Report offers guide to address IUU

Impact of China in West Africa

A Stimson Centre report published in July this year aims to offer governments of West African states and the People’s Republic of China clear, concise, and actionable recommendations to foster sustainable fisheries management and counter IUU fishing in the Gulf of Guinea and beyond.

Over the past decade, Chinese-owned and -flagged distant water fishing vessels have expanded their presence in West Africa, along with fisheries access partnerships and fishing enterprises. This rapid expansion is occurring in a region of small nations who often suffer from a lack of financial, technical, operational, and institutional capacity and where the political will to improve fisheries monitoring and management, enforce against illegal fishing, and address labour abuses in their waters and coastal communities is either limited or constrained by corruption.

To dive deeper into this challenge, the Stimson Center engaged marine and fishery experts from China and West Africa, representing academia, government, businesses, and NGOs, to better understand how West Africa and the PRC’s fisheries interests and experiences converge, differ, and where more work and cooperation is needed to achieve long-term sustainable fisheries management in West Africa.

The outcomes of this expansive effort are set of clear, concise, and actionable recommendations aimed at decision makers and stakeholders. When set into the context of the broader report, which offers a comprehensive understanding of the scale of IUU fishing in West Africa, including the role of the PRC in the development of West Africa’s sustainable blue economy, decision makers can pinpoint exactly how to improve policies, implementation, and enforcement actions throughout the West African region.

Recommendations highlighted in the report include:

Improving collaboration between the PRC and West African governments as well as the commissioning of an independent gap analysis to better understand the current landscape of regional fisheries management efforts.
Establish regular, productive communication channels between China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and the national and regional fisheries authorities in West Africa.
Create a regional framework for constructive engagement with stakeholders to facilitate information sharing related to fisheries management, with a particular focus on the operations of foreign-owned fishing vessels and companies in West Africa.
Share data on fishing effort and improve transparency to better manage fisheries, especially migratory stocks.
Establish new regional and/or multilateral fisheries access agreements that can build upon or replace existing agreements.
Develop multilateral fisheries access agreements to better balance negotiating power and streamline access to fisheries resources.
Require that a percentage of access and/or licensing fees fund fisheries science, management, and enforcement.
Establish and maintain a regional database of industrial fishing vessels.
Encourage regional cooperation to form a stronger West African political block that can elevate shared concerns about sustainable fisheries management.
Implement sustainable and science-based fisheries management in West Africa.
Provide Chinese expertise and on-the ground training to support marine spatial planning in coastal communities in West Africa.
Include area-based conservation in West African national and regional fisheries management based on sound science.
Promote best environmental management and labour practices for sustainable aquaculture development and fishmeal and fish oil production in West Africa.
Take advantage of lessons learned from the PRC’s domestic aquaculture development and fishmeal production to implement low impact, sustainable aquaculture production in West Africa.
Learn from China’s own experiences and capabilities managing their domestic fisheries and fishmeal factories.
Redirect Chinese investments into ecotourism and sustainable fisheries management, rather than unsustainable fishmeal and fish oil factories.