CAOPA (African Confederation of Artisanal Fishing organisations) and CFFA (Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements) participated at the FAO Committee on Fisheries in July 2012 (click here for the report).

Together, they organised a side event on the exploitation of small pelagics in West Africa, and the sustainability and food security issues arising (click here for report and presentations)

The meeting started with a statement by Gaoussou Gueye (General secretary CAOPA), highlighting the importance of small pelagics for West African fishing communities and their demands to FAO and its members, which included:

To document better the impacts of the various types of exploitation of small pelagics on food security;

To recommend to states and regional fisheries organizations to consider the role of small pelagics in the ecosystems and in food security of developing countries populations when they are to make decisions for managing these resources and allocating access to these resources;

To support initiatives and efforts that will contribute to establish a concerted management of small pelagic resources in West Africa;

To support efforts by fishing communities to actively contribute to the management of these resources in a concerted and sustainable way;

To support an aquaculture based on species that do not require feed made from wild fish, that answers the demands of local and regional markets, and that is not contributing to the unsustainable exploitation of small pelagics stocks.

This statement was followed by an analysis of the main developments affecting small pelagics exploitation in West Africa and policy issues arising, by Dr Andre Standing, from (TransparentSea / CFFA). Some recent developments (2010-2012) which can have a negative impact on food security in West Africa, were examined:

The return of former Soviet Union ‘super trawlers’ to Senegal;

The new fisheries agreement between Chinese Poly Hondone Company and Mauritania;

The expansion of fishing and fish trade by Pacific Andes group in West Africa.

Various factors influencing expanding investments and industrial fishing in West Africa’s small-pelagics were presented:

Links with industrial aquaculture (production of fish oil and fish meal);

Overcapitalization and decreasing profitability of global Distant water fishing fleets targeting small pelagic;

The growth of China’s overseas fishing sector.

A final presentation was made by Brian O’Riordan (ICSF), on the main factors that have affected the small pelagic exploitation by super trawlers in South Pacific, based on a case study of the over-exploited jack mackerel, and the implications it may have for West Africa, with the arrival of these fleets in the region.

Over 60 participants from 16 African countries and from 4 countries in the European Union gathered in Mbour, Senegal’s second most important fishing town, to attend a 3 day Conference on Transparency in the Maritime Fisheries Sector in Africa. The event was hosted and organized by the African Confederation of Professional Artisanal Fisheries Organizations (CAOPA) in collaboration with TransparentSea, the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA) and the West Africa Rural Foundation (WARF). This Conference followed the celebration of the World Fisheries Day, also organised by CAOPA, where the FAO Voluntary guidelines for sustainable small scale fisheries were discussed.

Participants to the Conference included fishermen leaders, leaders from the post-harvest sector including women fish processors and traders, civil society organizations, and local authorities. Also present were members of the West African Journalists’ Network for Responsible Fisheries (REJOPRAO), Seafood Choices Alliance Seafood Champion award winners in 2010.

Participants shared and learned about how massive investments being made in aid projects for the development of artisanal fisheries are not benefitting fishing communities, and where transparency is lacking on where the aid monies end up. So too massive flows of speculative transnational capital are being invested in industrial fishing operations in African waters.

The conference underlined how transparency is an emerging issue in fisheries, an issue highlighted by the FAO in its State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture Report for 2010, and being taken account of by the World Bank and other major donors which are beginning to adopt transparency programmes.

Amongst other issues, Conference participants called for Standards and Principles for transparency in fisheries to be developed and adopted. These would include making information available in local languages using simplified terminology; setting time limits for processing and responding to requests for information; making information readily accessible in the form that best suits the country where it is disseminated; and ensuring proper participation and prior informed consent in policy making and implementation.

Contribution by Brian O’Riordan, ICSF Belgium Office Secretary

For more information read the Conference report

VG SSF Guidelines and Civil Society:https://sites.google.com/site/small...

Information on VG SSF Process:http://www.fao.org/fishery/ssf/guid...

The Benefits and Limits of Transparency