In Senegal, the fisheries sector is an essential element of rural development. It plays a strategic role in the growth of the national economy by contributing to the reduction of the balance of payments deficit and unemployment.
Fishing plays a major role in public policy for job creation, particularly in the artisanal sub-sector. Fish is an important source of animal protein for the Senegalese population, providing around 70% of their protein intake. Fishing is also an essential component of the State’s food security policy.
However, this sector is currently experiencing difficulties due to the strong pressure on the resource. This situation, which is the result of poor management and irrational exploitation of fisheries resources, risks jeopardizing the sustainability of the sector.
The current fisheries management models implemented in Senegal have not been able to adapt to the ‘informal’ artisanal fisheries, which have constantly caused unsolvable monitoring and evaluation issues and seem to be reduced to isolated resource extraction systems, whereas they should be considered as integrated, diversified systems that provide sustainable services.
The solution to this problem must involve virtuous, effective and efficient governance of the sector in order to ensure sound management and sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resource.
Thus, in view of these difficulties and challenges of the sustainable development of artisanal fisheries, a deep study must be carried out in order to institute a model of governance that is appropriate and adapted to Senegal’s maritime fisheries in general and artisanal fisheries in particular, which constitutes a challenge for the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the context of food security and poverty eradication.
For all these reasons, the African Confederation of Professional Organizations of Artisanal Fisheries (CAOPA) took the initiative to organize a panel of specialists in the various aspects of governance of fisheries management and professional actors of artisanal fisheries to discuss on the orientations of strategic axes that could be taken to ensure good governance of the maritime fisheries sector in Senegal and mainly for the artisanal fisheries sub-sector.
Objectives
The discussion should be oriented towards finding relevant answers to the question: What governance for artisanal fisheries?
The exercise should lead to the analysis of some fundamental aspects of the governance of artisanal fisheries, notably those concerning:
- The importance of data collection in the management of fisheries resources.
- The place of research in fisheries;
- The importance of co-management in fisheries.
Expected outcomes
- The importance of statistics in the management of fisheries resources is known.
- The place of research in fisheries is recognized;
- The importance of co-management in fisheries is known;
Organization
The day of discussion on governance for sustainable artisanal fisheries in Senegal will take place on 21st October 2021 in Dakar, at the Ndiambour Hotel.
It will bring together about forty (40) participants composed of professional actors of artisanal fisheries, the ACPRCG, the national press, NGOs working in the sector, the administration of fisheries and the environment.
Zoom Participation
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
ID de réunion : 853 1509 8180
Code secret : 444891