by
Bah
Abdourahim[50]
Introduction
Situated in West Africa, the Guinean Republic has a population of 7.2 million people and a surface area of around 245 857 km2.
It is a coastal country with an Atlantic shoreline of 300 km. It has the largest continental shelf in Western Africa, measuring 46 000km2. The various water courses from the coastal basin bring large quantities of nutriments favouring the abundance of various fishery resources.
Guinea's marine zone has a large marine fishing potential (industrial and artisanal) due to the the continental shelf specificity.
The various water courses the country offer possibilities for aquaculture and continental fishing.
The climate is characterized by two 6-month seasons.
Exploitable potential of fishery resources: river and marine waters are prolific and host biological potential which can be exploited annually in the region of:
Pelagic fish 50-200 000 tonnes
benthic fish 35-40 000 tonnes
Shrimps 2-4 000 tonnes
Cephalopods 5-12 000 tonnes
Large pelagics 2 500 tonnes
Continental fishery 12 000 tonnes
The main species found belong essentially to the Ariidae, Albulidae, Carangidae, Clupeidae, Cynoglossidae, Carcharhinidae, Drepanidae, Dasyatidae, Elopidae, Gymnuridae, Hemigaleidae, Lutjanidae, Sparidae, Scombridae, Mullidae, Mugilidae, Polynemidae, Sciaenidae, Pomadasyidae Sphyraenidae and Sphyrnidae families.
Brief economic fisheries data
Fisheries is one of the most important economic sectors in Guinea. It generates around 9 000 jobs directly and 200 000 indirectly.
Annual production is estimated at 91 000 tonnes (1997); in 2000 production rose, reaching a peak of 50 000 tonnes for each of the two marine fisheries (industrial and artisanal). As for continental fishery, annual production is in the region of 6 000 tonnes.
Landings take place at the 200 landing places and fishing sites, 17 of which are in marine zones.
According to the annual fishery programme (2003), a percentage of by-catch is authorized according to the type of fishing carried out, the maximum of which is 9 percent for fish fish captures and 15 percent for shrimp and cephalopod.
Consumption of animal protein per capita is 13 kg/year.
Within the framework of the sector's contribution to the balance of payments, fisheries provides the national economy with direct annual financial contribution resulting from licence sales of around 20 to 25 billion Guinean francs.
Export in both fresh and smoked fish has seen a rapid development in these past few years. The monitoring and quality control service issues health and hygiene certificates which have generated a fiscal income estimated at 100 million Guinean francs per year.
This contribution could have been higher if the country possessed a national fishing fleet and a land-based processing industry.
Sectorial policy
The fishery sector policy has been reviewed following the liberal option taken during these last few years. The main objective is to optimize economic and social benefits that could be obtained from the country's rational and sustainable exploitation of fishery resources.
The policy's specific objectives focus on:
food security;
poverty alleviation;
the sector's integration in the national economy;
job creation and a substantial rise in public revenue profits.
To reach these objectives, the sectorial policy is relying on the following strategies:
sustainable resource exploitation for present and future generations;
support tovillage communities, economic operators and socio-professional organizations within the sector;
supporting and setting up fishing infrastructures which meet quality standards;
institutional support for the fishery sector.
The plan of action to implement this policy includes:
to provide support for fishery research in order to monitor and evaluate resources;
fisheries surveillance and protection;
participation of artisanal fishermen in monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) of the coastal zone.
Management measures
A precautionnary approach to management measures which would strengthen the coastal zone
Reform and fishery management measures aim essentially to:
- protection of fishery resources which are a national heritage, in order to ensure their durability for present and future generations;
- protection of fragile ecosystems and measures to protect fish reproduction;
- reduction of conflicts between artisanal and industrial fishing;
- a setting up of an after-catch-loss programme in order to reduce sea waste which contributes to increase fishing mortality that brings no economic benefits to either the fishery industry or to the population.
Socio-economic measures and their aims:
food security for the population;
development of a national capacity to exploit fishery resources;
creation of adequate infrastructures to produce high value fishery products;
job creation;
substantial contribution to State revenue;
reduction of poverty levels by improving the population's living conditions.
Access conditions to the resource focus on:
banning the use of pair-trawling, purse seines and beach seines;
banning trawl fishing within the 0 to 10 nautical mile zone;
a minimum duration of fishing licences to be fixed to 3 months;
exclusion of fish collecitng boats within the 0 to 10 nautical mile zone;
individual vessel capacity limitation to 1 000 Gross Register Tonnage (GRT) for demersal fishing and 2 600 GRT for pelagic fishing;
setting up fishing agreements with industrial fishing companies;
the signing of agreements by fishing companies concerning partial landings in Guinea;
stepping up coastal monitoring control and surveillance and severe repression of offending vessels;
encouraging the installation of a satelite monitoring system (SMS) on board fishing vessels
strengthening artisanal fishery participative surveillance;
presence of observers on board licenced vessels.
Problems and drawbacks:
foreign fleet dominating Guinean EEZ resource exploitation;
lack of professionalism on behalf of Guinean fishing operators (artisanal and industrial);
inefficient fishery control and surveillance;
the research system's inability to improve knowledge on available ressources;
lack of national funds to encourage development of the private fishery sector.
Attempts at sector reform:
A lack of professionalism and particularly the inexistence of a national fleet has led the State to take the following measures:
sale and lease of State vessels to private sector operators;
chartering foreign fishing vessels by the Guinean private sector;
tax reductions for vessels concerned, in order to make up for the lack of private sector funding;
the sale and lease of outboard engines to artisanal fishermen, within an auto-management framework. This has lead to develop a permanent assistance mentality in fishermen;
the programme ended in failure, its consequences were felt at all socio-economic levels of the sector (a decline in public revenue taxes and in possible job prospects, lack of national fleet, etc.);
missed tax earnings within the framework of this programme were estimated at several million dollars;
in addition, the programme brought about a disorganized resource exploitation, due to exemptions that were granted to vessels flying Guinean flag.
Future prospects:
to encourage better fishery surveillance;
to strengthen fishery research capacity;
to set up a national fishing fleet in order to facilitate job creation and product added value;
create possibilities for Guinean operators to acquire vessels previously used in bi- or multilateral partnership;
to set up temporary foreign fleet operator’s associations which would benefit from current Guinean investment policies;
to make fisheries more cost effective;
improve socio-economic impact;
to set up a sector tax system which would take into account all aspects of the sector, as opposed to the current system which is only based on sales of fishing licences. This approach would contribute to sustainable exploitation of fishery resources.
|
[50] National Marine
Fisheries Director. |
