Feeding the poor: Contribution of West African fisheries to employment and food security

Belhabib, Dyhia; Sumaila, U. Rashid; Pauly, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2015.04.010

Cited by 128 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This makes West African waters particularly productive. The coastal zone of West Africa is an area of strategic interest for the socio-economic development and livelihood of 1.4 million people living along the coast, and fisheries therein can contribute up to 38% of the GDP (Belhabib et al, 2015c).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the Effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance of Illegal Fishing: The Case of West Africa

Doumbouya¹,

Camara²,

Mamie³

et al. 2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

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104

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This paper assesses illegal fishing in West Africa, one of the regions most affected by Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated fishing (IUU) in the world. The catch, the economic loss and the amount recovered through Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance (MCS) are calculated based on a reconstruction method, and the information made available through national MCS units, between 2010 and 2016 in an effort to assess the effectiveness of surveillance efforts in the region. Results show considerable loss of revenues for Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, estimated at 2.3 billion USD annually, while a minimal amount of 13 million USD is recovered through MCS. In addition, this paper finds that countries touched by the Ebola crisis (Guinea and Sierra Leone) drive a tremendous increase in the loss generated by illegal fishing. However, further analysis shows that the overall severity of illegal fishing, as defined by a range of types investigated here, declines as the fines against the most severe forms of IUU fishing increase. Finally this study finds that Sierra Leone and The Gambia have the highest scoring MCS systems, and were the countries where the most offenders are caught and charged with the highest fines, while Senegal's new legislations which improved MCS during 2015 does not appear to show on the scoring results. This study finds that illegal fishing amounts the equivalent of 65% of the legal reported catch from West Africa and poses serious concern for food security, and the economy in the region.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…West African countries rely heavily on fish as a one of the principal sources of protein, but also as a source of income and employment for nearly 7 million people (Belhabib et al, 2015c). This region has seen its fish stocks decline, driven by over-exploitation, overcapacity, and illegal fishing (Daniels et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance of Illegal Fishing: The Case of West Africa

Doumbouya¹,

Camara²,

Mamie³

et al. 2017

Front. Mar. Sci.

Self Cite

104

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show abstract

“…The fisheries sector in Guinea-Bissau contributes to the livelihood of an important portion of the country's population with over 255,000 people employed by the small-scale fishing sector alone (Belhabib et al, 2015b). Guinea-Bissau's waters are considered one of the wealthiest biodiversity zones of West Africa, and is home to an estimated one million tons of fisheries resources, of which, optimistically, 350,000-500,000 tons can be extracted annually (Anon, 2009).…”

Section: Assessing Guinea Bissau's Legal and Illegal Unreported And Umentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Guinea Bissau's Legal and Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fisheries and the Surveillance Efforts to Tackle Them

2018

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Fisheries in Guinea Bissau contribute greatly to the economy and food security of its people. Yet, as the ability of the country to monitor its fisheries is at most weak, and confronted with a heavy foreign fleet presence, the impact of industrial foreign fleets on fisheries catches is unaccounted for in the region. However, their footprint in terms of catch and value on the small-scale sector is heavily felt, through declining availability of fish. Fisheries in Guinea Bissau are operated by both legal (small-scale and industrial), and illegal (foreign unauthorized) fleets, whose catches are barely recorded. In this paper, we assess catches by both the legal and illegal sector, and the economic loss generated by illegal fisheries in the country, then attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance (MCS) of Guinea Bissau's fisheries. Two main sectors were identified through official reports and a literature review, the large-scale (industrial) sector, which between 2011 and 2017 included exclusively catches by foreign owned and flagged vessels, and catches by the small-scale sector, which remain largely unmonitored in official statistics. We use the available data on the number of legal and illegal vessels and/or fishers, and their respective catch per unit of effort to estimate catches, and we analyze monitoring outcomes against the registered industrial and artisanal fleets. We find that of the legal industrial vessels, 20% were linked to criminal activities in the past 7 years. These activities range widely from using an illegal mesh size, to fishing in a prohibited area, to labor abuse. Overall, total small-scale and industrial catches were estimated at 370,000 t/year in 2017, of which less than 2% is ever reported to the FAO. Small-scale catches represented 8% of the total catch, and this contribution was found to be declining. Industrial fisheries generate over $458 million US, or which $75 million US is taken illegally, falling under the category trans-national fisheries crimes. The slight negative relationship between the number of monitoring days at sea illegal catches suggests increasing MCS efforts may play an important role in reducing illegal fishing in the country.

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“…According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), all West African fishing grounds are either fully exploited or overexploited [9]. As a result, many development projects since the 1950s aimed at expanding fishing effort in West Africa have often ended in failure [10]. However, neither domestic fish stocks nor the sources of imported fish can be expanded to the drastic extent needed to meet at least the global average of 20 kg per capital consumption in a short timeframe.…”

Section: Fisheries As a Food Security Mechanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-scale fisheries in the context of traditional post-harvest practice and the quest for food and nutritional security in Nigeria

Akintola

Fakoya

2017

Agric & Food Secur

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Background: Existing scholarly works have paid little or no attention to the problems small-scale fisheries encounter within the context of food and nutritional security. Therefore, this work has examined the problem. Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are the dominant source of local fish production in Nigeria and, like many fisheries worldwide, receive inadequate attention for their significance within the context of food and nutritional security. A central theme to guaranteeing small-scale fisheries' contribution to sustainable food and nutritional security in Nigeria is addressing post-harvest losses (PHL). Considerable fish loss occurs between production and consumption. A narrative review was conducted to expose PHL practiced by SSF and discuss factors that prevent the adoption of locally available interventions.Finding: Our study revealed that sun-drying and smoking are the major interventions practiced to mitigate PHL. Unfortunately, these methods of reducing PHL are constrained by gross under-capacity and improper handling during peak fishing periods and issues related to product safety. There are a handful of potential intervention mechanisms to address issues of PHL. Many of these PHL-reducing interventions have been designed bearing in mind local contexts and situations. However, general inertia and poor policy implementation currently hamper progress for reducing PHL.

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Feeding the poor: Contribution of West African fisheries to employment and food security

Cited by 128 publications

References 23 publications

Assessing the Effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance of Illegal Fishing: The Case of West Africa

Assessing the Effectiveness of Monitoring Control and Surveillance of Illegal Fishing: The Case of West Africa

Assessing Guinea Bissau's Legal and Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fisheries and the Surveillance Efforts to Tackle Them

Small-scale fisheries in the context of traditional post-harvest practice and the quest for food and nutritional security in Nigeria

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