Integrate responsible governance into fisheries regulations

The Land Officer for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa, Dr Wordsworth Odame Larbi, has called on the government to integrate the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT), into the land tenure and fisheries regulations in the country.

Though he acknowledged that the guidelines were voluntary and not bounded on any government, it was imperative to include them in the regulations since it will help seal the gaps in the tenure issues.

He made this call when he joined in a media workshop on the VGGT and Land Site Mapping over Skype from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on August 6, 2020 in Accra.

The workshop was organised by the Friend of the Nation (FoN), a non-governmental organisation to strengthen the capacity of media organisations and prepare journalists to support the advocacy for policy reforms on securing and documenting fish landing sites to contribute to sustainable fisheries livelihood.

The workshop was also aimed at developing capacity of stakeholders to support and continue to improve governance of tenure in fisheries using the VGGT and the Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) guidelines.

Fisheries sector
Dr Larbi noted overcapitalisation and open access has increased the number of fishing fleet and that over the years, licensing and subsidy on fishing inputs for artisanal fishers have also been problematic.

He explained that unapproved methods of fishing such as the use of undersized and monofilament nets, chemical and explosives fishing and light fishing are some of the issues that need to be addressed holistically using the VGGT and SSF guidelines.

“In some countries, fishers are given a quota to fish in a season and fishers are not allowed to fish over the quantity that has been stipulated by the quota, however, there is no such regulation in the country,” he explained.

This, he said, puts the fishes in danger as there is going to be scarcity.

Media engagement
Also joining the workshop via skype, the National Programmes Assistant of the FAO Regional Office in Ghana, Miss Yaa Danso said the media was a core constituent in promoting best practices and influencing the government policies in the fisheries sector.

She ,therefore, called on journalists to equip themselves with issues in the fisheries sector so that they can support with communication and engage stakeholders with the right information.

“Journalists are urged to improve on reporting with regard to protecting and securing landing and processing sites for small-scale fisheries,” she said.   

Far Ban Bo Project
The Far Ban Bo (FBB) project is a European Union (EU) funded fisheries governance project which is being implemented by the FoN and Oxfam in collaboration with key stakeholders.

The Project Manager for FoN, Mr Kyei Kwadwo Yamoah, said the project had been designed to contribute to sustainable fisheries resources management to improve food security and nutrition, as well as livelihoods of smallholder fishers and other users of fishery resources.

“The specific objective is that smallholder fishers and processers benefit from equitable and sustainable rights-based fisheries resources management,” he explained.

He added that “at the end of the project, we expect that there would be reviews of legislations regarding the fisheries sector with the key principles of VGGT which include community participation, transparency,and reasonable governance,” he concluded.