Spcsrp | Sub regional Fisheries Commission

With the decline of marine resources in the North Atlantic, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, the activities of European fishermen have diversified and expanded toward the centre of the Atlantic. Since the 1980's the West African countries have benefited from this development. Their economies were based on foreign currencies proceeds.

For several years the indicators are proliferating and show that marine and coastal resources are exploited to the maximum. In addition, the catches have experienced declines, and forecasts on stocks growth are negative. Faced with the challenges presented by the need to develop a coherent framework for the return to a more sustainable management of fisheries resources in West Africa, in 2002 the SRFC endowed herself with a strategic action plan (2002 – 2010 SAP). This plan is part of a long-term vision and allows have a better visibility of actions to be undertaken for the management of fisheries at the level of the sub region.

The overall objective of the project is as follows:

• The services provided by the SRFC, as well as those offered by the national institutions supporting her are provided in an effective way and are based on the demand, in order to ensure the sustainable exploitation of the sub region fisheries resources. The institutional capacities of the SRFC and of the member countries are strengthened in their areas of activities both at technical and managerial levels.

The specific objective of Phase 1 is:

• The institutional capacities of the SRFC and the member states are strengthened in their areas of activities at technical and managerial levels. 

The project supports directly the SRFC through the provision of technical, methodological and financial assistance. It will help the SRF to achieve the following:

• Set up a documentation and information centre in order to who are looking for comprehensive information on fisheries of the sub region, creating thus an indispensable base for the improvement of the management of fisheries resources in the sub region;
• Consolidate successful experiences of implemented projects or those in progress (research, surveillance, legislation, fishing policy).
• Facilitate buy-in by professionals of processed information and its use in the framework of consultation for the sustainable management of the resource.
• Create and maintain a sub regional register of fishing vessels fed from national registers according to a harmonised standard recommended by the SRFC.

• Relevant information on the SRFC sub region fisheries sector is available and regularly updated and used.
• The member states national surveillance institutions have at their disposal a register of fishing vessels.
• The SRFC keeps a sub regional register of fishing vessels which is regularly fed from national registers.
• The SRFC internal management (administrative and financial) is improved.

• The SRFC Permanent Secretariat received support in his initiatives to improve his ability to promote the dissemination of relevant information on the fisheries sector (funding of sub regional workshops, erection of a library, regular publication of the information through FlashInfo and a CD, major review of the website, funding of the SRFC staff visits in the sub region)
• The SRFC received some support in the framework of the organisation of a regional workshop for national surveillance structures in order to identify the national needs for the implementation of fishing vessels registers and start the process for the design of a sub regional register.
• The project helped the SRFC respond efficiently to donors’ requirements when designing new projects for the sub region (services of consultants)
• The project assisted the SRFC Permanent Secretariat improve her in house functioning (financial audit, improvement of accounting aspects, team work management), her capacities in terms of technical knowledge (training of staff), as well as the working conditions for the SRFC executive staff (purchase of new office desks, computer equipment, setting up of a conference room that can host 30 people, the purchase of a generator). 

This objective of this project is to build the institutional capacities of the SRFC and member states in their managerial and technical areas of activity. Thanks to the financial support of the project, the Extraordinary Sessions of the Coordinating Committee and the Conference of Ministers were organized in February 2009. From the end of 2009 the project supported the SRFC in the process of development of a new strategic plan for the period 2011-2015. To improve the visibility of the SRFC and its impact in the sub-region, the Project provided financial and technical support for events considered to be of strategic importance. The project continued to support the Permanent Secretariat of the SRFC to improve its internal operations, its capacities in terms of technical knowledge, as well as the conditions of work for the personnel of the Permanent Secretariat.

Furthermore, the project funded a survey in all countries of the SRFC zone to identify the existing consultation frameworks between the different stakeholders of the fisheries sector. This is how Sierra Leone benefited from a local subsidy to secure the services of a Senegalese researcher for theoretical and practical training in conducting acoustics surveys. Mauritania benefited from a funding to improve the information system of the Ministry of Fisheries. Financial support allocated to the Gambia will enable the country to do a campaign of stocks assessment in its EEZ.