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.
West Africa has pioneered several decades of artisanal fisheries management reform. Yet there are still major obstacles to co-management: a lack of political will reflected in low budgetary allocations; inadequate and poorly targeted support for fisher organizations; poorly defined roles and responsibilities of fishers in co-management; lack of enforcement of inshore exclusive zones; and inadequate defense of human rights and particularly the important role of women.
On the margins of the 29th session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries, following up on a first meeting on the margins of the CAMFA in September 2010, CFFA met with its partners, the organisations of artisanal fisheries in Guinea and Senegal, to assess past or current participative surveillance projects in these two countries and make a series of recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of participative surveillance in the fight against IUU fishing in West Africa.
These recommendations were presented to the European Commission during a meeting on IUU fishing between DG-MARE’s Fisheries Control Policy unit and NGOs active in this domain.
CFFA and its partners will closely follow further developments on regional surveillance, including in the SRFC waters, and will seek to involve fishermen in these processes.
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