Halting the depletion of fish: The relevance of West Africa Regional Fisheries Programme
Fish plays a very important role in life sustenance. Apart from being a primary source of protein for about one billion people worldwide, it is also a source of employment for nearly 300 million others.
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However, a major concern to the world today is the decline in world fish stock, resulting in high prices of fish that affect protein intake, job losses in the fisheries industry and worsening poverty, especially in fisheries communities.
Practices such as pelagic drift net fishing, which involves the use of large fishing nets tugged between two fishing vessels to catch fishes that drift along their path, have been a major factor to the depletion of fish stock.
The practice has been variously described as the "Walls of Death,” considering its effectiveness in catching all sizes of fish, including immature stocks.
Global interventions
In order to address this concern and to ensure life sustenance, many local and international interventions had been adopted in the past.
Some of them are the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), adopted in 1982; the UN Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the UNCLOS Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, adopted in 1995, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (Fisheries Code).
Article 6 (6) of the code, among other things, sets out rules and standards to ensure the adoption of fishing practices to help prevent the depletion of fish stocks.
The WARFP
In recent times, there have been more of such international interventions, especially at the sub-regional levels, to deal with the problems of fish stock depletion.
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One of such interventions is the West Africa Regional Fisheries Programme (WARFP), a World Bank project to provide logistical, technical, intellectual and professional muscle to the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MOFAD) and the Fisheries Commission (FC) to enable them to achieve their goals as spelt out in the fisheries laws of Ghana.
In that regard, the WARFP seeks to help develop the fisheries and aquaculture mandates of MOFAD and FC as regulators of fisheries activities in the country.
Currently in its third year, the five-year project is helping MOFAD and FC to create an enabling environment for sustainable fisheries governance in Ghana.
It also seeks to empower the two regulatory institutions to create the platform for the enforcement of fisheries laws and regulations.
Activities of WARFP
The Communication Specialist to WARFP, Dr Ato Conduah, has said: “So far we’ve provided equipment through the Fisheries Commission to monitor the activities of vessels at sea to ensure compliance of fisheries laws and halt the infractions of the laws of Ghana as regards the sea.”
Furthermore, the programme is supporting the promotion of aquaculture development in all the 10 regions of the country.
It has also provided training to fisheries officers at MOFAD and FC, as well as organised stakeholders’ consultation meetings with marine and aquaculture practitioners and business operators.
“Currently, we are working towards the promulgation of long-term policies for fisheries and aquaculture development in Ghana,” Dr Conduah remarks.
At the moment, the programme is undertaking a nationwide community sensitisation campaign. It started in the Greater Accra Region and is now in the Volta Region.
The essence is to educate fisheries communities about fisheries laws and regulations and their compliance by fishermen; gender empowerment through fish processing and trading activities; supporting fisheries enforcement activities for compliance; educating communities about sustainable fisheries governance, and community participation in fisheries decision making.
“Through this fisheries education campaign, we are also creating fisheries education committees in the communities, fisheries information network for the exchange and dissemination of information between MOFAD, the Fisheries Commission and our fisheries and aquaculture communities,” Dr Conduah indicates.
The national fisheries campaign, which was endorsed by the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development, Ms Sherry Ayittey, will also give the opportunity to fisheries communities to give feedback to MOFAD and FC, and to create a platform for building consensus towards better fisheries governance and development.
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“The minister seeks to bring fisheries enforcement at the doorstep of all our fisheries communities and she invites all the communities to be part of the activities of the community fisheries education teams,” Dr Conduah notes.
The MOFAD, through WARFP, is gathering very useful information on canoe registration and embossment to help provide fisheries and aquaculture communities across the country.
The fisheries minister is, therefore, asking all canoe owners to register their vessels by the end of October 2015, to enable them to benefit from premix fuel supply and state support.
She also encourages all women to register with the National Association of Fish Processing and Traders in order to benefit from micro credit facilities to improve their businesses and livelihood.
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Communication strategy
Dr Conduah says the communication component of the programme seeks to publicise the work of MOFAD and FC, as well as sensitise fisheries communities and associations across the semi-industrial (in-shore canoe fisheries) and the industrial sector (vessel owners) to best practices.
“Our work also seeks to empower the National Fishermen Association of Ghana (NAFAG) and the Association of Chief Fishermen who are key stakeholders in fisheries development in Ghana.
“We have trained Regional Directors of Fisheries and 103 fisheries officers across Ghana, provided publicity for all fisheries events and programmes, and maintained a media-friendly atmosphere between MOFAD, FC and the media,” he remarks.
Dr Conduah says WARFP has also promoted fisheries enforcement through community radio campaign, public education and media sensitisation,” he said.
Impact of WARFP
According to Dr Conduah, “The impact of WARFP has been enormous,” adding: “We have empowered the communities to collaborate with the ministry and the Forestry Commission to participate in finding solution to the perennial problems in fisheries.”
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Furthermore, he says, WARFP is in the process of building six landing beaches across the country, apart from supporting the refurbishment of piloted aquaculture centres at Kona in the Ashanti Region, Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region and Yeji in the Northern Region.
Challenges
WARFP has encountered many challenges in its execution. One of such challenges is the resistance to the enforcement and compliance of marine laws and regulations by fisheries communities.
This is being addressed through sensitisation and education programmes and the establishment of community information teams to assist MOFAD deal with the issue.
Another challenge is the lack of adequate staff in the regions to supervise MOFAD and FC programmes.
This challenge is being addressed through a restructuring of MOFAD to ensure the establishment of needed directorates and recruitment of requisite staff.
The lack of logistical support to fisheries officers due to the distance between the officers and the communities has also been a major challenge.
According to Dr Conduah, WARFP, MOFAD and FC are in the process of acquiring operational vehicles for the fisheries officers to help address that challenge.
The objectives of WARFP are no doubt laudable but they require the collective effort of all stakeholders to ensure that Ghana’s fish stock is not wantonly depleted.