and on beaches, the objective of the project is to raise awareness among Senegalese fishing stakeholders of the impact of plastics on the environment, in particular the marine environment. First of all, more than 20 newsletters have been published in order to raise awareness among the actors concerned and subsequently invite them to a first workshop. The aim of this workshop is to identify responsibilities and prepare the intervention strategy. The workshop was scheduled for March 31 but was postponed to October due to the COVID-19 epidemic.
The project follows the adoption of the Ocean Plastics Charter at G7 summit in Canada in 2018.
A third part of the project will be on the field, sensitizing communities to the damage caused by plastics so that they adopt more responsible behaviour in the use of plastics in their homes, on beaches and at sea. In the long term, this could be of interest to waste collectors in the recycling of plastics.
This project follows the adoption of the Ocean Plastics Charter by the 2018 G7 summit in Canada and aims to contribute to the implementation of the Law 2020-04, which prohibits the use of plastics in Senegal. For the moment, five organisations are involved: REPF, CAOPA, the School of Fisheries and Aquaculture of Quebec (EPAQ), the University Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (IUPA) of Cheick Anta Diop University (Dakar) and the national interprofessional Council for artisanal fisheries in Senegal (CONIPAS).
CAOPA is a confederation regrouping professional organisations of artisanal fisheries in more than 24 countries, whereas REPF has 33 members in 15 countries.
More information:
Download the infoletters (in French only)