Availability of fishing licenses lists: Gabon

CFFA welcomes the steps taken by the republic of Gabon to make available to the public the lists of fishing vessels licensed in 2008/2009.

We encourage all ACP countries to take such steps. Moreover, we would like to highlight the importance for ACP countries to publish an update of these lists, so that real time data about fishing vessels licensed can be accessed by the public and third countries authorities, partners for sustainable fisheries development.

In particular, in the context of the fight against IUU fishing, the availability of updated lists of fishing vessels licensed in ACP countries is a key element for collaboration between coastal states -ACP countries in this case- and market states -such as the EU- to help efficient action to be taken in order to stop the trade of illegally caught fish.

First Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Banjul

NEPAD and African Union Fisheries Summit: Livelihoods should come first urge small-scale fishers and NGOs

Banjul, Gambia, 22 September 2010. Artisanal and small scale fishers and associated civil society representatives from seventeen African countries met in Banjul, Gambia on 21 September, 2010, in advance of the first NEPAD Conference of African Ministers on Fisheries and Aquaculture (CAMFA) to be held on 23 September 2010. The meeting was organized by the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements, the African Confederation of Artisanal Fishery Professional Organizations and the Commonwealth Foundation, under the banner of "Our Fish, Our Future".

Following the meeting, participants issued the Banjul Civil Society Declaration on Sustainable Livelihoods in African Fisheries (http://www.camfa-cso.org). The declaration highlights key issues in African fisheries and provides recommendations on how the 2005 NEPAD Action Plan for Development of Fisheries and Aquaculture should be taken forward.

The declaration warns that a purely economic approach represents a threat to the sustainable development of fisheries resources and livelihoods of poor marginalized artisanal and small scale fishing communities. It emphasizes the importance and value of small-scale and artisanal fisheries in the African context towards providing food security for 200 million Africans and jobs for more than 10 million people engaged in fish production, processing and trade. It further highlights the negative impacts of climate change, industrial fishing and illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), including dwindling catches, displacement of communities and the destruction of fishing grounds. In turn this affects the social stability of entire regions, the Declaration states.

The significance of IUU fishing in African waters was echoed by Tim Bostock, Fisheries advisor to United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) in the opening session of the CAMFA on Monday 20th September, who noted that illegal fishing alone accounts for removing fish valued at some $1billion from the waters of Sub-Saharan Africa every year.

The CAMFA is a follow-up to the 2005 Abuja "Fish for All" summit, and African fisheries ministers are expected to assess and validate a fisheries plan of action for the region.

The meeting of small scale and artisanal fishers and civil society organizations is also part of an ongoing process, which since 2006 has included a growing network of West African journalists for responsible fisheries (REJOPRAO). From 15-23 September, the REJOPRAO organized training workshop for journalists, with the objective of focusing on responsible fisheries and related topics and issues in West Africa. Following the training, the journalists from sub region will carry out the media coverage, as observers, of CAMFA.

Since 2005, organizations representing the professionals (fishers, traders, processors and fishmongers) from the artisanal fishing sector have worked to establish a regional body to represent their interests. Earlier this year, this initiative led to the founding of CAOPA - the African Confederation of Professional Artisanal Fishery Sector Organizations.

For more information: Béatrice Gorez, Coordinator CFFA cffa.cape@scarlet.be

Banjul Civil Society Declaration

OCEAN2012 Press Release

OCEAN2012 Petition Hand Over

OCEAN2012 handed over 28,500 signatures to European Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, calling on her to prioritise the health of the marine environment for people’s sake in the reform of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)  

WWF/CFFA/Greenpeace Joint Statement on Solomon Islands FPA

Letter adressed to the PECH Committee on Fisheries, European Parliament:

Dear Member of the PECH Committee,

The Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), WWF and Greenpeace would like to express their support for the Committee’s Draft Recommendation regarding a Fisheries Partnership Agreement (FPA) between the European Union and Solomon Islands that will be voted in Committee in September.

However, we urge the Committee to press the EC for higher standards in future FPAs. Improvements should focus on:

 Greater transparency; 
 Sustainability and equity of resource exploitation; 
 Coherence with development policy; 
 Integrating the regional dimension and 
 Phasing out subsidies.

It is essential that the EU show leadership in ensuring that its fishery agreements result in improved fishery management capacity for its partners. Therefore, we strongly recommend you to flag these crucial principles for coming FPA negotiations. (Our recommendations are spelled out in more detail in the attached document).

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss these recommendations with you.

Thank you very much in advance.

Sincerely,

Béatrice Gorez (CFFA) cffa.cape@scarlet.be,

Jessica Landman (WWF) jlandman@wwfepo.org and

Saskia Ritchartz (Greenpeace) saskia.richartz@greenpeace.org

EU-Solomon FPA Recommendations

EU-Solomon islands agreement discussed in the Parliament

This agreement is being discussed and will be the first EU-ACP agreement to be to approved by the European Parliament (by the end of this year) since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. CFFA considers that this is an opportunity to promote a new approach based on the coherence of EU policies, especially with respect to local/regional sustainable fisheries development, with an emphasis on fishing communities rights and social and environmental issues.

Link to the text of the agreement

CFFA-EED comments on the UNEP draft "Green Economy Report"

In the framework of the Green Economy Initiative, launched in October 2008, UNEP started working on a global Green Economy Report, together with over 70 research institutes around the world. This report targets decision-makers and aims to identify the key “enabling conditions” required to achieve a transition to a green economy globally, as defined in the report preview published in May 2010.

CFFA’s first input in this process took place during the ICTSD/UNEP meeting on “Fisheries, Trade and Development”, held in Geneva on the 16th of June. Comments were made on the “Aid for Trade” aspects of developing countries fisheries. This discussion and the contacts made with UNEP led us to this official multi-stakeholder consultation on the GER.

According to the agenda, the purpose of this two days workshop was for the authors of the GER to share initial results/key messages and respond to questions and comments from a broad range of stakeholders. The issues discussed at the workshop, together with comments from a technical peer review process (to take place in late 2010), will be assembled for guiding the final revisions of the various chapters: renewable energy, industry, transport, cities, buildings, waste management and recycling, fisheries, water, forests, agriculture, tourism, finance, modeling, and enabling conditions.

CFFA-EED’s contribution to this workshop focuses on the "Fisheries" chapter of the GER and especially on the four proposals made for "greening the fisheries": "Reforming fisheries subsidies and other economic distortions", "Adjustment costs", "Building effective national, regional and international institutions" and "Strengthening regulatory reforms and fisheries management".

Preliminary comments on UNEP draft GER

Workshop report

Hearing: CFP reform, the external dimension

CFFA was in the European Parliament on June 22, for the public hearing held by the Fisheries Committee on the external dimension of the CFP reform.

Here is CFFA’s presentation, "The future of Fisheries Partnership Agreements in the context of the Common Fisheries Policy reform" and our Mauritanian partner PECHECOPS’ presentation.

Présentation CAPE 22/06/10

Présentation PECHECOPS 22/06/10

Link to the agenda of the hearing

Fisheries, Trade and Development

Documents from the ICTSD/UNEP meeting on "Fisheries, Trade and Development" are online, with a press article from IPS entitled "Help Small Fishers to Fish Less, Earn More".

Let’s adopt a differentiated approach to small scale artisanal aquaculture

Intervention by Brian O’Riordan, on behalf of ICSF/CFFA at Working Group 2 Aquaculture 3 June 2010 - Aquaculture and the CFP Workshop

The issue of why aquaculture in Europe is stagnant, whilst globally it is considered to be the fasted growing (animal) food-producing sector, needs some analysis. Our discussions have provided some insights and highlighted some issues; I would like to add a couple of observations.

1. Perhaps the model of aquaculture we are promoting in Europe is wrong. Most of aquaculture production is accounted for by Asian countries (many of them in tropical regions), dominated by China, and aquaculture has experienced the fastest growth rates in recent years in tropical African and Caribbean countries. Most production comes from inland waters, of fin fish that are mainly herbivorous, omnivorous, plankton feeders, often cultured in “polyculture” systems, that are low tech, non-intensive, and with relatively low inputs.

Yet in Europe, the focus has been on carnivorous fin fish, and on intensive, high input, fishmeal dependent systems. So too our temperate ecosystems are quite different to the tropical ecosystems where aquaculture is “booming”.

2. If aquaculture is to become an integral part of the CFP, or a basic pillar, then perhaps we should also consider adopting a “differentiated approach” to small-scale, artisanal, family run, community activities based that play an important social role on the one hand, and large scale, capital intensive systems on the other. The former, as highlighted by Sra. Portabales, are often family run SMEs, that have particular problems in accessing credit and grants. Whilst on he other, as highlighted by Mr Flynn, the capital intensive models provide the economic engines for boosting economic activities… but often with significant social and environmental costs.

In this regard, I would like to draw attention to the Ocean2012 contribution to the Green Paper consultation on CFP Reform, which highlights that

“A key reason for this contrasting state of affairs (stagnation vs growth) may be that a significant proportion of EU aquaculture production is aimed at wealth creation first, and food production second. Prominence has also been given to the production of carnivorous species, highly dependent on large scale, intensive, high-tech production systems, which are highly vulnerable to parasite and disease infestations. We feel therefore that the new European aquaculture strategy again places too much emphasis on the intensive farming for carnivorous species, at the expense of other forms of more traditional aquaculture.”

And proposes that:

“the EU should consider the potential for developing other types of aquaculture. For example, traditional systems of freshwater and marine fish and shellfish farming have been developed throughout Europe over the last centuries. Pond farming operations assist the maintenance of wetland areas and live bivalve molluscs help combat eutrophication and maintain a good sanitary quality of coastal and estuarine areas.”

And:

“To require closed containment for industrial aquaculture for carnivorous species in order to minimise impacts on the marine ecosystem. Closed containment, which prevents the transmission of diseases and parasites, could offer some solutions to the many environmental problems caused by such aquaculture.”

3. Explore synergies between Artisanal Coastal Fishing and Small-Scale Artisanal Aquaculture.

Shellfish farming and other small-scale family based marine fish farming shares much in common with artisanal coastal fishing, particularly from a social and economic perspective.

In the same way, industrial aquaculture production shares much in common with other high input, high turn over food production enterprises.

A different approach is therefore required for small-scale, artisanal family based operations on the one hand, and large scale, capital-intensive operations on the other.

Incorporating aquaculture into the CFP requires some consideration of these issues.

CFFA Workshop on IUU fishing at European Maritime Day in Gijon

On May 19th, CFFA organised a workshop entitled "Implementation of the IUU regulation in developing countries: Organising the dialogue with third countries stakeholders".

Developing countries fisheries stakeholders, particularly the small scale fishing sector, are facing specific challenges for the implementation of the IUU regulation.

Although there is still little experience of the implementation (5 months), third countries fishing sector stakeholders (fishermen, exporters, competent authorities, NGOs) already have some examples to share about the concrete issues, - problems and opportunities-, arising from the implementation of the regulation, and suggestions to make about how to ensure the smooth implementation of the regulation, and how a sustained dialogue can be established between the EU and third countries stakeholders to ensure the objective is met: fight efficiently IUU fishing.

Presentations of the panel (in French):

"Application de la législation européenne de lutte contre la pêche INN : cas de la pêche artisanale au Sénégal"

By Gaoussou Gueye, exportateur et vice président du CONIPAS (Sénégal) et Makhtar Thiam, expert Pêche du West Africa Trade Hub

Présentation Gueye

"Application de la législation européenne de lutte contre la pêche INN : cas des exportations de produits de la pêche de Mauritanie"

By Sid’ahmed Sidi Mohamed Abeid, président de la section artisanale de la Fédération Nationale des Pêches de Mauritanie

Présentation Abeid

"Importation de produits de la pêche vers l’UE"

By Concepción Sánchez Trujillano, Deputy Director-General of Community Affairs, Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Areas (Spain)

Présentation Sanchez

"Contrôle et Traçabilité: Défis et solutions"

Par Hélène Bours, CAPE

Présentation Bours

"Implementation of the EU regulation on IUU fishing: Organising the dialogue with developing countries stakeholders"

Rapport d’atelier de la Commission

Rapport d’atelier (English version) 

SSNC - Report on EU fisheries agreements in West Africa

Along the West African coasts, EU fishing is contributing to reduced fish stocks and increased difficulties for local fish workers to earn a living.

To Draw the Line, a new report from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) blames the Swedish government for playing a notably passive role in the development of, and during negotiations within the Fisheries Partnership Agreements.

The European Commission claims but cannot ensure that the payments for these agreements contribute to sustainable development and the implementation of domestic fisheries policy to the benefit of coastal communities. To Draw the Line report demonstrates that they do not.

To Draw the Line

REJOPRAO 2010 Seafood Champion

The West African Journalists Network for Responsible Fisheries (REJOPRAO) has been awarded the 2010 Seafood Champion prize during the European Seafood Exposition in Brussels.

Blog of the REJOPRAO (French): http://rejoprao.blog4ever.com

CFFA joins the Pure Salmon campaign

On May 25th, CFFA joined the Pure Salmon campaign which lobbies to raise the standards of farmed raised fish.

The Pure Salmon campaign calls on the global salmon farming industry to: 1. Adopt farming methods that eliminate disease transfer and salmon escapes; 2. Eliminate the use of antibiotics, biocides, and harmful chemicals in salmon farming; 3. Guarantee salmon farm waste is not discharged directly into the environment; 4. Stop the current depletion of wild fish stocks caused by the 3:1 ratio of slaughtered fish to salmon growth. 5. Prohibit the use of genetically engineered fish, feed, and other genetic modification; 6. Guarantee that salmon farming does not harm other wildlife; 7. Respect the views of coastal communities and other stakeholders in locating farms; and 8. Adopt and implement ethical business practices, including safe, healthy work environments and fair compensation.

For more information, see Pure Salmon campaign websitehttp://www.puresalmon.org/

CFFA joins the Pure Salmon campaign

Trade: CFFA’s contribution to the Green Paper

In a global context of decreasing fish resources, the way fish trade is conducted can play an important role for supporting the transition towards sustainable fisheries in European waters and beyond.

We feel there are three important aspects to be looked into in the process of reform:

  Promoting sustainable fisheries through EU trade (imports) policy, 
  Ensuring a fair price for the producers, 
  Promoting a change of the consumer’s attitude and adapt labelling accordingly.

Trade: CFFA’s contribution to the Green Paper

Nouakchott Declaration of West Africa artisanal fisheries sector organisations

Assembled in Nouakchott (Mauritania) from 9 to 11 November 2009 for a workshop, organised by the Mauritanian National Fisheries Federation – artisanal section (FNP), the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) and the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), on ‘Improving governance in the European Union - West African countries fisheries relations’, the West African artisanal fisheries’ organisations representatives wish to make the following contribution to the European Union consultation on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, in particular the reform of its external policy:

About the objectives of the future European external fisheries policy, particularly the future fisheries partnerships between the European Union and West African countries:

• The objective of future EU external fisheries policy should be the promotion of responsible fisheries, in line with the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries recommendations; partnerships should be integrated in the West African countries poverty reductions strategies.

• The future partnerships between West African countries and the European Union must establish a framework for good governance that allows for the transparent and participative design and implementation of national and regional actions and projects, that benefit the coastal communities fishing activities (research, control and surveillance, on-shore infrastructures, etc.) as well as their living and working conditions (health, education programmes, training – in particular for women).

• Through such good governance framework, the West African countries and the European Union should collaborate in order to promote the implementation of international and regional commitments in the countries national legislations, in particular the action plans based on the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (Action Plan for the management of fishing capacity, Action Plan against IUU fishing, etc).

• In the future partnerships, it is indispensible to delink aspects to do with the promotion of sustainable fisheries, including the mobilisation of the necessary funds, from aspects to do with the access conditions applying to the European fleets.

The following aspects must be addressed in the good governance framework:

Access to resources and ecosystem management

The conditions applying to the fleets of European origin must respect the following conditions, based on the development of responsible West African fisheries:

• The limits for the exploitation of the resources and for the fishing capacity must be based on scientific advice and recommendations. • All fish resources that can be caught in a sustainable way by the artisanal fisheries sector must be reserved for this sector, given its importance for direct and indirect job creation, for food security on a national and regional level, and for export revenue. • Access to other stocks must be limited, so that overcapacity does not develop, and must be conditioned in particular to the obligation to land all catches locally, and to the use of non-destructive and selective gears. The allocation of fishing possibilities must take into consideration the risks in connection with by-catches, especially of stocks that are caught by artisanal fishers.

Investments

• Investments to improve infrastructures for landing and processing catches must be of the utmost priority – the local landing of all catches made within the EEZ will not only create employment and economic activity, but it will also allow better control of what is being caught. • Investments are also needed in technologies that will enable to increase the value of the catches (especially the improvement of sanitary conditions and traceability in order to access international as well as regional and local markets). Support projects, including at a regional level, should be implemented in a localised manner. On this point, we want to point out that the SFP project of the European Union, which was managed in a centralised manner, did not give any tangible results for West African artisanal fisheries; hence, it would be advisable to evaluate it and draw the consequences for all future support programmes aimed at adapting artisanal fisheries to the standards. • Partnerships for sustainable artisanal fisheries, between artisanal fisheries operators from West Africa and Europe, should be promoted, in particular with the objective of adding value to our products. • Finally, investments are needed for the training of our fishers and literacy programmes for fishing communities, with a special attention to the women active in the sector.

The participation of the men and women active in the artisanal fisheries sector

• A permanent participatory mechanism must be put in place in order to ensure that people active in the artisanal fisheries sector and civil society are properly informed and participate in the entire process of the partnership design and implementation. In this respect, provision should be made to support the establishment (or the revitalisation) of fisheries consultative committees, consisting of artisanal fisheries sector representatives, as well as civil society organisations that have an interest in sustainable fisheries. • It is of paramount importance to raise awareness with governments in the sub- region, as well as with regional institutions (in particular the SRFC), about the importance of the sector’s participation in the partnership. • The artisanal fisheries sector stakeholders need urgently to be involved in the implementation of the European Union regulation to combat IUU fishing, in order to assess whether the flexibility measures introduced for the artisanal fisheries sector is sufficient to accommodate the characteristics of West African artisanal fisheries. • The organisational process of the artisanal fisheries sectors must be supported, as it is an indispensable element for an active participation. In this context, particular attention must be given to giving specific support for the participation of women from the sector in the decision-making process.

Transparency, information and communication

• All the information needed to evaluate partnerships must be made available to the countries of the sub-region, so that the economic, social and ecological costs and benefits can be taken into account. • These evaluations, as well as the existing evaluations of the partnership agreements made by the European Union, must be made available to the representatives of the sector and the civil society, so that a broad debate can be opened on the contents of the partnerships. • The fisheries sector must be covered by the initiative for transparency in the exploitation of natural resources (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - EITI) – support must be given to develop transparency indicators that are suitable for fisheries, and that will allow the sector and civil society to specify their demands in this respect. • Certain areas have already been identified where it is necessary to have greater transparency: the issuing of fishing licences, the price offered to producers, the market price, and public aid. • Transparency is also achieved thanks to the media – they raise public awareness about the sector’s concerns. Also, journalists from networks like REJOPRAO, which works together with the artisanal fisheries sector, help members of sector organisations to become better informed and thus facilitate their participation in decision-making. Partnerships must support this dynamic cooperation between the sector and the media.

Promoting a regional and international approach

• A regional approach should be adopted, at least for the management of shared stocks (tuna, small pelagics). • In this respect, a first step is to harmonise minimum access conditions, especially applicable to foreign vessels, for the access to shared stocks. • The partners involved should press for the establishment of a sub-committee for artisanal fisheries to the FAO Committee for Fisheries. This proposal was already made at the COFI meeting in 2009, but it needs to obtain stronger support. • We demand that artisanal fisheries sector representatives be included in the Sub-regional Fisheries Commission.

Coherence with the European Union development policy

• The partnerships must promote the development of intra-regional and national fish trade, and must not provoke market distortions which would be harmful to artisanal fishers. • We reiterate that the artisanal fisheries sector have urged, since 2006, for the ratification of the TIR Convention (international road transport) so that our products can circulate more freely; we suggest that efforts to ratify should be reinforced through the partnerships. • The suspension of cooperation and fisheries agreements for political reasons that are not linked to fisheries has a negative effect on the most vulnerable groups in society, especially the artisanal fishing communities. In those cases, commitments taken should be fulfilled, particularly concerning control and surveillance.

We ask this declaration to be transmitted to the European institutions – the European Parliament, the Council and the European Commission – and to the authorities of the countries in the sub-region, the regional fisheries organisations, especially the SRFC, as well as to the non-governmental organisations that are involved in the sector at the sub-regional level.

Done in Nouakchott on the 11th of November 2009

Artisanal fisheries sector organisations signatories (by alphabetical order)

Conseil National Inter-professionnel de la Pêche artisanale du Sénégal (CONIPAS) – Sénégal

Fédération Nationale de Pêche de Mauritanie (FNP) – section artisanale - Mauritania

Fédération Nationale des Coopératives de Pêche artisanale de Côte d’Ivoire (FENACOPECI) – Ivory Coast

Gambia Artisanal Fisheries Development Agency , GAMFIDA - Gambia

Réseau des Organisations professionnelles de pêche artisanale de Guinée Bissau (ROPA) – Guinea Bissau

Organisation de la Pêche artisanale du Cap Vert – Cape Verde

Union Nationale des Femmes fumeuses de Poisson de Guinée (UNFFPG) –Guinea

Union nationale des Pêcheurs artisans de Guinée (UNPAG) – Guinea

[Read the declaration here] 

CFFA signed the A Coruña Declaration

CFFA has signed the A Coruña Declaration. By signing it, CFFA shows its support to the various artisanal fishing associations and NGOs from seven European countries gathered in Galicia (Spain) during the official Stakeholders Conference on the reform of the CFP held by the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency in A Coruña, May 2nd and 3rd.

This Declaration calls for sustainable artisanal coastal fisheries to be put at the heart of the CFP reform. Full version of the document and list of sigantories is avaible on the Coalition OCEAN2012 website.

Case studies: Environmental and Social Criteria for Allocating Access to Fisheries Resources

A new report released today by OCEAN2012 and Meridian Prime highlights environmental and social criteria that are successfully employed in allocating access to fisheries resources.

The report, Environmental and Social Criteria for Allocating Access to Fisheries Resources, offers case studies from ten different fisheries in Europe and around the world to show how reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) could be modelled.

Specifically, the report recommends :

 Selectivity – Different fishing methods result in different amounts of by-catch. Fishers using fishing methods with low by-catch should be given priority access to the available resources ; 
 Environmental impact – The impact of different gears and practices on the environment, including damage to the seabed and pollution, vary widely. Fishers using less destructive fishing methods should be given priority access ; 
 Energy consumption – Some gear and vessel types, like some trawlers and seiners, require enormous amounts of energy compared to the fish they catch. Fishers using vessels and fishing methods that consume less energy per tonne of fish caught should be given priority access ; 
 Employment and working conditions – Fishing methods that provide more employment opportunities and have less environmental damage should be given priority access. Working conditions should comply with relevant international standards, notably the 2007 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Work in Fishing Convention ; 
 History of compliance – Past compliance with the rules of the CFP by fishers as well as EU Member States should be considered when allocating access to fishing rights.

“The right to fish in EU waters should be granted to those who contribute to the goal of ending overfishing,” said Markus Knigge of the Pew Environment Group and OCEAN2012. “Allocating access to commonly held fisheries resources through the implementation of strict environmental and social criteria is an effective way of doing this.”

On April 22, 2009, the European Commission launched a reform of the CFP. As part of a broader, stepwise approach to returning EU fisheries to a sustainable footing, OCEAN2012 suggested replacing, or at least enhancing, relative stability with a system of allocating access to fisheries based on an explicit consideration of certain criteria. The allocation system should contribute to environmental sustainability, a more equitable distribution of access to available fishing resources and a culture of compliance.

Meridian Prime/OCEAN2012 report

The future of Fisheries Partnership Agreements in the context of the Common Fisheries Policy reform

Presentation to the European Parliament Development Committee, September 2d 2009 - Béatrice Gorez, Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA), Coordinator

Almost since their inception, at the end of the 70‟s, fisheries “cash for access”1 agreements, and later on, fisheries partnership agreements (FPAs), have attracted criticism. If some attempts have been made to address such criticisms through the Fisheries Partnership Agreements (FPAs), the basis for the agreements have remained the same for the EU: the need to secure long term access to third countries fish resources and to maintain its fleet presence in third countries and international waters, paving the way to the failure of this policy to contribute to sustainable fisheries.

However, it needs to be recognised that FPAs have been a unique experience at the global level, to try and reconcile often conflicting interests. In our view, there is however a need for a fundamental change of the guiding principles and framework for EU fisheries relations with developing countries, which would give priority to good governance, environmental sustainability whilst providing an enabling environment for developing countries‟ fishing sectors, particularly the small scale fishing communities. In doing so, there needs to be a careful assessment of the past experience to see how to organise concretely, and for the benefit of developing countries fisheries, the transition towards this new, more sustainable model.

The future of FPAs in the context of the CFP reform

FAO Committee on Fisheries - West African artisanal fishing sector: a proactive force for sustainable fisheries

Small-scale fisheries were the focus of attention of Governments participating in the twenty eighth session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries, COFI, who discussed how to follow up on results of the World Conference on Small Scale Fisheries (4SSF), held in Bangkok, Thailand, October 2008.

A statement was issued by small scale fishing organizations, present at the event as observers, highlighting the importance of their sector, and calling for a Special Chapter to be included in FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries on small scale fisheries. They also advised that COFI should consider setting up a Sub Committee devoted to Small Scale fisheries, and/or develop Technical Guidelines or International Plan of Action (IPOA) on small-scale fishing, which should be elaborated by FAO and its members through an inclusive process involving small-scale fishers and civil society.

Mamayawa Sandouno, from Guinea, a member of the ICSF1 recalled that these demands were made by civil society during the FAO 4SSF Conference. ‘Civil society organizations insisted there that development efforts in the fisheries sector, including in our West African countries, should be geared towards guaranteeing the freedom, the well-being and the dignity of all men and women working in the artisanal fisheries sector’, she said.

West African artisanal fishing sector: a proactive force for sustainable fisheries

Preliminary comments on the Commission proposal for a Council regulation establishing a community control system

“If the political authorities want the CFP to achieve its objective of sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resources, the present control, inspection and sanction systems must be strengthened considerably.”

“If this situation continues, it will bring grave consequences not only for the natural resource, but also for the future of the fishing industry and the areas associated with it.”

NGOs comments on EC proposal