DEVELOPMENT-GABON: Plugging the Leaks in Small-Scale Fishing

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Antoine Lawson

LIBREVILLE, Aug 12 2004 (IPS) - For those who are looking for an easy life in Gabon, small-scale fishing holds little appeal. As a young fisherman, Mathieu Koffi, told IPS, it is "difficult to get credit to buy new equipment, and it’s not easy for fishermen to band together in order to limit expenses."

The difficulties of working with outdated equipment combined with a depletion of fish stocks in certain areas have posed challenges to the small-scale fishing industry in recent years. Perhaps as a result, only 12 percent of fishermen in the sector are Gabonese. The rest come from other African countries – mainly Nigeria.

Speaking as he prepared for his next voyage, Sylvain Mondjo said the use of small-meshed nets by some in the trade had created a situation where fish were being caught before they reached maturity. This undermines a species’ ability to reproduce.

"As a result," he told IPS, "there are no more fish near the shore and we have to go much further out to sea to catch, which uses up more fuel and presents greater risks."

"Our first concern is better equipment, to improve our boats, outboards and nets. We’re also penalized by the high price of diesel fuel," Mondjo added.

In addition, certain fishermen believe that imports from neighbouring countries and Asia are undermining their profits.

However, a grant recently awarded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), may provide some relief to this sector.

The 270,000-dollar allocation, issued last month, will be used to buy equipment such as small craft, outboard motors and life jackets – as well as develop port infrastructure in the Gabonese capital, Libreville. A portion of the grant has also been earmarked for setting up professional organisations to represent fishermen.

In addition, the FAO funds are aimed at helping government establish policies that attend to the long-term health of fisheries – and regulate catches of endangered species along the Gabonese coast.

"Eight-hundred kilometres of sea frontage is not inexhaustible," says Georges Mba Asseko, an official at the Department of General Fisheries and Aquaculture who deals with overseas aid to the industry.

"Gabon is located right on the equator, not in the more fish-abundant tropics, as Mauritania, Senegal and Morocco are."

Officials estimate that small-scale fishing brings in profits of about 23.8 million dollars a year, and industrial fishing about 39.4 million dollars. Total turnover in the fishing and farmed fish sectors is put at about 76.9 million dollars. In 2002, exports reached the 14 million dollar mark, with shrimp – which are mostly sent to Spain – accounting for almost 11 million dollars of that amount.

To satisfy a domestic demand for up to 50,000 tons of fish, the country also imports seven to eight thousand tons of frozen fish every year (at a cost of 13.4 million dollars).

Gabon’s 265,000 square-kilometres of fishing waters are almost as large as the country itself (it has a land area of 267,667 square kilometres). It also has an extensive system of rivers, lagoons and lakes which abound in freshwater fish.

The problems experienced in Gabon notwithstanding, small-scale fishing is said to be increasing in West Africa. According to the Swiss-based Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), this is the result of government subsidies, greater market access in Europe and North America, and the fact that the sector has been given "priority access" to fishing areas.

Technological developments such as the motorization of traditional fishing boats have further contributed to this development.

However, the WWF says growth has been accompanied by a break down in traditional methods of managing the industry. As new structures have yet to be put in place, people in this sector often operate in an unregulated – and unsustainable – way.

The WWF also notes that most countries in the region lack long-term policies which stipulate what needs to be done to ensure the continued existence of fisheries.

In addition, and despite the priority given to certain fishermen, there is persistent pressure from European countries to gain access to West African waters – their own stocks having been substantially depleted. Governments in Russia and the Far East also have an interest in the region.

Poverty-stricken states in West Africa undoubtedly benefit from the licence fees such rights are sold for. However, these states also tend to lack the technology and vessels needed to monitor foreign trawlers, to ensure that they do not exceed their fishing quotas.