ACP Fisheries Policy Brief
Safeguarding the ACP Fisheries Resources – Role of Science, Technology & Innovation
Safeguarding the ACP Fisheries Resources
Role of Science, Technology & Innovation
Written by: Sloans Chimatiro1, Milton Haughton2, Mariama Barry3, Martha Byanyima4, Augustine Mobiha5, Francis Nunoo6, edited by J.A. Francis6,
This policy brief aims at mobilizing the ACP scientific community to provide knowledge-based leadership to safeguard and rebuild this vital resource for food and nutrition security and economic growth. ACP policy makers and regional and international donors are encouraged to increase investment to build the requisite S,T&I capacity in ACP States.
1.0 Introduction
Fisheries play an important role in the stability of rural and coastal communities in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States. It is a vital source of food and contributes to livelihoods sustainability, food and nutrition security and foreign exchange earnings. These benefits are being eroded due to unsustainable practices and policies ultimately leading to dwindling resources; declining catches from the oceans, lakes, rivers and floodplains and illegal unregulated and unreported fishing. The aquaculture sector is also poorly developed. Limited scientific and technical capacity and involvement of the scientific community in guiding policy further exacerbate the situation. Opportunities exist to use more science, technology and innovation to improve the contribution of fisheries to achieving sustainable social and economic development. However, special effort must be directed towards improving endogenous scientific and technical capacity to trigger the development and application of more effective and efficient technologies, policies, legislation and fisheries and aquaculture management plans.
2.0 Why Safeguard Fisheries Resources?
Many African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries depend on fisheries for food and social and economic development. In 2000, fish and fishery products constituted 15.3% of the total animal protein consumed by people globally (FAO, 2003). The annual per capita fish intake for selected ACP countries ranges between 6.6 kg in Malawi to 169.2 kg in Samoa as shown in Table 1. Over the period 1995 – 2004 there has been an 8 fold increase in the number of fish farmers recorded for Africa (Table 2). The sector also provides income for over 10 million people engaged in fish production, processing and trade and is a leading export commodity with an annual export value of US$2.7 billion (NEPAD, 2005). In some Caribbean countries, fisheries accounts for more than 5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - 8% GDP in Belize and exports have been growing steadily; up from US$13.8 million in 1986 to approximately US$200 million in 2004. In addition, the combined benefits of dive tourism, recreational fisheries, and shoreline protection provided by the coral reef ecosystems bring an estimated net value of US$3.1-3.6 billion to the Caribbean region every year (Burke and Maidens, 2004; World Resources Institute, 2004).
The ACP island states comprise several highly productive and diverse fragile tropical ecosystems and natural features such as coral reefs and sea grass beds which support several highly productive fish assemblages with high species diversity. The total land area of the Caribbean States is 484,716 km2, whereas the total area of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is 2,205,470 km2. Papua New Guinea, one of the Pacific island states, includes an archipelago of 600 islands and has a combined total land area of 462, 243 km2 and an EEZ of 2,437,480 km2. All the fifteen Pacific island states have a combined total land area of 527,436 km2 - an EEZ covering roughly 20,070,000 km², equivalent to about 18% of all EEZs globally. Pacific Island States depend upon these ecosystems: as a traditional and important source of seafood; as a critical form of revenue (US$60-70 million in access fees); employment (25,000 regional jobs); and income (expenditure by locally based vessels is worth US$130 million) (Gillett et al. 2001, Gillett and Lightfoot, 2002). However, despite roughly US$2 billion worth of tuna being caught in the Pacific each year, the tuna fisheries added only approximately US$97 million to Pacific GDP in 2005, and employed 11,000 Pacific Islanders (Birdsall et al. 2005). Coastal reef fisheries and other small-scale fisheries play a much under-estimated role in food and value production as well as in distributional social effects in the ACP region. These tend to be more energy efficient and less environmentally destructive than more industrial fishing practices particularly bottom trawling.
Over fishing and illegal, unregulated and underreported (IUU) fishing, global warming and sea level rise, marine and freshwater pollution and habitat degradation are putting the future potential contribution of the ACP fisheries sector at risk. They are, among others, driven by growing consumer demand and weaknesses in sector governance. Effective management systems backed up by sound scientific information and policies supporting sustainable use and value addition must be put in place to protect vulnerable aquatic ecosystems and arrest the decline in fisheries resources. The social costs are high and translate into an inability of populations with poor purchasing power, particularly women, to maintain continued access to traditional fish resources for food and livelihood (Williams et al. 2005). WRI (2005) demonstrated that stewardship of nature is also an effective means to fight poverty; and when poor households improve their management of local ecosystems—whether pastures, forests, or fishing grounds—the productivity of these systems rises and economic progress ensues as well.
The numerous challenges facing the ACP fisheries sector suggest that there is need to mobilize the ACP scientific community, policy makers and the international donor community to support the countries in taking the necessary action. The science, technology and innovation system must be strengthened to ensure that the fisheries sector can continue to contribute towards the goal of social and economic development in ACP states. Increased investments for building endogenous scientific and technical capacity are needed to generate the evidence to support political and technical interventions and drive innovations to realize the full potential of the industry.
3.0 The Context and Extent of the Problem
3.1 Over-exploitation of stocks and under-developed aquaculture
According to FAO official statistics, overall global production of fish continues to expand, with more growth approximately 43%, coming from aquaculture, as capture fishery production stagnates (Figure 1). These statistics may be an overestimation because of double reporting by China and global capture fisheries has decreased since early 1990’s. The exploitation of wild fish stocks from the world’s oceans has probably reached its limit, reinforcing the call for more cautious and effective fisheries management to rebuild depleted stocks and prevent the decline of those that have not yet reached their limits (FAO, 2007). In the case of inland fishery resources, there is widespread overfishing, arising from either intensive targeting of individual large-size species in major river and freshwater systems or overexploitation of highly diverse species assemblages or ecosystems. This is further aggravated by massive habitat destruction as a result of engineering interventions on many rivers worldwide. Africa has some of the biggest lake environments in the world and derives an important part of its overall production from freshwater, yet, these are much less studied than the less important lakes in other regions limiting access to accurate data for making realistic projections.
Breton et al. (2006) reported that a number of fish species are overexploited in the Caribbean. For example, queen conch (Strombus gigas), spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), shrimp (including Penaeus subtilis, Penaeus schmitti, Penaeus brasiliensis, Penaeus notialis and Xiphopenaeus kroyeri), shallow shelf reef-fishes (particularly members of the lutjanidae and serranidae families), and large pelagic species are fully developed or over exploited. On the other hand some species e.g. regional off shore pelagic fish such as wahoo (Acanthocybium solandri), dolphinfish (Coryphaena hippurus), and blackfin tuna (Thunnus atlanticus); deep-slope snappers and groupers, and some small coastal pelagic species including members of the carangidae, clupeidae, and engraulidae families are under-utilized.
In Africa, the inland fisheries resources are under threat with assemblage overfishing (decline of individual species of large size) being evident. For example, large species reaching maximum lengths of around 60 cm, such as Lates niloticus (Nile perch), Heterotis niloticus, and Distichodus, were a significant fraction of the catch in the 1950s in Oueme River (Republic of Benin), but these had either disappeared from the river or reduced their size at maturity by 1970s (Allan et al. 2005). At the same time, these larger species have been replaced by smaller species such as Labeo, Clarius, Heterobranchus, Schilbe and Synodontis of maximum length of about 40 cm; and by the 1990s, the fishery became dominated by numerous small species of cichlids and mormyrids attaining maximum lengths of 10 to 30 cm. Similar observations have been made in Lakes Malawi and Malombe (Malawi) where Oreochromis lidole, O. karongae and O. squamipinnis (maximum size of around 38 cm) comprised 75% of the catches in the 1940s but started to decline since the early 1980s and collapsed in the 1990s, contributing only 7% of the total catch (Banda et al. 2006). In Lake Malombe, these larger size species have been replaced by smaller cichlids (maximum size around 7-12 cm) mainly Lethrinops, Otopharynx and Copadichromis (Banda et al. 2006). In Lake Victoria, evidence of overfishing of Lates niloticus (Nile perch) has been shown through experimental fishing conducted by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Research Project (LVFRP), (Cowx et al. 2003) and catch landings by fishers. Between 1999 and 2001, biomass of Nile perch declined from 1.59 to 0.89 million tons; and combined landings in the three riparian countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) declined from about 400,000 tons in the late 1980s to around 300,000 tons in the early 2000 (Balirwa et al. 2005), mostly as a result of catching large numbers of juveniles (Froese & Binohlan, 2000).
Although over 70% of the population in Pacific Island States (PIS) rely on near-shore (coral reef) fisheries for their subsistence requirement, tuna is the most important commercial species. The tuna fishery is dominated by four major species, namely Albacore (Thunnus alalunga), Bigeye (Thunnus obesus), Skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) and Yellowfin (Thunnus albacares). Gillet (2004) reported that the amount of tuna captured in the region is about ten times all other types of fish combined; and in terms of value the catch is worth over seven times the value of all other Pacific Island fish catches combined. However, over-capacity and use of aggregating devices are a growing concern particularly for Thunnus albacares (Yellowfin) and Thunnus obesus (Bigeye) (Hanich & Tsamenyi, 2006). Economic studies have also shown that fishing effort is significantly above optimal levels, thereby reducing the profitability of the fishery (Bertignac et al. 2001). Therefore, the Scientific Committee of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission recommended in August 2005 that fishing capacity for bigeye and yellowfin should be reduced by roughly 20% (Hanich & Tsamenyi, 2006).
3.2 Inadequate research and human and institutional capacity
Although many ACP countries have made significant strides in marine and fisheries science, they still lack the critical mass of technical and scientific expertise to monitor national jurisdiction as well as transboundary resources and to generate, use and interpret data on the biology, ecology and population dynamics and status of at least the most commercially important fish species and the extent of habitat degradation. The institutional capacity to manage the resources, especially the less important commercial varieties, is also limited.
Forty-two percent of the African research institutions are weak in fisheries and aquaculture leading to a lack of a common and strategic understanding of the challenges being faced by the sector and appreciation of the importance of fisheries and aquaculture research for development (FARA, 2006). Three factors constrain research and development, namely insufficient funds, lack of core research staff and weak research infrastructure (FAO, 2007). Some ACP countries have made progress in addressing their research needs. For example, future research areas identified for Papua New Guinea include bycatch studies of the prawn fishery and mapping of prawn fishing grounds of the Gulf of Papua; culture of indigenous fish species; study of the deep water reefs and further tagging studies to determine the movements of the bigeye tuna species. However, the knowledge gap that exists is not confined to the physical and ecological dimensions of the resource system. Human dimension, that is, the cultural, social, economic, anthropological, historical and traditional aspects are also poorly understood. Models for research and effective resource management in ACP countries must therefore adequately take into account the human dimension and be consistent with the culture and aspiration of the fishing communities. Breton et al. (2006) in their book, Coastal Resource Management in the wider Caribbean, argue convincingly for more attention to be given to reaching a better balance between natural and social sciences in the management of natural resources and of deepening understanding of the local-human contexts in which it takes place in light of the increasing tendency towards decentralization and empowerment of local organizations. This will make the research more directly policy relevant.
The inability to generate, translate and utilize scientific information for decision-making and policy formulation therefore hampers the ACP countries from improving fisheries conservation and management, with wider implications for value addition, trade and socio-economic sustainability. Hodge (2006) made a case for the role of human capital and institutions in shaping the evolution of systems of innovations in Lake Chad, by noting that the problems of Lake Chad may not effectively be solved without a supportive knowledge and innovation system and the organisational capacity to diffuse technologies. Hodge (2006) further calls on African fisheries management institutions to learn from the USA’s Land/Sea Grant systems, by strategically directing investment for strengthening and/or building new institutions that can promote technology transfer and innovations by formalizing practical linkages of outreach to institutions of higher learning and research. The European Commission also saw the need to assist ACP countries in strengthening their capacity to formulate and implement fisheries development policies and better manage their aquatic resources through improved monitoring and control of fishing activities and the provision of scientific information on the status of resources (CEC, 2002). Within the framework of the European Partnership Agreements, ACP States can negotiate fisheries agreements that reinforce cooperation on sustainable use of fishery resources and transfer of technology, research and training. This complements provisions made in Articles 23, and 53 of the ACP-EU Cotonou on Fishery Agreements and Article 32 on Environment and Natural Resources.