By Politico Staff Writer
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has announced plans to expand on the fishery sector and counter the perennial problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing facing the country.
Bio made the announcement while launching a set of equipment for sustainable fisheries management at Murray Town, last week. The president disclosed that his government inherited a fisheries and marine resources sector that was riddled with corruption and mismanagement.
According to data from the government, fishery currently contributes between 10 and 12 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product, GDP. But experts believe Sierra Leone has the potential to gain from the sector far more than this.
"Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing was rife. Tax evasion, underreporting, overfishing, by mainly illegal vessels within the country's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) was destroying the country's fish stock, destroying the marine ecosystem, and depriving artisanal fishers and the entire artisanal fishing community chain of their livelihoods,” the president stated.
He added: "We should recognise that IUU thrives where there are corrupt national regimes, poor national and international legal frameworks, ineffective or non-existent enforcement mechanisms, and more. As with corruption, IUU thrives when risks are low for operatives and their cohorts. Like corruption, we must make illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing risky and more expensive."
President Bio further told the occasion, which attracted government regulators and private sector investors in the sector, that IUU was a national security threat to lives and livelihoods because it had directly impacted the local fishing industry that was providing jobs for over 500,000 Sierra Leoneans.
He noted that the loss of livelihoods had exacerbated poverty in coastal communities, whose major source of income was fishing, adding that there were implications for the wider economy with a lower supply of fish in the local market and higher prices and also dietary implications with fish being a major source of protein.
He referred to the New Direction manifesto, which, among other things, proposed strategies to maintain sustainable and viable fisheries and marine resources ecosystem, good governance and a reduction in illegal fishing, adding that the focus, therefore, was to put in place a holistic, sustainable, and permanent fix.
"We argued in the New Direction manifesto that 'standalone Government action has proven inadequate and ineffective to curb this menace' of IUU. My Government believes that coordinated and timely action and enforcement mechanisms across the sub-region and within international organisations, in which Sierra Leone is a member, can help us wrest back full control of our fisheries and marine resources. I expect the Ministry to maintain an active presence in those international forums and to project our voices and concerns while actively seeking collaboration.
"My Government has also invested in hard assets to strengthen the monitoring, control, and surveillance of the fisheries sector. I am pleased to announce the following: Six Inshore Patrol boats for patrolling coastal inshore waters and for conducting community surveillance and extension services to coastal fishing communities; 23 VHF and UHF radio communication equipment for effective marine communication and daily update of field activities; 2,500 life jackets to be sold at a subsidised rate to fishing communities at various fisheries outstations to ensure safety of life at sea; Tablets and Android phones for data collection
"We have made a lot of progress within two short years. I am pleased to inform you that with sound policies and practices, my administration increased revenue generation in the fishing industry to over 100.5 Billion Leones ($10.5 million) in 2019. Even with Covid-19, the sector has been able to generate close to Le 78bn from January - to date, 2020. This is just from tightening regulations and clamping down on corrupt practices," he concluded.
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