Address the needs of developing countries

Problem: IUU fishing is particularly damaging to developing countries, which are often highly dependent upon fishing to generate livelihoods, food security and exports. These countries often lack the resources to effectively police their waters, to engage with adjacent RFMOs, or to control the activity of their own vessels throughout the world.

Studies indicate the value of illegal catches worldwide is around US$9 billion a year. Losses from the waters of sub-Saharan Africa amount to US$1 billion a year - roughly equivalent to a quarter of Africa's total annual fisheries exports. The value of IUU fishing in neighbouring states Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia amounts to some $180m per year and in Somalia, $94 million/yr.

Not only does this represent a direct economic loss to the countries, but the illegal activities also impact on legitimate (especially small-scale) fishers by depleting stocks, destroying fishing gear and undermining markets. There is also ample evidence that the trade in illegal fish supports corruption, money laundering and traffic in arms and people.

In order to combat the problem, a programme has been developed to help African states to benefit from increasing revenues from their fisheries resources through the elimination of illegal fishing in their coastal waters and more effective sector governance. It aims to enable participating African states to engage in concerted policy action that creates disincentives to fish illegally and manage fisheries more effectively for shared growth.

Project already initiated: Fisheries Sector Support to Sierra Leone: tackling IUU fishing and securing fisheries contribution to growth and livelihoods

Sierra Leone's fisheries contribute significantly to poverty reduction through providing food and livelihood security, and through generating revenue. Fish provides around 70% of animal protein and represents about 11% of the GDP - one of the highest in West Africa. The qualitative poverty reduction impact of the artisanal (including the largely unknown inland) fishery is particularly important to the rural poor. About 8000 artisanal fishing boats operate with 30,000 fishermen. 80,000 ancillary workers (including mostly women) are engaged in traditional fish processing and intra-regional trade.

However, the sustainability of Sierra Leone's fisheries is under threat because of continued de facto open access and rampant IUU fishing . Open access maintains the perverse incentive of a race for fish that perpetuates excess capacity and overexploitation. The root causes of this are inadequate and under-resourced fisheries management institutions. Of prime concern, however, are foregone revenues from the industrial sector (including from illegal fishing which plagues Sierra Leone and the region).

In response to these problems, UK's Department for International Development together with other donors (notably the World Bank and EC) and Sierra Leone government are collaborating in the development of a new Fisheries Sector Strategy Paper (FSSP). The aim of this is to define a new multi-donor support programme that will help deliver the policy objective of improving the contribution of fisheries towards pro-poor sustainable growth, food security and job creation. The programme will address constraints to fisheries including:

• Ineffective fisheries governance and management
• Poor access to markets especially EU
• Weak private sector investment
• Lack of port infrastructure

Significant economic benefits are expected to accrue through supporting activities that centre on capacity building and institutional reform. Important in the short-term, will be tackling illegal fishing. In the longer term, significant benefits would accrue from the realisation of foregone revenues and from overcoming crucial constraints such as market access, value-added, bringing the current "offshore" economy (comprising industrial fisheries) "onshore", and support for the artisanal fishery.

Contact:
Tim Bostock
Department for International Development
United Kingdom

Email: t-bostock@dfid.gov.uk

Partners:
United Kingdom, Sierra Leone

Further information:
www.dfid.gov.uk/news/files/illegal-fishing.asp