By Hajaratu Kalokoh
Stakeholders in the fishing sector have concluded an engagement conference in Freetown focusing on the challenges, effects and possible solutions of illegal fishing in the country.
The conference was an initiative by the Movement Against Inequality in Sierra Leone (MAISL) and it was supported by OXFAM. MAISL is a movement that involves about forty CSOs working to end inequality in the country.
The engagement focused on the existing challenges of combating illegal fishing, the negative impact it has on the economy and possible strategies and solution to the issues.
The conference involved diverse stakeholders from government institutions, NGOs and CSOs such as the Office of the National Security, Oxfam, Institute of Government Reform (IGR). Also in attendance were representatives of local fisher folks.
Andrew Lavalie, Director of IGR, who chaired the program, spoke about the near unchecked exploitation of Sierra Leone’s fishery reserve by foreign interests, particularly the Chinese and Koreans. He said China has many forests, but they are in Sierra Leone involving in deforestation, and that Korea has many fishes but they are here exploiting Sierra Leone’s fishes.
“Sierra Leone has become a ground for other people to access what they want, depriving us citizens to access the same to develop our country” said Mr. Lavalie.
“Sierra Leone is our own Garden of Eden given to us by God and we must protect what belongs to us,” he added.
Nuru Deen, Influencing Coordinator of Oxfam, noted that Sierra Leone is a rich country, rich in minerals, fish, diamond, gold, bauxite, rutile and even oil. But, noted that, it is evident in the world that some places that are blessed with these resources, especially those that are involved in mining, hardly benefit the people except with few exceptions like Botswana, South Africa, Australia and Norway.
“Oxfam works in those countries that have these natural resources that do not benefit the people, which is referred to resource curse, to see how we could help reverse that curse,” he stated.
Sierra Leone’s fishery sector is characterized by challenges like unreported and unregulated fishing, ineffective monitoring mechanism, and lack of sophisticated equipment to trace illegal ships. There is also the issue of corrupt practices of key institutions, as well as poor collaboration among the stakeholders involved.
President Julius Maada Bio, in his speech during his first State Opening of Parliament in 2018, acknowledged the critical challenges facing the sectors and said this was costing the country an estimated US$50 million.
This is a huge amount of revenue that could have been used for other development purposes. Experts say with such an amount there is a possibility that the country could even stop depending on international donors to fund its development projects.
Captain Osman Chernor Bangura, Operations Officer at the Maritime Wing of the RSLAF in the Western Area, commented that illegal fishing does not only limit itself to trawlers.
Illegal fishing, he said, involves two ways which are industrial that deals with trawlers and artisanal that deals with local fisher men.
“Over the years, trawlers have been stealing from the isles,” he stated.
“As we all know, the isles is the breeding ground for fishes. Fishes normally breed there and when they are matured they return to the sea,” he said.
“The breeding ground has been demarcated within five nautical miles, within that five nautical miles trawlers are not allowed to do fishing, but even with that existing law, trawlers still take chances. But with recent development, mechanisms have been put in place by improving the vessel monitoring system (VMS) controlled by the operations sector. Inside the five nautical miles any trawler that is seen within that area VMS send signal to the people in charge to take details of that trawler or canoe,” he noted.
According to Captain Bangura, artisanal fishing also contributes greatly to illegal fishing. This involves channel fishing, the types of net fishermen use is also a threat.
Manso Mansaray, Assistance Director, Provincial and Border Security at ONS, said the national security agency was also responsible for protecting fish and fish products like crabs, shrimps and lobsters.
The ONS has national security architecture within that architecture there is an established committee called Joint Maritime Committee, a multi sectoral that protect the water. Mr. Mansaray further explained the roles of these institutions to ensure safety of the water.
According to the chairman at the end of the conference they want to achieve a position on how they can tackle illegal fishing in the country and highlights steps they want to take together with the government, international community’s development partners to end illegal fishing in order to have a positive impact of fishing sector in the country.
In this regard participant will be organized to groups to discuss their ideas Mr. Lavalie added.
Different studies within the fishing sector has shown that the country loses millions of dollars in revenues due to illegal fishing in its waters.
© 2019 Politico Online
