Accra, Ghana//-The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has passionately called for transparency in the fisheries sector of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, saying without transparency in the sector, all the nice regulations and nice agreements will fail.
The FAO Representative to Ghana (OiC), Ndiaga Gueye who made this call in an exclusive interview at the just-ended seventh meeting of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) Ministers in charge of Fisheries and Aquaculture in Accra.
According to him, transparency is necessary in the fisheries sector of the ACP countries than nice regulations and nice agreements.
“This is because even if you have all the nice regulations and nice agreements but behind the scene there are no transparent policies, it will fail”, Mr Gueye explained,
“For instance in some countries, unfortunately, the way licenses are issued is a big problem. In some other countries, they do not want to tackle issues of the illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing in the small-scale fisheries and many other things that are happening”.
Mr Gueye lamented that IUU fishing is a threat to sustainable fisheries and affects efforts to rebuild depleting fish stocks in the ACP countries and other parts of the world.
In his words: “IUU fishing is terrible in Ghana and everywhere. IUU fishing is like a scourge of the modern time. It is scourge not only in industrial but in artisanal fisheries”.
There are a lot of instruments that have been negotiated under the umbrella of the FAO to arrest the nefarious activities of IUU fishing. However one of the key challenges is implementing the provision of the Port State Agreement to combat and eliminate IUU fishing.
For instance, as Mr Gueye said, if vessels engaging in IUU fishing do not have the possibility to access port(s) to land their fishes or catches, they may end up abandoning that illegal act.
This he believes is one of the possibilities not to encourage or to even fight IUU fishing in the ACP countries.
Globally, Mr Gueye noted that during the last 10 years, the international community has really decided to address IUU fishing. But it is a long process, he stated.
On how Ghana is solving the IUU fishing, he said Ghana is doing very well in addressing it. “But a lot needs to be done”.
FAO is therefore ready to support Ghana and other ACP countries to address the IUU fishing menace, Mr Gueye assured.
Fish and fishery products are extremely important worldwide in terms of providing nutritious food but also one of the main staple food sources for coastal and inland communities.
Indeed, artisanal fisheries in ACP countries are the largest sector of the ocean economy which millions of men, women and young people live on for survival.
At great cost, every day their work makes it possible to feed hundreds of millions of people in the ACP sub-region.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
