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.
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.
In this article, the author reviews the recent FAO access arrangements mapping report which focuses on access to developing countries waters by fleets of foreign origin. According to the FAO, this report is a first step towards facilitating “the identification of opportunities to enhance the trade of fisheries-related services, particularly for developing countries” with the objective of making access arrangements fairer and more sustainable.
For the agreement to contribute effectively to the Sustainable Development Goals, it is essential that the forthcoming negotiations, prior to the thirteenth ministerial conference, focus on the main threat to artisanal fisheries in Africa: overfishing and overcapacity, especially by foreign-owned vessels.
SOPERKA, a Senegalese fishing company, in a joint venture with the Spanish company Grupo Pereira, wished to react to our article “Experimental fishing or experimental pillaging in Liberia?” Mr Kandji, Managing Director, Mr Serrano, from the company Pereira, adviser to SOPERKA for its fishing operations, and Mr Perez Bouzada, a lawyer, who defends the interests of the company Pereira, expressed their views on a series of issues raised in the article.
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.
Sponsored by the World Bank, as part of their Liberia Sustainable Management of Fisheries project worth 40 million euros, this research campaign will take advantage of the CRODT research vessel, the ITAF DEME, launched in 2021 with the EU-Senegal Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA) sectoral support.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In this third article in the series on fisheries in Mauritania, the authors review the state of overexploitation of small pelagic stocks, look at the ways the EU SFPA seeks to address the issue and come back to the demand of several stakeholders for a regional fisheries management organisation for shared small pelagic stocks.
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.
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.
