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SIF capacity building in the Gulf of Guinea
Stop Illegal Fishing spent the week starting 28th July 2014 in Togo where, amongst other things, they supported the training of inspectors at the Port of Lome as part of their commitment to end illegal fishing in Africa.
In December 2009 at the 3rd Session of the Ministerial Conference of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) the Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing by adopting a Regional Plan of Action on IUU Fishing (RPOA-IUU). The FCWC countries are implementing this RPOA-IUU through coordinated efforts of the six countries; Benin, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo.
To support these efforts, the Stop Illegal Fishing (SIF) working group of the NEPAD Agency (NPCA), FCWC and the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture, through the Ghana Fisheries Commission, were in Lome, Togo to support the FCWC region with a “Sub-regional workshop for capacity building in the fight against IUU in the FCWC Region‚ held from the 28th July to the 1st August 2014. Regional experts from Cameroon and Senegal were also invited to share their experiences.
The workshop created a platform for exchange of experiences and coordination of efforts at the operational level to fight against IUU fishing in the sub-region. Discussions on national capacity and the international and regional regulations and frameworks in place to support FCWC States helped to build the countries capacity.
The meeting was officially opened on Tuesday 29th July 2014 by the Togolese Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries, Mr. Ouro Koura Agadzi, whose attendance affirmed Togo’s commitment to combatting IUU fishing. The Minister informed participants that his country has undertaken significant reforms to strengthen their legal and institutional framework for fisheries management, and in the interim Togo has suspended the registration of fishing vessels under the flag of Togo and suspended the issuance of licenses to foreign fishing vessels to fish within Togolese waters and of Togolese-flagged vessels to fish on the high seas.
During field work to the port, SIF supported the training of inspectors from the six FCWC countries, carrying out simulated vessel inspections and species identification. Using SIF case studies: Capture of the Antillas Reefer, Africa unites and the illegal fishing industry pays and Illegally fished, illegally transshipped and legally consumed, SIF illustrated the current IUU fishing trends in African waters. SIF took the opportunity to introduce its flagship initiative FISH-i Africa which is working effectively to combat these and other IUU fishing patterns in the West Indian Ocean region. Using the lessons learned from this initiative, participants deliberated on how a similar model could be used to fill the gaps and support MCS in the Gulf of Guinea.
Closing the meeting Dedi Seraphin, Secretary General, FCWC and Vice Chairperson of Stop Illegal Fishing encouraged delegates to work together to combat the scourge of IUU fishing stating that “IUU fishing is not an isolated issue, and cannot be solved by a single nation, we need to work together sharing information and cooperating amongst ourselves to fight this problem!‚
Photo credit: P.E. Bergh