In January 2020, 102 European civil society organisations signed a 10-year plan proposing concrete actions to rescue marine and coastal areas
CFFA and its partners the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and Bread for the World (Brot fur die Welt) joined the ninety-nine other European civil society organisations who call the EU to place the ocean at the heart of its climate strategies via a 10-year rescue plan called Blue Manifesto. The manifesto lays out specific step-by-step actions to make the ocean healthy by 2030, pushing for a complete transition towards low-impact fisheries and a planning of human activities that support the restoration of thriving marine ecosystems.
In the past months, CFFA has warned about the dangers of the EU’s Blue Growth approach, highlighting the marginalization of fisheries to the benefit of more lucrative sectors such as energy production, aquaculture, shipping, marine biotechnology, mining and tourism. Furthermore, this non-inclusive strategy is even more concerning if the EU was to promote it in its dialogue with third countries. In Africa, small-scale fisheries are essential to the social, economic and ecological sustainability of coastal communities.
We believe that the Blue Manifesto addresses the deficiencies of the EU Blue Growth strategy and, though focusing on EU waters, contains key aspects CFFA and its partners SSNC and BFW would want to see the EU apply through its Common Fisheries Policy external dimension. As the introduction to the Blue Manifesto reads: “We need marine and coastal ecosystems to be rich […] so that they can […] support life on earth. […] We depend on it – even if we live inland.”
The blue manifesto is a 10-year roadmap to a healthy ocean signed by 102 European civil society organisations, including CFFA and its partner.
These key aspects include:
Before 2020, the EU-countries were legally bound to put a few measures into place which they have failed to do so. The Blue Manifesto calls them to address these gaps as a matter of urgency, such as taking “measures to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in their waters, by their fleet or by their citizens”. Still today, some vessels flying EU member states flags have been reportedly fishing illegally on the coast of Africa. While legal procedures are in place and much has been improved on the fight against IUU and in the transparency of fishing agreements, there are still member states that fail to monitor their vessels and the European Commission seems reluctant in pursuing infringement procedures against these member states.
The manifesto demands that by the end of 2020, the EU “removes fuel tax exemptions for fishing vessels.” Fuel tax exemption provides an important support to trawlers active in West African coastal waters, without which many of them wouldn’t be able to fish profitably. Coastal trawlers are by far the most destructive fleet of African coastal marine ecosystems. CFFA and its African partners have long advocated for the protection and, where necessary, extension of exclusive artisanal fishing zones to protect fragile ecosystems from damage by trawlers, while allowing the flourishing and development of the local artisanal fisheries sector. This was the case in Liberia where a 6 nautical miles inshore exclusion zone (IEZ) has allowed artisanal fishermen to fish more safely and in greater sizes and volumes of fish. That is the reason why we also welcome the Blue manifesto demand that, by 2027, the use of non-selective and destructive gears and techniques in EU waters and by EU vessels, including distant water fleet would be prohibited.
Also by the end of 2020, the manifesto insists that the EU “establishes a moratorium on deep sea mining, stops financial support to research and technology development and, with EU countries, pushes for the adoption of a global moratorium in the International Seabed Authority” and that by 2022 the EU “bans all new offshore oil and gas exploration and production, and adopts a strategy to phase-out current offshore oil and gas extraction”. There are several implications of deep-sea mining for artisanal fisheries, including in Africa, such as the restricted access to fishing grounds, the concerns about accidents and pollution such as oil spills. The offshore oil and gas exploration also requires the use of acoustic mapping systems which reportedly harm and change the migrating behaviour of fish. The EU, heavily dependent on fossil fuels from Russia, is increasingly investing in Africa. Indeed, Africa’s largest exports to the EU by value are oil and gas. CFFA has advocated for the EU to end all public funding of deep-sea mining in Africa, and while this might not have an immediate effect on the reduction of offshore fossil fuel projects, the EU could be a further catalyst for change.
The blue manifesto further calls the EU, by 2023, to adopt an Action Plan to ensure its effective implementation resulting in a full transition to low impact EU fisheries” and by 2030, to fully shift to low impact fishing. With the upcoming evaluation of the CFP in 2022, several key issues will need to be revisited. The call by European citizens in the streets asking their governments to take action against climate change cannot be ignored. Indeed, the EU, respecting the principle of coherence between internal and external policies, should also protect and promote low-impact fisheries in its relations with African countries. In 2015, FAO recognized the key and global role of small-scale fisheries towards the eradication of hunger and poverty while contributing to a sustainable social and economic development. CFFA and its partners were part of the civil society organisations that called for a support to responsible fisheries which ended in the publication of the Voluntary Guidelines to Secure Small-Scale Fisheries. More recently, in the context of tuna RFMOs, CFFA and partner CAOPA are advocating for a new allocation system of tuna to prioritize those fishers who fish most sustainably and bring the most social and economic benefits to coastal developing countries members.
By 2025, the Blue manifesto asks the EU to adopt regulations that ensures that all aquaculture production in EU seas is non-polluting and does not rely on marine-derived feed ingredients”. Since 2015, CFFA’s African partners have been protesting about the anarchic development of many fishmeal factories across West Africa. Fishmeal is predominantly used to feed intensively farmed animals and fish. The rapid growth of fishmeal production in Africa has led to unprecedented declines in fish stocks, particularly sardinella. Local fishermen organisations as well as women fish processors have been demanding the closure of fishmeal factories that depend on fresh fish, due to the declining catches and the disruption of supply for women fish processors’ activities (competition for access to fish). The factories are also polluting the environment. While this fishmeal is exported to China, Vietnam or Europe, the use of fresh fish in these factories is affecting the food security of coastal communities while jobs and livelihoods, especially for women, are lost.
More information:
Press release for the Blue Manifesto
Read the full Blue Manifesto
The dangers of Blue Growth approach to small-scale fisheries