AA/Alphonse LOGO
West Africa is one of the regions of the African continent very affected by food insecurity in recent years. The Gulf of Guinea especially, according to the results of the latest studies and various reports recently published.
With reference to findings from a study of the Harmonized Food Security Framework (an analytical tool used in the Sahel and West Africa for the identification and analysis of risk areas and food insecure populations and Nutrition) published in March 2022, the number of food insecure people in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea has doubled in the space of two years. It increased from 3 million to more than 6 million between June-August 2020 and June-August 2022.
This report, like others, uses data related to habits, agricultural production choices and the effects of climate change, without projecting too much into illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. a sector that is just as sensitive and just as closely linked to food security in Africa.
According to experts surveyed by the Anadolu Agency, this type of fishing constitutes “one of the aggravating factors” of food insecurity in Africa and particularly in the west and in the countries of the Gulf of Guinea.
– Illegal fishing, an equation with three unknowns for food security
Dr. Komlan Kadagali, economist and research professor in the universities of Togo, consulted by the Anadolu Agency, details three different ways in which illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing constitutes “a problem” to be taken into account when dealing with food security in the West African sub-region.
First, he argues, “illegal fishing undermines the management of fish stocks by disrupting regulatory processes.” Second, he continues, it undermines blue economy initiatives across Africa, costing states billions of dollars in lost revenue.
“According to the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (CSRP), illegal fishing causes the loss of 170 billion CFA francs to seven West African countries (Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra-Leone, Gambia, Cape -Green)” he recalls in passing.
It is the last aspect of his analysis which is much more directly centered on the issue of food security. “Illegal fishing poses a threat to the renewal of fisheries resources and to the livelihoods of those who depend on them. Because the fishing sector plays an important role in the lives of populations and represents a major economic challenge for the countries of the coast,” says the Togolese academic.
For example, he explains that “in fishing households, most of the fish consumed throughout the year comes from the fisherman himself”. he devotes part of his fish to household food and only resorts to buying on the market in times of great shortage of fish”.
“Thus, illegal fishing leads to a scarcity of fish for small-scale fishermen who live mainly from this activity. They can no longer fish off the coast and have to go far into territorial waters to find fish. Sometimes even running the risk of fishing very close to ships in the harbor which confuse them with pirates,” he says.
– Overfishing and unsustainable exploitation
The international expert with several international organizations, Sedzro Kossi Maxoe, joined by the Anadolu Agency, thinks for his part that illegal, undeclared and unregulated fishing contributes “deeply” to “overexploitation or even the decline of resources fisheries in the West African region and in the Gulf of Guinea”.
An overexploitation which, according to him, “could pose serious problems of food security among populations and especially within communities who directly derive employment, income and nutrition solely from capture fishing and its activities. related”. These populations were estimated in 2000 by the West African Association for the Development of Artisanal Fisheries (WAPAD) at around 912,000 fishermen.
And for good reason, he explains, capture fishing and its related activities provide the means of subsistence to sixty million people, 90% of whom live in developing countries, including those in the Gulf of Guinea.
As a reminder, according to the report of a study by the CPCO (Comité des Pêches du Center Ouest), dating from 2018, the population of the ECOWAS zone is 237,765,553 inhabitants (including Nigeria with its 170,123,740 inhabitants), and the overall fish production of the whole area is 879,713 tons in 2016.
This production, maintains Sedzro Kossi Maxoe, “seems very low compared to the biological production capacities of the stocks of fishery resources in the region”.
“This is proof that the stocks are overexploited. As a result, there is a drop in fish catches. So the overexploitation of fish stocks is partly the result of illegal fishing which is clearly visible in the region,” insists this expert.
– Concerned rulers
The food security situation therefore worries West African governments, especially with regard to the availability of resources for future generations. The Togolese government does not hide it.
“We are concerned about all these food security issues related to illegal fishing. We are especially worried about the renewal of fishery resources in the Gulf of Guinea and in all the oceans by extension. Because if illegal and unregulated fishing continues, soon there will be no more fish to eat.
But above all, we will not have preserved it for future generations,” said the Anadolu Agency Edem Tengué, Togolese Minister of Maritime Economy, Fisheries and Coastal Protection.
The Togolese official has also just completed a series of awareness-raising activities for maritime actors, carried out over several days on the issue of illegal, irregular and unregulated fishing in West Africa and the Gulf of Guinea and their consequences on food safety. It was on the occasion of the days of June 05 and 08, 2022, respectively, World Environment Day and World Ocean Day.
– Establish a sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources
The solution, suggests Sédzro Kossi Maxoe, to deal with the consequences of illegal, irregular and unregulated fishing, “is to necessarily establish a system for the sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources with data on fishing effort, the volume of catches and landings by type of fish species, by type of fishing gear, by fishing area and by unit of time”.
In which case, he adds, this type of fishing will continue to hinder the efforts of all States or all regional and international organizations in the management of fishing or in the conservation of fish stocks.
“To deal with this scourge, the important thing would be to carry out concerted, coherent and rigorously planned monitoring, control and fisheries surveillance actions, at the sub-regional, regional and international level. This in a spirit of sincere solidarity with a genuinely committed political will. Because the fish by the fact that it migrates from one water to another, is both a national and a world heritage”, concluded Sedzro Kossi Maxoe.
For his part, the research professor of the public universities of Togo Kadagali Komlan, thinks that if the phenomenon persists, it is because “the regulatory framework for fishing is less restrictive” in the countries of the sub-region and the Gulf. from Guinea.
Which, he firmly believes, is “combined with the corruption of the various competent authorities which annihilates all efforts to fight against illegal fishing”.
In any case, reassures the Togolese Minister for the Maritime Economy, the States now realize that any action on the high seas has a negative impact on all the inhabitants of the earth.
“The United Nations is currently in the midst of discussions on the development of a binding legal instrument so that human activities on the high seas are now regulated,” he says.
How are fishing licenses issued; fishing licenses and flags, questions the Togolese economist in any way, while welcoming in passing “the joint fisheries surveillance operations like those very often organized by the Togolese and Beninese navy in waters under their respective jurisdiction”.
Kadagali Komlan calls for improved surveillance tools “with drones and regular navy patrols”. This will allow, according to him, “to create a synergy of action between the States and to fight effectively against illegal fishing”.
“It is difficult to know all the traffic that takes place in territorial waters in Africa. It would also be necessary to establish fishing zones prohibited to industrial fishing to allow small-scale fishermen to live from their activities and not to take the road to the Mediterranean,” he concluded.
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