Project ‘‘Strengthening regional capacities in fisheries management in West Africa"

Concerned countries :	Cape-Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone
Funding source:	MAVA / DGIS
Implementation agency:	SRFC / UICN
Budget :	1.500.000 Euro
Project duration:	1,5 years (06/2007 – 12/2007)

Fishing plays a major role in the SRFC countries economies and the efforts aiming at replacing it in its regional dimension would lead to the sustainable management of the resource generating additional advantages. However, As for now the initiatives taken at regional level are scarce. The project intends to strengthen the capacity of the administrations, research centres and stakeholders to work together in order to manage the access to resources in the SRFC countries and allow the sector contribute to the national economies and fight against poverty.

Objectives

The main objective of the project is:

The objectives of the project are to contribute to a better management of the fishing sector and making the sector participates in poverty alleviation in the SRFC countries through:

A harmonisation of the policies and legislations;
Placing at disposal of information and a strengthening of the capacities of the delegations that conduct the negotiations on fishing agreements.
Placing at disposal of information and trainings on the impact of foreign trade on fishing products in the SRFC countries;
A better understanding of the impact of international migrations and particularly intra-regional migrations on the management of fisheries;
An inclusion of the fishing sector in the SPRP,

Expected results:

1.The 1999 Convention on the minimum access conditions to the SRFC countries fisheries resources is revised, and artisanal fishing is included.

In June 1993, A Convention relating to the definition of minimum access and exploitation conditions of halieutic resources, for industrial fishing was ratified by the SRFC member states. The work proposed will lead to the revision of the Convention and will include artisanal fishing.

2.Trainings and an information system on the international trade of fishing products and also in the area of fishing agreements help the countries better manage the resource.

For a better understanding of the regional problematic subject of the international trade of fishing products, the project will make available national and regional macro-economic information that will help place the sector in its environment and have an overall understanding of the stakes of the trade of halieutic products. In the framework of the fishing agreements, some information is provided and trainings will be organised for the delegations in order to equip their members so that they can be in a better position to conduct the negotiations.

3.The intra-regional and international migrations of fishermen are better understood and allow a better management of the resource.

The fisheries resource access control issue in artisanal fishing in West Africa has nowadays become basic problem. The high mobility of artisanal fishermen within the SRFC countries plays in favour of the use of a sub regional approach in order to address this issue. A research on the migration of fishermen in the sub region will be carried out in collaboration with the SRFC scientific advisor and the research institutes network of the sub region and some research work including the experimentation of alternative measures and the measuring of the impacts on the halieutic resources will be carried out in pilot sites.

4.The fishing sector and the sustainable management of fisheries resources are included in the SPRP of the SRFC countries

The 7 PRCM SRFC countries have approved a first Strategic Poverty Reduction Paper (SPRP) between 2000 (Guinea) and 2005 (Sierra Leone). However, the fishing sector and its potential contribution to poverty alleviation are very often neglected in the SPRP. On the other hand when the sector is mentioned, it is rather from a production-centered perspective that neglects protection and conservation measures of the resource. In collaboration with the stakeholders involved in the sector, the project will ensure fishing is taken into account in the SPRP for the purpose of ensuring sustainable management.

Achievements:

This project embarked upon several activities the most meaningful of which are: revision of the 1993 Convention relative to the determination of the conditions of access and exploitation of the fisheries resources, organized training of representatives of the industrial fisheries, artisanal fisheries and fisheries administrations, on the challenges of trade of fisheries products and current issues (APP, subsidies, eco labeling…), holding of a regional information and sensitization workshop for members of the regional network of parliamentarians of the IUCN for the coastal and marine environment, on the theme of fisheries trade, petroleum and mangroves.

The project funded the preparation of a manual on the "Methodology of the measure of the impacts of the fishing agreements", the development of a document on negotiations of fishing agreements. Some formation has been made available on the use of the documents. Furthermore, the project held several workshops on the participative evaluation of the fishing agreements between the EU and countries of the sub-region, and on the certification of fisheries products for export to the EU (HACCP, quality and hygiene measures of fisheries products) in Sierra Leone and Cape Verde. Training has been provided to inspectors of the National center for fisheries surveillance and protection of Guinea - Conakry. The technicians and personnel of the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources of Sierra Leone have been trained on the biology,measurement system, reporting of the captures and landings of tuna species.