By Brenda Zulu in Banjul, 21/9/2010

Per capita fish supplies against increasing demands are dropping and an increase in illegal marine fisheries by foreign ships is threatening the livelihoods of millions in Africa.

Dr Babagana Ahmadu, Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) representative to The Gambia said this at the opening of the Conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Aquaculture (CAMFA) meeting at which he indicated that African fish stocks in both marine and freshwater sources were declining.

“There are challenges in the continent that have stifled the growth of aquaculture, one being the inadequate number of feed production companies that are capable of producing knowledge based sustainable feeds and feed ingredients. The challenges to achieving sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture are global and need to be addressed through coordinated action,” said Dr Ahmadu.

He called on the need for responsible stewardship to protect and conserve the continents aquatic resources for present and future generations.

The African fisheries sector has the potential to contribute about six percent of the continents annual economic growth however, its it has a low adaptive capacity to deal with this challenge because of shortages of information, technology, skills, economic resources and threat by climate change among others.

Dr Ahmadu added that FAO developed a number of initiatives to promote responsible fisheries management to help member countries tackle problems of over exploitation, overcapacity, illegal fishing and inadequate management.

One of the key initiative is the FAO Code of Conduct for responsible Fisheries and regional initiatives such as the Sub-regional Fisheries commission, to the Committee for Eastern and Central Atlantic Fisheries (CECAF), to the fisheries research programme linked to the Norwegian research vessel, the Nansen and through partnerships with related initiatives to address the challenges that face sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in Africa.

Meanwhile, Tim Bostock, Department for International Development DFID) Fisheries Advisor acknowledged key facts about African fish and fisheries such as the fact that 200million Africans eat fish and that in many parts of Africa, fish may be the only protein food.

Other facts were that African international trade in fish products was estimated to amount to $4.3 billion which was 8 percent of the global trade.

Fish was also said to be one of the most nutritious foods known to man-not only does it comprise high quality protein, but fish may also represent the sole source of essential elements and fats to many vulnerable rural African consumers, especially women and children. FAO also emphasised that fish was by far the most important agricultural commodity traded internationally from developing countries.

Set against the benefits were two major threats to the African fisheries which include the fact that the mismanagement of fisheries was costing economies some $50 billion each year.

“This vast loss of wealth is shared, probably disproportionately, by African economies. Africa may be losing the potential to harvest some $2 to 5billion of economic return every year as direct outcome of mismanagement,” said Bostock.

The other threat observed was that illegal fishing was removing and stealing the fish valued at some $1billion from the waters of Sub-Saharan Africa every year.

Despite being one of Africa’s most valuable renewable natural assets, and in spite of the threats to their integrity, it seems strange that fisheries consistently fail to capture the serious attention of many donors and national governments.

He said there was need for urgent attention needed to ensure that both benefits were sustained or enhanced and threats were being mitigated.

“Without doubt, better fisheries governance and management, combined with effective monitoring, improved market access and trade, must play an integral role in this. Not only are African economies and regional food supplies the potential beneficiaries, but also the growing number of international markets where purchasing decisions are increasingly determined on the legitimacy and sustainability of supply chains,” said Bostock.

He said the failure of fisheries to generate wealth and contribute sustainably to national growth was far from being just an African problem.

There was need to realize that the fisheries were an economic activity which, should be enabled to flourish, to be profitable and to be sustainable.

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Photo source: United Nations