By Nneka Nwogwugwu
Ghana has signed a pact with three other countries in the ECOWAS region to start a joint fisheries observer and monitoring programme in 2022.
The three countries are Togo, Benin, and Cote d’Ivoire.
However, Cote d’Ivoire did not sign the pact during the moment Ghana, Togo and Benin signed it.
The joint observer programme is aimed at ending Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices in the ECOWAS regions bordering the seas, known as Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC).
The signing of the pact took place during the closing ceremony of the 13th Session of the Conference of Ministers of the Fisheries Committee for West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Friday, December 17, 2021.
The FCWC was established in 2007 to promote and facilitate cooperation in fisheries management between the FCWC’s member countries—Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Liberia, Benin, and Cote d’Ivoire.
The FCWC exist among other things to enhance governance capacity through sub-regional and regional cooperation, particularly in respect to developing and implementing appropriate management frameworks that ensure fisheries resources are harvested sustainably.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Secretary General of FCWC, Mr Seraphin Dedi Nadje, said a joint observer programme would help the FCWC region to effectively and efficiently fight IUU fishing.
He said IUU fishing continued to undermine the development of sustainable marine fisheries in West Africa, resulting in environmental damage, high economic losses, and increasing levels of maritime insecurity.
He observed that the FCWC region lose a lot of money through the activities of IUU fishing annually, a situation he expressed optimism, could be dealt with if all FCWC member states worked together.
He said the FCWC programmes focused on the coordination, development and implementation of national and regional fisheries plans that were coherent with the African Union’s integration agenda and in support of the objectives of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals.