Tackling fisheries governance in the Gulf of Guinea
Training workshop builds capacity
REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Illegal fishing, inadequate management frameworks, and a lack of cooperation among national agencies continue to thwart sustainable fisheries governance in the Gulf of Guinea, but a training workshop held this week aimed to enhance the capabilities of environmental officials.
Attended by officials from member states of the Regional Fisheries Commission of the Gulf of Guinea (COREP), the workshop was organised by AU-IBAR in partnership with COREP and the ECCAS representative.
Stakeholders evaluated strategies, shared best practices, and discussed operational MCS methodologies, all with a focus on environmental preservation and sustainable fisheries management.
In his welcome address, Emmanuel Sabuna, Acting Executive Secretary of COREP, highlighted recent regional discussions in Brazzaville and Kinshasa that focused on managing marine ecosystems together and creating a transboundary marine protected area (TMPA) between Gabon and Congo.
He linked the objectives of COREP member states with those of ECCAS, highlighting the importance of securing marine resources, preventing maritime crime, and developing a sustainable blue economy.
Sabuna listed illegal fishing, inadequate management frameworks, and a lack of cooperation among national agencies as obstacles to sustainable fisheries governance. During his remarks, he urged governments to promote transparency, improve working conditions for employees, and strengthen collaboration in order to improve fisheries governance.
He also stressed the significance of the workshop in strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance capability, staff training, and the fight against corruption.
Delivering a speech on behalf of Dr Salih, Director of AU-IBAR, Philippe Ouedraogo emphasised the need to address IUU fishing in Africa. Unauthorised fishing in protected regions, illicit transshipments at sea, and licence fraud were among his concerns. Over half of the 4.7 million tonnes, or about $10 billion, of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing that occurs within African Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) each year is a result of inadequate management of marine conservation areas.
He emphasised the importance of participants reporting back to their National Fisheries Monitoring Centres (FMCs) and encouraging member nations to exchange information.
In keeping with COREP's objective and the African Blue Economy Strategy, the workshop co-led by AU-IBAR and COREP focused on critical areas for the preservation of aquatic biodiversity. The national experiences of Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Tome and Principe in establishing frameworks and conservation policies were discussed by representatives from these countries.
Skills for observers, methods for observing the Earth, and inspection procedures for identifying IUU fishing were some of the topics covered in the expert-led sessions during the workshop.
Closed fishing seasons, gear limits, quotas, and Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were some of the management techniques reviewed in the additional sessions, which provided an opportunity for participants to share lessons learnt about sustainable fisheries practices.
On the last day of the workshop, participants discussed gender, climate, and governance in the context of integrated fisheries management and biodiversity.
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