5. INSTITUTIONS

5.1 Government Services to the Fishery Sector
5.2 External Aid

5.1 Government Services to the Fishery Sector

It is common for the organization specifically responsible for government fishery policies, be it a 'Service', 'Département', 'Bureau' or 'Division', to be part of the Ministry of Agriculture. This is the case in Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria and Zaïre. It is also common for the principal government fishery organization to be part of a 'Water and Forests' or 'Rural Development' Ministry. For example in Gabon the 'Direction des Pêches' is directly responsible to the 'Ministère des Eaux et Forêts', in Senegal the 'Direction de l’Océanographie et des Pêches Maritimes' is responsible to the 'Ministère du Développement Rural et de l'Hydraulique', and in Benin the 'Service des Pêches' is responsible to the 'Ministère du Développement Rural et de l'Action Coopérative'. The 'Direction des Pêches Maritimes et Lagunaires' of the Ivory Coast falls within the 'Ministère de la Production Animale', the 'Service des Pêches' of Togo falls within the 'Ministère de l'Equipement Rural', and the 'Direction des Pêches Maritimes' of Cameroon falls within the 'Ministère de l'Elevage et des Industries Alimentaires'. The 'Direction Générale des Pêches' of Guinea is under the authority of the 'Ministère de l'Elevage et des Pêches'.

Three countries group fishery affairs with ministries which are generally concerned with all marine matters. The 'Service des Pêches Maritimes' of the Congo is responsible to the 'Ministère des Transports', the 'Direction de l'Océanographie, Pêches Maritimes et Marine Marchande' of Mauritania is responsible to the 'Ministère de l'Industrie et du Commerce', and in Morocco the regulation and control of fisheries are undertaken by the 'Ministère de la Marine Marchande'.

In a number of countries the government has established an organization which can actively undertake production activities either by itself, or through a joint venture in partnership with a local or foreign business. A typical example of this production-oriented organization is the 'Office National des Pêches' (ONP) of Morocco which is directly responsible to the Prime Minister's office. The ONP has formed a number of joint ventures with local and foreign business, and is an owner or part-owner of a number of trawlers, purse seiners and processing plants. The ONP also undertakes other activities in the form of a research institute, an aquarium, and in extending grants and credit to fishermen. Another large state-owned operation, which falls under a Ministry of Agriculture, is the State Fishing Corporation of Ghana. This corporation owns a number of distant-water freezer trawlers, and cold stores. In Togo the 'Office National des Pêches' operates two inshore trawlers. This organization is responsible to the 'Ministère du Développement Rural'. The 'Office des Pêches Maritimes' (OPEMA) of Guinea is responsible for the purchase, production and marketing of all the fish of industrial origin to be consumed in Guinea and falls within the authority of the 'Direction Générale des Pêches'. Substantial investments have also been made by the governments of Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast, the Congo and Zaire in locally-based vessels, and on shore fishing facilities such as cold stores. Nigeria and Benin intend to similarly provide investment for their local fishing industry. The Senegalese government participates in a trading company (SAFCOP) which has been specifically established to promote exports of Senegalese fish, and since 1963 has participated in tuna fishing through the state-owned company SOSAP.

In addition to the above investments which will directly lead to increased production, a number of governments either have invested or are about to invest in the construction of port facilities specifically built to cater to the needs of the fishery sector and it is expected that these investments will indirectly lead to increased fish landings.

In most countries of the Region, fishery research is controlled by the local organization responsible for all fishery matters. However, in Senegal, Ivory Coast and the Congo the 'Centres de Recherches Océanographiques' fall under the 'Ministère des Recherches Scientifiques'.

It has been difficult to collect data on the availability of credit for the fishery sector in a number of countries in the Region. In Morocco, as already mentioned, the 'Office National des Pêches' provides grants and credit for motorisation of vessels and gear improvement, and the BNDE (National Bank for Economic Development) is the big lender for vessel construction and plant construction and modernisation. In Senegal the 'Banque Nationale de Développement du Sénégal' has a revolving loan fund to help motorisation of canoes and a similar scheme is to be shortly introduced in Guinea. The Division of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture in Gambia has a similar scheme. The National Development Bank of Sierra Leone shows little interest in granting credit to artisanal fishermen, and in Liberia there is no such credit scheme. The Agricultural Development Bank of Ghana is modestly involved in granting credits to fishermen, as also is the 'Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole' of Togo. Both the federal and state governments of Nigeria operate loan schemes to aid fishermen. The 'Caisse Nationale de Crédit Rural' in Gabon has at times given loans to fishermen, but no such loan was accorded in 1974. No institution grants loans for the improvement of artisanal fisheries in Cameroon, Congo or Zaïre, although in Cameroon there are two small projects which assist artisanal fishermen with credit.

The principal roles of a department or 'Service' are fishery policy formulation and planning, research activities, and the implementation and supervision of actual programmes, regulations and other activities, in support of fish resource management, the need to provide adequate fish supplies to meet demand, and balanced socio-economic development of the fishery sector to meet national socio-economic needs (see also section 7.3). Included in these roles are the annual registration of fishing vessels, and the issue of fishing licences. Some countries, such as Mauritania, insist that foreign-based vessels fishing their waters land much of the catch to onshore processing plants in addition to paying a licence fee in excess of U.S.$ 150 per Gross Ton of the vessel per year. Other countries such as Senegal issue licences on condition that markets will be opened to Senegalese fish products, often in other CECAF countries.

The 'Department' or 'Service' is also normally the government agency for recommending and controlling the fishing limits (Table 5.1) and the extension of fishing limits has come to be the main component of many governmental fishery policies in the Region. Indeed the recent de facto control of ex - Spanish Sahara by Mauritania and Morocco will mean that all the most important fish resources off Northwest Africa now fall within the jurisdiction of coastal African countries, since all countries from Sierra Leone to Morocco have fishing limits extending from 30 to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

Table 5.1 Territorial and fishing limits in the CECAF Region

State	Territorial sea	Outer limits of special zones adjacent to the territorial sea (measured from the baseline of the territorial sea)		Year
		Exclusive zone	Fishery area
Morocco	12	70	·	1973
Mauritania	30	·	·	1972
Senegal	150	200	·	1976
Gambia	50	·	·	1971
Guinea Bissau	150	·	·	1974
Guinea	130	·	·	1964
Sierra Leone	200	·	·	1971
Liberia	12	·	·	1967
Ivory Coast	6	12	·	1967
Ghana	30	·	130	1972
Togo	12	·	·	1964
Benin	200	·	·	1976
Nigeria	30	·	·	1971
Cameroon	50	·	·	1974
Equatorial Guinea	12	·	·	1970
Gabon	100	·	·	1972
Sao Tome and Principe	· · ·	·	·	·
Congo	30	·	·	1971
Zaïre	12	·	·	1974

Source:

FAO (1975a)
CECAF Project information

Although the Department of Fisheries or 'Service des Pêches' should be the government institution concerned with national policy formulation and planning, it cannot be expected to be directly involved with production activities. Such production activities require to be undertaken by private individuals, partnerships and/or companies, whether private or state-owned, and through the activities of credit agencies. The Department or 'Service' can work indirectly to affect the operations of the companies and agencies, as also it can work indirectly to introduce programmes to control taxes or fish imports and fishing gear, or control prices or identify and formulate projects for government/private investment, etc.

The strength of the principal government fishery institution varies greatly from country to country throughout the Region. In some countries the practical role of an institution equivalent to a Department is negligeable and the role of the production agency is more important. In other countries private industry has a more powerful role in governing national fishery policy than the government fishery Department. It is natural that the differences in activity of the Department vary from country to country, as the nature of government varies between countries. What is of importance to CECAF work is that these differences in approach are appreciated so that any assistance programme which is formulated can be more practically relevant to the conditions found in the countries participating in such a programme.

In theory the Department or 'Service' should be the only government institution responsible for overall fishery policy formulation, planning and implementation whereas, in practice, a common problem is that this task is often partially taken over by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and Industry, or other institution. This partial, or sometimes total, transfer of responsibility for the fishery sector to another more amorphous institution can often lead to a complete lack of interest by politicians and civil servants in realising the potential which the fishery sector often can contribute to national living standards. To a certain extent this unfortunate state of affairs can be aggravated if the capability and approach of staff employed by the Department or 'Service' are not of a sufficient standard to counteract this trend. Indeed the ability of senior staff to formulate and implement development strategies, either with or without assistance from other institutions, in addition to their ability to generate a high working morale amongst their more junior colleagues, is crucial to improving the strength of a fishery institution and the implementation of a successful development plan.

5.2 External Aid

In almost every country of the Region there has been some external aid to the fishery sector. In some oases the form of this aid has ranged from technical assistance involving one or two advisers or specialists over a short time span to a project involving several advisers plus equipment working over a long period. In other cases, the aid has involved financial assistance in the form of infrastructure construction, such as a port, the gift of fishing vessels, or money to start a revolving loan fund.

FAO, executing projects financed by UNDP, has played a leading role in resource surveys, and these have been mentioned in section 2.2. FAO has also played a leading role in strengthening the government institutions involved with fisheries throughout the Region.

Other important advisory and technical assistance projects have been financed by Norway (in Morocco particularly), Italy (in Sierra Leone), the United Kingdom (in Nigeria) for development of a beach boat design, and by France in many of the French-speaking countries.

Financial assistance for the construction of ports to serve the fishing industry has been granted by the European Development Fund (in Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast) and the World Bank (a loan has been approved for the extension of the Nouadhibou fishing port).

Financial assistance to small-scale fishermen for the motorisation of their canoes has been granted by a number of non-governmental and charitable organizations through the Freedom from Hunger Campaign (particularly in Benin and Togo). Canada has also granted assistance to a similar motorisation scheme in Senegal and Cameroon, and is about to grant assistance to such a scheme in Guinea.

External aid agencies can continue to play a large role in assisting fishery development throughout the Region. However the role which this aid is, in practice, asked to play will obviously depend on the wishes of individual countries. In some countries the priority will be on infrastructural development, fleet development, and/or artisanal loan schemes which all require financing. In other countries the priority will be on technical assistance to perfect vessel or gear design, or improve data collection and analysis. It is probably fair to say, however, that external aid can in every country be put to good use in improving resource management and increasing the flow of fish to the consumer. Some of these development priorities are listed in section 7.3.