Monrovia — The Liberia Artisanal Fishermen Association (LAFA) has warned that new plans to develop Liberia's industrial shrimp trawl fishery threaten the livelihoods, safety, and food security of over 57,000 artisanal fishers and risk destroying Liberia's unique marine life.
Following the announcement of the plan by the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA), LAFA published an open letter urging the Director General of NaFAA Madam Emma Metieh Glasco to reconsider these plans and protect Liberia's coastal communities.
"Artisanal fishing is the lifeblood of Liberia's coastal economy, central to national food security, and a key part of Liberia's rich cultural heritage," the group stated.
The fishing sector employs over 57,000 fishers and supports tens of thousands of fish processors and fishmongers, most of whom are women. Almost 60% of Liberia's population lives on the coast, and fish contribute to the animal protein needs of 80% of the total population. It is vitally important that Liberia's marine resources are managed sustainably and protected from destructive industrial fishing methods, such as industrial bottom trawling.
However, the group said the new plans to develop an industrial fishery for deep-water shrimp threaten to undermine artisanal fishing in Liberia by destroying marine ecosystems on which artisanal fishers depend, increasing competition for marine resources, and elevating the risk of dangerous vessel collisions.
A Draft Fisheries Management Plan (FMP), developed with support from the World Bank's US$40 million Sustainable Management of Fisheries Project, sets out recommendations that would pave the way for the expansion of an industrial bottom trawl fishery for high-value shrimp worth $80 per kilogram. The FMP is based on data collected during a period of experimental shrimp fishing that received domestic and international attention for breaching Liberia's fisheries laws.
According to LAFA, the FMP acknowledged that these experimental trawling activities did not collect sufficient data to assess the full impacts of shrimp trawling on Liberia's marine ecosystems or fisheries.
"The limited data that was collected and reported indicates that the resource is already overexploited. Therefore, LAFA is skeptical that a profitable industrial shrimp trawl fishery can be established, and the management measures proposed in the FMP do not meet international standards for precautionary or ecosystem-based management," LAFA stated.
The FMP also proposes that NaFAA grant exclusive access to the resource to one company for five years, which LAFA believes would be a deeply inequitable arrangement.
LAFA says access to the fishery should prioritize artisanal fishers and efforts should be made to support domestic fishers' access to the resource. In addition, access to any fishing resources should be conditioned on the outcomes of regular scientific monitoring. If research indicates that fish landings are declining, then activities that negatively affect these species, including those carried out under exclusive access agreements, should be halted.
LAFA expressed concerns about the failure of NaFAA and the World Bank to involve artisanal fishers in the development of the FMP. The Liberia Fisheries Act clearly states that the NaFAA Director General should ensure consultation with relevant stakeholders in the development of FMPs. However, LAFA--the national representative body for artisanal fishers in Liberia--was not invited to engage in the development of the FMP at any point over the preceding months. As a result, artisanal fishers across Liberia remain unaware of this critical development in Liberia's fishing sector, which could directly harm their livelihoods.
According to LAFA, the first invitation to participate in discussions relating to the new fishery came on April 2nd, less than two weeks before a workshop to formally validate and adopt the FMP on April 15th.
The group added that it, along with representatives from five Collaborative Management Associations (CMAs), decided to boycott the validation meeting due to the failure of NaFAA and the World Bank to engage artisanal fishers as key stakeholders in the process.
LAFA warned that if the fishery is permitted to go ahead as set out in the FMP, industrial trawlers would gain access to fishing grounds within the 6-nautical mile Inshore Exclusion Zone reserved for artisanal fishers. Trawl activities inside this zone would increase competition with artisanal fishers and almost certainly result in more dangerous collisions between industrial and artisanal vessels.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
LAFA revealed that it has recorded seven cases of collisions between industrial and artisanal fishers' vessels or fishing gear this year alone, leading to acute economic hardship for fishers whose equipment has been destroyed. In the past, collisions between artisanal fishers have led to injuries and even deaths.
In the open letter to the Director General of NaFAA, LAFA expands on these concerns and urges NaFAA to support Liberia's coastal communities. LAFA is calling on the Director General to secure the Inshore Exclusion Zone for the exclusive use of subsistence, artisanal, and semi-industrial fishing activities up to 6 nautical miles as a minimum, prioritize the development of a fully domestic, small-scale, low-impact fishery for the resources within the 6-mile zone, and delay the development of any fishery until robust data are available to inform precautionary, ecosystems-based, and adaptive management.
