Access agreements, Artisanal fisheries, Governance, Transparency, Sectoral support
Anaïd Panossian
What future for Sustainable Fisheries ...

In view of the global evaluation of the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements (SFPAs) that will be carried out by the Commission in 2021, the author highlights the key points which will need to be assessed from the perspective of the impacts on African coastal communities. The author also suggests essential improvements to be made for the future of SFPAs so that they better respond to the needs of these communities.

What future for Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements?

Blue Growth

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Why the $700 billion funding gap for biodiversity is dangerous nonsense: Implications for the oceans and small-scale fisheries

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Why the $700 billion funding gap for biodiversity is dangerous nonsense: Implications for the oceans and small-scale fisheries

Closing the funding gap for biodiversity conservation is one of the critical topics at COP 16 in October 2024. The funding gap has been estimated at $700 billion in Goal D of the Kunming-Montreal Agreement, based on a report, “Financing Nature”, published in 2020. Taking the example of fisheries and ocean conservation, this article shows the $700 billion figure is based on highly dubious calculations and assumptions. The author argues the funding gap report is not a serious effort to estimate the needs for supporting conservation efforts. Therefore, the $700 billion figure should be rejected by those opposed to the continuing financialisation of conservation.

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How private finance through blue bonds affects local communities: the Seychelles experience

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How private finance through blue bonds affects local communities: the Seychelles experience

Andre Standing, senior consultant at CFFA, discusses with researcher Arınç Onat Kılıç, who has recently published a paper exploring the Seychelles Blue Bond, its impact on local fishing communities and the broader implications of private finance for developing the blue economy.

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Norway is flooding the EU market with unsustainable fish products, like farmed salmon – This should stop

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Norway is flooding the EU market with unsustainable fish products, like farmed salmon – This should stop

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.

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Will fishers be sidelined, once again, at the UN Ocean Conference?

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Will fishers be sidelined, once again, at the UN Ocean Conference?

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.

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Gabon’s Odious Debt-for-ocean Swap: The implications for ocean governance

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Gabon’s Odious Debt-for-ocean Swap: The implications for ocean governance

This article covers TNC’s recent debt-for-ocean swap with Gabon, involving US$500 million worth of debt. In exchange, the Gabonese government has committed to protect up to 30% of the oceans. The author looks in detail at the deal (Part 1) and the conservation commitments (Part 2), explores the problems with this deal in terms of debt justice and of ocean governance, and develops its implications for coastal communities.

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FAO Sub-Committee on Fish Trade: The role of women in fisheries must be better recognised

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FAO Sub-Committee on Fish Trade: The role of women in fisheries must be better recognised

The Sub-Committee responsible for providing recommendations to the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) on the technical and economic aspects of the international fish trade is meeting in Bergen (Norway) this week. We take a look at what's at stake for small-scale fisheries in Africa.

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Transparency, protected and equitable access to resources: the stakes of the EU-Mauritius agreement for small-scale fisheries

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Transparency, protected and equitable access to resources: the stakes of the EU-Mauritius agreement for small-scale fisheries

The European Parliament is set to give its consent at the end of May to the new Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) between the EU and Mauritius. This article outlines the challenges that Mauritian artisanal fisheries face and highlights the priorities for sectoral support in the future SFPA protocol to support this sector.

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Intensive farming of carnivorous fish relying on West Africa fishmeal must be stopped

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Intensive farming of carnivorous fish relying on West Africa fishmeal must be stopped

The FAO Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture can be improved by including the considerations of stakeholders that are currently facing the negative impacts of unsustainable aquaculture, and by openly addressing issues like the interactions with small scale fisheries, competing for coastal space and for access to resources like small pelagics in West Africa.

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The UN trumpets the importance of small-scale fisheries, but keeps mum about the blue threats it faces

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The UN trumpets the importance of small-scale fisheries, but keeps mum about the blue threats it faces

The annual UN General Assembly Resolution on Sustainable Fisheries usually comes out at the end of the year. This article analyses, how, at the end of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries (IYAFA), the text reflects the key issues for this sector.

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Financing the 30x30 agenda for the Oceans: Debt for Nature swaps should be rejected

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Financing the 30x30 agenda for the Oceans: Debt for Nature swaps should be rejected

Joint statement - In the delivering on 30x30 and financing conservation, debt for nature swaps are gaining momentum. However, debt swaps should be rejected as they lack transparency and give undue power to foreign organisations over the policies of marine resources management of developing and small-island states.

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UN Ocean Conference political declaration: where are the fishers?

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UN Ocean Conference political declaration: where are the fishers?

The final declaration fails to appropriately acknowledge the role and importance of the biggest group of users of the ocean, - the artisanal fishers-, while it encourages private-public partnerships, capital market instruments and other forms of financing, that might end up destroying coastal fishing communities.

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Small-scale fishers call for global leaders to act now on oceans at UN Ocean Conference

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Small-scale fishers call for global leaders to act now on oceans at UN Ocean Conference

JOINT PRESS RELEASE: Small-scale fisheries are small in name only. Half a billion people – 7% of the global population – are at least partly dependent on them for food, employment and income. They are the largest group of ocean users, have contributed the least to the ocean emergency, and are among the most affected by it. Yet their needs, roles and rights are often ignored, and they are generally sidelined or excluded from major policy discussions that directly affect their lives and livelihoods.

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Certifying the unsustainable: The Fisheries Improvement Project in Mauritania

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Certifying the unsustainable: The Fisheries Improvement Project in Mauritania

The strategy of transforming seafood industry through voluntary partnerships and market-based incentives is the approach currently favoured by many environmental NGOs and donors. The case of Mauritania reduction fisheries “Fisheries Improvement Project” highlights the fundamental flaws with the corporate friendly approach and the urgent need to resist this model becoming normalised.

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West Africa: PESCAO should be more effective and attentive to artisanal fisheries

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West Africa: PESCAO should be more effective and attentive to artisanal fisheries

The PESCAO programme for the improvement of fisheries governance in West Africa, financed by the EU from the 11th EDF Regional funds, started in June 2017 and will end in June 2024. After nearly 4 years, an evaluation is underway to assess the results obtained and to see how to improve its implementation, in a context where the countries of the ECOWAS region are focusing on the development of a blue economy strategy.

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The Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative: How to destroy the oceans responsibly

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The Sustainable Blue Economy Finance Initiative: How to destroy the oceans responsibly

Efforts to make blue economy sustainable have led to increasing calls for better regulations on investments. The European Commission has provided funding for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to launch the Blue Economy Finance Initiative (BEFI). The BEFI has been celebrated in international conferences about blue economy, however, this article highlights the inherent weaknesses of voluntary guidelines in mitigating the threats financial investors pose to the destruction of the planet.

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Debt-for-nature swaps and the oceans: The Belize Blue Bond

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Debt-for-nature swaps and the oceans: The Belize Blue Bond

This second article of our series on financialisation and the blue economy covers TNC’s recent debt-for-ocean swap in Belize, news about TNC’s “audacious plan” of other debt swaps in other countries, the history of debt swaps and how the recent swaps reflect the financialisaton of conservation and finally, why these debt swaps are worrying for small-scale fisheries.

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Joint statement - European and African decision-makers should join forces to support sustainable artisanal fisheries in Africa

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Joint statement - European and African decision-makers should join forces to support sustainable artisanal fisheries in Africa

In view of the summit that will bring together the leaders of the European Union and the African Union in Brussels on 17th and 18th February 2022 and in the context of the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA), six civil society and professional organisations call the EU and AU to take concrete action in three key areas. Click on the link to read more.

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Understanding the conservation finance industry

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Understanding the conservation finance industry

Financialisation is considered to be the fundamental dynamic that contributes to inequalities in the world, while also a threat to democracy because it transfers the ownership and control of so much to a small group of financial investors and institutions, with the only goal of maximising profits.

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The EU new approach on blue economy should recognize that artisanal fisheries are the main provider of "Ocean Livelihoods" in Africa

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The EU new approach on blue economy should recognize that artisanal fisheries are the main provider of "Ocean Livelihoods" in Africa

The Commission’s recently published communication still shies away from acknowledging the threat that other blue economy sector represent for fishing communities, who are by far the most vulnerable in such a competitive environment.

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Key issues for EU-Mauritius SFPA negotiations: Tuna stocks sustainability, post-covid19 recovery for the local sector and transparency

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Key issues for EU-Mauritius SFPA negotiations: Tuna stocks sustainability, post-covid19 recovery for the local sector and transparency

With an EU-Mauritius SFPA Joint Committee planned this spring, and the SFPA protocol expiring in December 2021, CFFA highlights issues for the negotiations of the fisheries partnership agreement renewal.