PRESS RELEASE
Mbour/Senegal: Tuesday, 29 June 2021- In May 2021, the Republic of Seychelles produced its first report under the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI). This report was followed a month later by Mauritania’s first report.
Both reports show a serious commitment to implement transparency in fisheries management, an ideal that has been promoted internationally and by the African Union for many years. Unfortunately, in many countries, public information on the fisheries sector is still not available to the public. This is the case in many African countries where fisheries play a key role in development, poverty reduction and food and nutrition security.
Similarly the international community and governments, CAOPA, as an organization working to strengthen the rights and livelihoods of artisanal fishing communities in Africa, recognizes that transparency is an essential element in the management of African fisheries. Mauritania’s action is a positive step towards the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries and the Policy Framework and Reform Strategy for Fisheries and Aquaculture in Africa. While there has been much negative publicity about fisheries in Africa, this is a positive achievement that should be widely recognized and celebrated.
FiTI reports from Seychelles and Mauritania have released vital information on the fisheries sector highlights of these reports include:
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A concise summary of existing fisheries laws and policies, including how fisheries land governance works in both countries. The FiTI implementation process revealed that knowledge of fisheries rules and regulations was incomplete among many stakeholders.
- The publication of governmental information and knowledge on the state of the resources that remain areas for improvement in the future.
- The publication for the first time of resource access contracts with third countries.
- Detailed information on the list of foreign fishing vessels authorized in the country’s territorial waters, including information on public revenues and reported This includes a list of 452 Industrial fishing vessels in Mauritania.
- New information on the nature and value of government subsidies for artisanal fisheries in Seychelles, including fuel subsidies.
- The publication of existing official data on the importance of artisanal fisheries, including the identification of missing information. In Mauritania, this includes information on 6,809 canoes and nearly 25,000 artisanal fishers.
By ensuring that this information is freely available to all, the governments of Mauritania and Seychelles are promoting more informed public debate on fisheries management and in the process building confidence, both nationally and internationally, in the fisheries sector. For artisanal fisheries, the importance of transparency is to ensure that fisheries management decisions are based on the best available information on the artisanal sector. Too often, public information on artisanal fisheries, including post-harvest activities and the role of women, is unavailable and unreliable. This can contribute to the neglect of the issues at stake and the marginalization of the stakeholders in this sector.
FiTI was developed through a multi-stakeholder process involving governments from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe, representatives of large and small-scale fisheries, and numerous international and national civil society organizations. It provides the only comprehensive standard for what governments should publish about the fisheries sector, and it offers a credible means of verifying that this information is complete and the best available. CAOPA has been involved from the beginning of the FiTI standard development process and is represented on the FiTI Board. Africa plays a key role in the development and promotion of FiTI, whose international secretariat is based in the Seychelles.
We hope that Seychelles and Mauritania will be a source of inspiration for other African countries. We are encouraged that other African governments are committing with FiTI to explore the possibility of formally joining as implementing countries. These include São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Morocco, and Senegal
We therefore urge other African countries to involve in this process. The African Union can support this process by continuing to advocate for the highest levels of transparency in fisheries and by considering providing political support to the FiTI. This would reiterate the AU’s commitment to its Agenda 2063 and its aspiration to develop Africa’s blue economy in a transparent and inclusive manner. It would encourage the 38 African coastal countries and six island nations, as well as other fishing nations around the world, to improve the international framework for ocean governance. This should be considered a priority in order to make transparency in African fisheries a reality in line with the objectives of the International Year of Small-scale Fisheries and Aquaculture 2022.
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