Sea Control - Sea Control 334 - Survival of the Richest with Dr. Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

Links:1." Survival of the Richest, not the Fittest: How attempts to improve governance impact African small-scale marine fisheries," by Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood, Nelly I. Kadagi, Dyhia Belhabib, and Edward H. Allison, Marine Policy, Volume 135, January 2022.

Hey folks, Jared here. Dr. Ife Sanache Okafor-Yarwood was kind enough to join me this week to discuss a paper that she co-authored on the impact of improved governance measures on small-scale African fisheries. This episode was edited and produced by Joshua Gruver. We are still looking for audio editors to add to our team, so if you're interested, please email us at ccontrol at simsec.org with your resume. Finally, I want to take the opportunity to recommend our partners in the SimSec Podcast Network, The Village Pumps. You can find Alex, Jamie, Drack, and a pile of Iron Brew bottles wherever you download your podcasts. On that note, I'll turn it over to Kimber's men. You're listening to Sea Control, hosted by the Center for International Maritime Security. Aloha, Shemates, and welcome back aboard Sea Control.

Today, we're welcoming back Dr. Ife Sinache Okafor-Yarwood, and we're going to be discussing her article in the January issue of Marine Policy, Survival of the Richest, Not the Fittest, How Attempts to Improve Governance Impact African Small-Scale Marine Fisheries. So, Ife, thank you for coming on again, and could you refresh the listeners on your background, please? Thank you so much for having me again. So, my name is Ife Sinache Okafor-Yarwood, and I'm a lecturer in Sustainable Development at the School of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St. Andrews, and

And my focus in terms of my research is on oceans governance and maritime security, primarily on the African continent, issues relating to maritime threats and oceans governance in the African continent. Well, thank you very much for coming back. And as a reminder to our listeners, all opinions are our own and not reflective of any institution with which we might be otherwise associated. So Ife, we'll jump right into the questions. It's pretty well established at this point that African nations see a lot of distant water fishing fleets fishing inside their exclusive economic zones. I know you and your team looked into this. What is that costing these nations, roughly? So I think the first thing to point out in terms of the potential economic benefit of agreements or fishing arrangements with distant water fishing fleets is that it can be beneficial and it is actually economically beneficial for African state. What is the problem, however, is the over-exploitation of already depleted fish stock and the fact that the monitoring, survey and control of some of the activities of these vessels

are not done as effective as it should be. And as a result, a lot of these vessels are also engaging in illicit activities, such as primarily illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, of which the implication is very severe for the African continent. Without focusing so much on the economic implication, we can talk about the potential food security implication, especially when we take into account that millions of people rely on fisheries for not only livelihoods, but also their food security and primarily as a source of animal protein. So such unsustainable exploitation of fish stock by distant water fishing fleets, as you can see, have an impact on the food security and the protein needs of the people. And then there's then the economic implication of the illegal element of the activities of these vessels.

So these are just some of the impact if we're looking at a negative implication of fishing or business arrangement between African coastal states and distant water fishing fleets. Well, let me ask a follow-up question to that then. Is there a way for the different nations to balance the loss of that animal protein or is the protein just kind of gone from the diet and you're seeing more widespread hunger? And I realize that this is going to vary across, I don't know, 60 different nations in the littorals there. I think actually it will vary depending on where you are. So the impact in terms of on protein needs would likely be more severe for land-linked countries or landlocked countries that might rely on fish stock

from coastal states or might rely, of course, on fish stock from their lakes and other things because it has obviously, once fish stock is depleted, it has a general impact on different people and their ability to maybe be able to extract enough to continue to feed their families. And so the first thing to note is that Even without, I guess you could say, maybe looking at the last 10 years, even without the severity of overfishing, for example, or in terms of the depleting nature of fish stock as we know it today, unfortunately, African states or African countries were not necessarily meeting their fish protein needs.

The main thing to note is that African states, especially coastal states, many of them are not reaching that maximum amount of their protein needs even before this. The implication then is that as fish stock depletes, it means their ability to meet the protein needs of their people diminishes further. And this is why it's a problem. It might be the case that people that live in cities might be able to buy from, maybe get their protein needs from meat or other sources. But those in the coastal areas might primarily rely on fish for their protein needs, which is obviously going to be problematic if they are no longer catching enough fish to not only make their food secretive, but also the protein element. Which distant water fishing nations in particular are fishing in African waters? There are so many countries. So obviously, in recent times, if you've been following a lot of the research or news articles and other reports by different entities, you know that distant water nation like China has been in the news a lot, not only because of the fact that they sign agreements or buy licenses from coastal states to exploit their resources, but sometimes indirectly they front local companies to be able to sort of fish on their behalf.

So something that I will refer to here and have been referred to by other researchers as a form of beneficial ownership wherein an entity might be fronted to make it look like they are from that country when in fact where the benefit in terms of the money and the stock that is likely to be extracted is based elsewhere on the continent. So China is one of the countries. We also have countries or should I say entities like the European Union, which of course comprises of so many countries that are able to fish on the African continent. And we also have South Korea, we have Russia,

we have so many other countries that are able to extract resources, either directly through agreement or licensing or through beneficial ownership, which is obviously tricky because of the lack of transparency in terms of the fact that they might be fronting companies or entities that are based in a particular country to make it legal, when in fact the benefit in terms of the economic benefit is actually elsewhere, that is not in the African continent. For this paper, did you limit your research to specific nations? So for this research, we looked at the African continent and we're not looking at it from the outsider perspective. We were focusing primarily on African examples because we wanted to understand, you know, some of the policies that the African countries or should I say African governments are making to ensure fisheries sustainability. So let's say they have recognised that there is a problem, that fish stock is depleted or extracted at an unsustainable level and they are working to do something about it.

And so we wanted to explore to see what are different countries doing and how or what impact is it having on different sectors. So for this, we looked at case studies from Ghana, Liberia, Madagascar and Somalia with the intention of finding out what they are all doing and what lessons can be learned differently. And then we found, of course, that it seemed that even though this is the example of a country's reviews, a lot of the other literatures and some of the other papers and research has been published on this seems to suggest that there seems to be so much emphasis, despite the recognition of the need for sustainable fish stock. there's so much emphasis on policing the small scale fishers which we identified in this paper as the most visible than you know actually treating the real issue or enforcing um or insurance sustainability by enforcing um the law in relation to how they deal with distant water fishing fleets so it's seen that there's this kind of business as usual element to doing business, which this is not a fishing fleet, but I mean, in comparison, they are policing

the artisanal fisheries sector, which we found as counterproductive. What government's mechanisms are the various countries putting in place in an attempt to restrict IUU fishing? Not just IUU fishing, but I guess you could say in short, fisheries sustainability in general. So, for example, in the case of Ghana, based on what we looked at on the paper, we found that governments are introducing or have introduced this idea of closed season where in the artisanal or small scale fishing sector are expected to not fish for maybe a month and the

same thing is applicable to the distal water fishing or maybe not the distal but let me just describe it as the industrial sector they are also expected to observe two months fishing ban or should I say close season, but at different times. So the intention is, of course, to allow the fish to regenerate. And with this, there will be surplus. You know, once they adhere to this close season, things would improve. And then in Liberia, we found that the government were reducing the inshore area from six nautical miles to three nautical miles.

This is the area that is available to artisanal fishers. And of course, there's been a lot of, I think maybe the right term I can say, uses complexities around the implementation of this closed season because it was first introduced or spoken about through an executive order by the former president of Liberia in 2017, but was never implemented due to, you know, public outcry and NGOs and people really, and fisher folk as well, talking about it, saying that this is an unfair, decision to make. But in practice, this is obviously was a very important case study to show because they never, although it wasn't implemented, it was not cancelled. And subsequent actions by the current president suggested that they were willing to implement it. So for example, they signed a fishing agreement with Senegal that would see semi-industrial fishers or semi-industrial vessels and some industrial vessels coming to Liberia to exploit the resources and again although there were delays around the implementation they later decided that there

was going to be like a test case for this to be done and this was last year and that test case involved some industrial vessels that had linked with Spain coming in to you know fulfill the the provisions of that agreement so even though the reduced inshore area was not implemented it was indirectly implemented due to the kind of policies that were put in place to allow outside vessels to explore resources in an area that was originally assigned to industrial or sorry artisanal small scale vessels and then in countries like Madagascar and Somalia we see this is based on the cases we see that you know despite the rhetorics around conservation being an issue governments are sort of having this business as usual approach to engagement with

distant water stream nations so for example in somalia they signed fishing agreement with china despite not having the tool to enforce or to monitor the vessels operating in in the country and their waters. In Madagascar, there were so many examples of, you know, again, they signed an agreement that was very problematic and there was public outcry and then that was delayed or should I say rescinded. But then subsequently, we also found cases wherein agreements were signed despite the fact that they had already recognized that certain stocks are depleting and there's need for conservation so when it comes to dealing with this sort of nation when it comes to anything that brings revenue at least substantial revenue it seems that the government are willing to

continue this kind of things but policing by implementing more strict actions on the most visible and vulnerable and obviously quite unable to resist small scale fishes because obviously we describe them as visible because of the close proximity to law enforcement in comparison to distant water fishing vessels or industrial vessels who obviously mostly operate outside the territorial waters and of which if you take into account that so many other countries on the African continent do not necessarily have adequate monitoring control and surveillance mechanism to monitor activities of those vessels we feel that this might be some of the reasons why in terms of policing the activities of the industrial vessels is not really happening

so much. And so they have resigned to just continuing the business as usual and extracting the revenue they gain from them. Yeah, I wanted to ask a follow-up question about what resources the countries have to enforce these things, because it is fine to declare fishing bans or talk about where you can fish, but if you have no enforcement and monitoring resources doesn't sound like those resources actually exist right now so people are signing they're signing agreements but with no means of actually enforcing those agreements is that an accurate statement that's exactly the problem so in terms of the agreement with distant water nations you could say that especially when those nations or vessels are linked to illegal fishing

for example it could be because well their actual monitoring is not happening as should and the actual monitoring is not happening as should due to the lack of capacity or should I say limited capacity of the countries that are signing these agreements. However, in comparison to the artisanal sector, and like I said, they are in close proximity to law enforcement, their fishing is near shore water. So it's quite easy to see what they're doing. It's quite easy to walk around and monitor. It's quite easy to come to the landing site and see what's happening. So, for example, in the case of fishing ban or checking how effective or how sustainable, how responsive artisanal fishers are to existing regulations around combating illegal fishing is easier for so many coastal states on the African continent to do that due to the close proximity of the artisanal sector to them. But in comparison, even when those laws exist to enforcing the law for the trawlers and industrial sectors, it is more difficult due to the lack of, should I say, limited capacity to actually be at sea and monitor the activities of those vessels.

So a lot of the times, therefore, some of the vessels that might have been implicated for IU fishing is after the fact, is not actually when they are doing it, but maybe due to data that has been shared by monitoring centers, which thankfully, obviously, I can say that things are improving across so many regions and so many countries in terms of the monitoring itself. So they're able to then find out after the fact, rather than when it's actually happening. The capacity is an issue in terms of having limited capacity. But then that has not stopped countries from continuing to license or enter into agreement with distant water fishing fleets or industrial vessels. And that obviously tells you about the continuous centering of economic revenue, potentially to the detriment of social well-being and environmental conservation, given that, of course, you cannot monitor something if you're unable to sort of see what people are doing and take the statistics in terms of the fish stock, what they're exploiting and how they're exploiting it and ensuring that they're sticking to the terms of the agreement or the licensing. Now, you argued in the paper that the government governance mechanisms disproportionately affect small scale fisheries. And you just gave us some examples of that. I would assume, too, in a lot of these cases, the law enforcement vessels and the artisanal fishers are sharing the same port facilities.

So they're probably leaving from piers not that far apart from one another. You can observe from land exactly what that fisherman is doing that day. But how would you characterize or describe a small scale fishery in this instance? so you're right and this is why we said more visible and i use the term the close proximity so small scale fishers or industry sorry artisanal fishers are fishing that is usually done either in canyons you know like this wooden boat in front i think they call it pirogue and it's it's it's characterized by that and for so many countries it could be um in terms of where they're able to fish from zero to five nautical miles zero to three and independent what country

could be up to zero to 12 nautical miles that they're able to extract resources these are area that is restricted to small scale fishes and a lot of the time they are done by fisher folk that live in coastal communities they are in some countries and increasingly it might also be something that is done by migrant fishers you know in west africa for example fishers might based on maybe the season in terms of the level of catch might migrate leave their country say nigerian might leave nigeria for liberia or nigeria for ghana or ghana for togo togo or ghana to banner for example to fish so it it's categorized by um then the small scale nature of of the fishing activities is categorized by the fact that it's usually done with canyons but

primarily it's in the inshore areas and like i mentioned earlier it could be zero to three zero to five or maximum zero to 12 medical miles depending on countries So what impact are you seeing on the small-scale fishers of all the factors that you described? So you talked about governance mechanisms. We've talked about increased visibility that leads to disproportional enforcement on artisanal fishers and then depletion of stocks. What is the net effect on the small-scale fisheries? um so the impact can be quite severe in terms of one the ability to make ends meet and although we're talking about fishing and this is actually why it's very important in terms of what we wrote

and our paper is very important is that there are already so many factors that is undermining the livelihood of small scale fishers on the african continent so we have overfishing of course which has affected fisheries population so we know that depleting fish stock is already a reality to the point that fisher folk are not catching enough in comparison to before and then we also seen not only over fishing I'm sorry over policing as a result of you know trying to ensure sustainable fishing but over policing as a result of trying to combat piracy in Amrabria sea especially in western central Africa to the point that unfortunately sometimes fisher folks are mistaken as potential pirates or potential armed robbers that obviously also affect their

ability to go freely at sea and fish because of course there's so much emphasis on trying to combat piracy have meant that sometimes they are victims in terms of being stopped and being asked to turn around, or even policies like putting up coffee in terms of the ability to be at the harbour, for example, have meant that the fishing time have reduced. And so there's so many things that is going against them in terms of their ability to make and smith. And then you have these policies that's been introduced to ensure sustainable fisheries, more or less stifling them even more so the impact of course means that their income is likely to be affected and with that their ability to support their families so this is obviously very problematic because it's not

as simple as saying if someone cannot make ends meet they might be tempted to engage in criminal activity but then if someone cannot make ends meet and they're not getting support from the state so for example when we talked about the closed season we also highlighted that there were research that was done subsequently that showed that there was an increase in poverty in in communities in that period or during that period of closed season because there was no alternative or support from the government for people to be able to subsist in that period although I mean if you've read widely about the closed season in Ghana and and what the government is trying to do differently in terms of the lessons learned they've now um are talking about being able to support fisher

folk um in times of close season which would be a positive thing because you can't expect someone to not do anything for one month and then not support them through livelihoods so some of the impact we're seeing is of course is pushing people to poverty is undermining their human right and instead of making them feel that there is an us versus them element to policing especially when it comes to maritime security in general wherein they are they must be um subjugated to so many rules and regulations whilst the other people that actually based on the evidence and the data that exists in terms of illegal fishing or exploitation of fish stock are allowed to continue what they are doing without being regulated or policed in the same way that small scale or artisanal fishers

And finally, what were your recommendations for a more inclusive fisheries sector? So our recommendation was actually something that is based on the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations have written about. So this is based on voluntary guidelines in support of small scale fisheries, which was created in 2015. So we argue that there is an incentive for African government to consider implementing that in its entirety. And this is actually something that they already signed up to, the idea of voluntary guideline. But the problem, of course, is that when it comes to walking the talk, when it comes to implementation, there is still a very big issue around inclusivity and how fisher folk or fishing communities are even seen as stakeholders that can engage in at an equal footing for example when it comes to

fisheries agreement are they even considered when it comes to fishing licensing and even investing the revenue from the fish stock are adjacent communities are fishing communities is even considered or thought of when those agreements are made. So some of the recommendations from the guideline, for example, looks to secure equitable and sociocultural appropriate tenor rights to fisheries resources, which is absolutely very important because unfortunately, again, we're seeing as so many countries look to develop their blue economy, this is the ocean sector,

people are losing access to their traditional fishing grounds to make way for maybe port infrastructure for example or government's interest in oil exploration or tourism so the voluntary guideline ensures if implemented that the rights of fisher folk are taken into account when these things are happening and that resources are managed and tenor rights are allocated accordingly and of course support for local development and decent work these are just some of the the things that the voluntary guideline emphasizes and importantly of course promoting gender equality because even though when we're talking about fishing in so many countries on the continent the idea or what we envision is men you know going to fish the reality is that

without the women in the value chain, the fishing sector on the continent would cripple. I mean, this is the reality. So the work that the boat do, that is the men and women, are complementary. And so promoting gender equality within the sector is critical to not only sustaining the sector and ensuring the food security of the African peoples, but also ensuring that of course that equity and justice is at the center of whatever effort government and their international partners are looking to explore to ensure sustainable fisheries and we also talked about in terms of how can we then ensure that african governments are able to benefit from

these agreements or this license and you know this business relations that they have with distant water nations because the reality is that the revenue is needed by governments to run their countries and so we talked about perhaps that there might be an opportunity for them to look for african governments to look deeper into um the pacific tuna forum fisheries agency what they have in place wherein they're able to negotiate their agreement these are countries in the pacific island through the Nauru agreement they're able to negotiate their fisheries agreement or tuna agreement as a bloc and so we reflected on perhaps this is something the continent can consider because you're more powerful when you're a collective when you come together and you're

negotiating from not only from a good knowledge base because you would have had experts and different countries contributing ideas than going as a single entity to negotiate on something that is migratory obviously the migratory nature of fish means that the impact of depleting fisheries is not it's cross-boundary and so there is likely to be a very great incentive for the continent to consider the pacific island styled approach this might not mean obviously implementing what the pacific island countries have in place in its entirety but there might be elements of it might be beneficial for countries on the continent. And this is why we highlighted it as a potential solution.

And of course, we then talked about changing the narrative. And that changing the narrative is that for us to really get to the point where we can ensure sustainable exploitation of Africa's fish stock and also ensuring the sustainable development of the African people, then they must redirect the current strategy of targeting the visible, vulnerable, least able to resist small scale fishes to actually enforcing and implementing and monitoring the activities of or increasing monitoring of the activities of industrial vessels. And this can be achieved by collective monitoring. You know, some of the things we already have when it comes to fighting piracy and robbery

I see in Western Central Africa, for example, is something that can be beneficial, monitoring collectively and working as a collective rather than trying to do each individually. Well, unfortunately, that's all the time that we have, or that's all that we have time for today. I'd like to thank my guest, Dr. Ife Sinache Okafori-Arwood. Ife, where can we find you online

and what's your next project? I am on Twitter. My handle is at Diplomatic Ife. And my next project, I'm currently working with partners at Bonn University in Germany. And we're trying to look at the unintended consequences of EU arrangements or EU investment in the Gulf of Guinea on irregular migration into Europe. so irregular migration from gulf of guinea to europe i hope that's clear enough but this is like a new project that i'm quite excited about yeah so that's something that way i am working on with my partners at born i like the sound of that and hopefully we'll get to talk to you about that once you go to publish but thank you again for joining us to the listeners thanks for tuning in we'll see you next time There I met with Greasy Alley, put it on the shimbo now.

So help me, poor man, put it in the alley. Way, hey, put it in the alley. Help me, poor man, put it in the alley. Put it on the shimbo now. A porter of, and a porter kill of. Way, hey, put it in the alley. A porter of wine, of white and red, oh. We'll see you next week.