Since 1998, CFFA-CAPE and its partners have conducted several campaigns to raise awareness on the effects of European fishing in Malagasy waters, as well as to improve the working conditions of Malagasy seamen on board European vessels. Several recommendations have been made to improve fisheries relations between the EU and Madagascar. Although the importance of traditional fisheries was highlighted, overall, sectoral support was allocated to the development of industrial fisheries and shrimp aquaculture.
Two decades later, CAPE-CFFA publishes a state of play of small-scale fisheries in Madagascar, by Cécile Fattebert. The author highlights the enormous needs of traditional fishing, as well as the urgent problems of food security and stock depletion, but also proposes that improved resource management and aid present excellent opportunities for local development.
At the beginning of February, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) Contracting Parties, meeting in Kenya, adopted Conservation and Management Measures on both anchored and drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs). These measures were welcomed by many Indian Ocean nations that consider FADs one of the main reasons of tuna overfishing in the region. An article by Beatrice Gorez and Hélène Bours.
For several decades, The Seychelles’ access agreements with Taiwanese companies contained articles preventing the publication of content without prior written approval of the other party. In 2021, as part of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative process, The Seychelles Government announced it would endeavour to remove confidentiality clauses from their fishing agreement.
Good intentions to protect small-scale fishers risk being swept away by the reality of industrial shrimp fishing.
Seychelles is the first country in the world to publish a report that assesses the compliance against the transparency requirements of the FiTI standard. The author comments on the main findings of the Multi Stakeholder Group and highlights the recommendations for foreign fleets and the importance of understanding the value of local fisheries.
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.
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.