In West Africa
Crack down on illegal fishing to protect millions of workers
"I miss the time of civil war," he was quoted as saying. "At least
then the foreign fishing vessels fled from here and we had lots of
fish."
West Africa nations must crack down on foreign fleets fishing illegally off its Atlantic coastline and build up their fisheries to protect the livelihoods of millions of people, a leading thinktank said on Wednesday.
Overfishing
by foreign vessels is driving many species towards extinction and
destroying the livelihoods of fishing communities in countries such as Ghana, Liberia and Mauritania, said the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI).
Corruption
and few resources for monitoring fishing mean foreign trawlers often
venture into areas near the coast which are reserved for local
fishermen, the ODI said in a report.
They are
exhausting local stocks, often illegally, to the point of forcing local
fishermen to go further out to sea to find fish, hugely increasing their
costs, according to the ODI.
West Africa could
also create hundreds of thousands of jobs if governments invested in the
maritime industry, instead of selling off fishing rights to foreign
operators, the ODI said.
"Instead of jobs and
development, the livelihoods of local fishers are being decimated by
foreign fishing fleets, which operate virtually unchecked," said Alfonso Daniels of the ODI.
Mauritania's
economy minister in February said overfishing by foreign boats was
threatening livelihoods as chronic food insecurity forces a growing
number of people into fishing.
At least seven
million people work in fishing and fish farming across West and Central
Africa, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).
The region loses at least $1.3
billion a year from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, said a
2014 report by the Africa Progress Panel, which champions sustainable
development.
More than half of stocks in the
stretch of coast from Senegal to Nigeria have been overfished, with
illegal fishing accounting for up to half of the total catch, the ODI
said.
Usmane Kpanabum, a fisherman from Sierra
Leone, told the ODI that foreign vessels often illegally approach the
coast, damage the seabed and destroy the locals' fishing gear.
"I miss the time of civil war," he was quoted as saying. "At least then the foreign fishing vessels fled from here and we had lots of fish."
Around
a quarter of all fish landed across Africa are caught by foreign
fleets, which generate $400 million for the continent each year through
the sale of fishing rights, the FAO said.
African
governments could make eight times this amount, some $3.3 billion, and
create 300,000 jobs in fishing, if national fleets harvested and
exported these fish, the FAO and ODI said.
"Illegal fishing a is difficult issue to tackle, financially and politically," Daniels told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"But
if it is addressed, this will create jobs, boost revenues and
incentivise young people to stay in the region, which will reduce mass
migration and youth unemployment."
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