*Paula Anton*

Illegal, Unregistered and Unregulated IUU, fishing, remains a severe problem in West Africa, especially the Gulf of Guinea. It is believed that the region loses an estimated annual revenue in excess of $2billion. This menace also threatens food security, while harming the livelihoods of local fishing communities and marine ecosystems. Regrettably, efforts by the region to combat this monster, which include the launch of joint efforts, such as the West Africa Task Force, have not yielded the desired result. But the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation FAO, through its Agreement on Port State Measures, also known as the Port State Measures Agreement PSMA, which entered into force since 2016, has galvanised West African nations to work together to combat IUU fishing. Being the only legally binding international treaty specifically targeting IUU fishing, it aims, among other factors, to stop illicitly caught fish from being transported and sold on the international market by requiring authorities to implement more stringent controls at seaports. The Fishery and Aquaculture Officer, Sub-regional Office for West Africa, of the FAO, PAULA ANTON in this interview with FRANCIS EZEM, highlights efforts by the FAO to combat IUU fishing in the region. She spoke at the side-lines of the recently concluded 16th Conference of Ministers of the Fisheries Committee for the West and Central Gulf of Guinea FCWC, with the theme: “Securing Our Ocean Future: People, Resources, and Commitments”, held in Lagos.

What is FAO doing to combat IUU fishing in West Africa?

At FAO as you know, we have an agreement, it is a binding agreement and it is the first time in the world that such agreement is signed (it requires member states to take measures). All the countries in West Africa have all signed the agreement; so they are parties to the agreement and they are expected to start implementation of the agreement. The agreement was necessitated by the fact that in the past, the different countries have been working in their different ways-the Navy, the Fisheries departments and the Ports Authorities of the various countries. They cannot really work separately if they must achieve the goal of checkmating IUU fishing on their waters. So they really need to put their efforts together, they really need to work together to be able to start patrolling the waters and also start controlling the waters.

Does the FAO support these West African states that have signed the agreement?

Yes. All the member countries that have signed the agreement can access FAO support to be able to start implementation. But additionally, at the regional level, we have started working with theFisheries Committee for the West and Central Gulf of GuineaFCWC, and also other regional fishery bodies under the umbrella of the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS, we have developed regional programmes to combat IUU fishing in the region because we know that there are no borders on the waters, because if an illegal fishing vessel lands in Ghana for instance, and we chase it and it enters another country, we are not resolving the issues. So at FAO here, we are working hard to put all the countries together to combat IUU fishing.

When you talk about support, what do you mean? What level of support do you provide?

At the country level, we organise a lot of trainings, capacity building, we organise workshops, put all the national institutions together, we make them see the importance of working together, we do case studies, we visit real cases in the harbours with all the institutions together so that they can see how it works and how they can identify illegal and non-illegal fishing.

On the sub-regional level, we have tried to bring the ECOWAS and the three regional bodies together and we have developed a regional a programme. Last month we even organised a roundtable of donors to raise funds for full implementation of these regional programmes. We are also working on regional case studies from one country to another.

In West Africa, there is this challenge of lack of good fishing fleet. So do you in anyway empower small and medium scale fishers in the region?

In FAO now, we have realised that the fisheries are declining but the fish consumption is growing non-stop, so on the fisheries side, we are promoting fishing in a sustainable manner because at the end of the day, the fishery is an infinite resource, the stock of fishes will keep increasing, so you will keep grabbing if you do it sustainably. So we must always maintain an equilibrium because if you take too small, it is a loss and if you take too much, they will all die, so the fishery resource is infinite, it is an amazing resource. So we are also pushing a lot on good manner fishing because in the world, nobody should be more concerned about saving the fishes than the fishers, so we are working a lot on this and we also work a lot on adding value to the production and reducing the waste and loss in the process. This is because if you have a good catch but because of infrastructure you lose half of the resource that is already declining, that is not a good thing. So we encourage them and support them with infrastructure so they are able to preserve and transform the products without losing half of them on the way and selling them with an improved value.

I read a recent report, which said West Africa, especially the Gulf of Guinea has remained a theatre of IUU fishing. In your opinion, is this trend increasing or declining?

Ha! Ha! Ha! (She laughs). Good question. I think it is a very tricky issue in West Africa. It is not only about illegal fishing, it is also about countries providing national flags to vessels that are not meant to be fishing or not getting a lot of revenue out of it, so this is a very complicated issue, I think countries are seeing that the economic and definitely human value in combating IUU is a million times higher than not allowing IUU to happen without monitoring it and it is true that it is a lot of money and it is also true that it is complicated to have vessels patrolling the waters. So right now, I will push countries to start looking at more digital ways such as satellite etc., so that they do not need to spend all these resources but they can control it from the waters so they can be controlling the waters while the government does the other regulations.