Agreement aims to enhance fisheries management in Africa

AU-IBAR and FiTI sign MoU

KENYA: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed last week that aims to address issues such as over-fishing as well as illegal activities within Africa’s fisheries.

The African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) signed the MoU to improve the long-term management of maritime fisheries across African Union Member States.

The agreement acknowledges that many coastal countries, island nations and Small Island Developing States across the African continent have extensive and very valuable marine fish resources, but at the same time, fish stocks are being fished at biologically unsustainable levels.

The need to manage Africa’s marine resources sustainably – balancing economic, social and environmental interests – is urgent and transparency is a crucial element to manage and govern fisheries for the wellbeing and prosperity of African citizens.

This partnership aims to solve significant issues in fisheries management, such as over-fishing, illicit activities, and inadequate accountability, by improving the public availability, trustworthiness, and utility of fisheries data.

The MoU will also promote informed decision-making, public discourse, and participatory governance among fisheries stakeholders, including governments, civil society, and small-scale fishermen.

The FiTI is a global partnership that seeks to increase transparency and participation for a more sustainable management of marine fisheries by making fisheries management more transparent and inclusive. The partnership was officially represented as a non-profit association in the Seychelles in 2020.

Although a number of African countries have indicated their commitment to join, many remain candidate countries. This latest MoU aims to obtain public commitment from at least five African countries to deploy FiTI.

“AU-IBAR’s technical expertise in fisheries across the African continent and its convening power as a long-term trust partner makes this collaboration highly important for us to further advance our approach to open, participatory governance of fisheries resources. Nine African countries are already implementing the FiTI Standard and we are looking forward to collaborating with AU-IBAR to not only increase the number of African countries committed to fisheries transparency, but also that an increase in public access to information leads to tangible benefits for those that depend on a healthy marine environment,” said Sven Biermann, Executive Director of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative.

The cooperation adheres to global frameworks such as the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, the Africa Blue Economy Strategy, and the AU Agenda 2063. It highlights AU-IBAR and FiTI's common vision for sustainable fisheries that contribute to economic development, food security, and environmental health.

Other objectives include the commitment to enhance national and regional fisheries data collection, analysis and dissemination as well as to encourage public participation and debate on topics related to marine fisheries governance.

The MoU also emphasizes the importance of engaging policymakers and stakeholders in order to increase openness and accountability, as well as the promotion of participatory governance models for sustainable fisheries management.

This agreement will help Africa's Blue Economy by preserving the sustainability of its marine resources for future generations and strengthening Africa's involvement in global fisheries regulation.

Dr Huyam Salih, Director of AU-IBAR, and Sven Biermann, Executive Director of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative, were present for the signing, together with AU-IBAR staff that witnessed the signing.