1. The CIFA Sub-Committee for the Protection and Development of the Fisheries in the Sahelian Zone held its Seventh Session from 3–6 July 2000 at the Conference Hall of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Delegates from all the eight member countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal) attended the Session along with observers from three FAO Member countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic and Mauritania) and a number of related institutions. In all, the Session had 41 participants. The list of Delegates and Observers is presented in Appendix B.
2. Mr Ari Toubo Ibrahim, FAO Representative in Burkina Faso, addressed the Session on behalf of the Director-General of FAO. He underscored the importance FAO placed on fisheries in the Sahelian Zone, given its central role in improving food security and reducing poverty, a role that played a prominent part in the FAO Special Programme for Food Security which was active in all member countries.
3. Mr Ibrahim further noted that, although the zone was typified by arid conditions ranging from savanna to desert, it possessed vital aquatic resources which included major rivers like the Niger and Senegal, lakes and main-stream reservoirs such as Chad and Kainji, as well as vast floodplains and numerous small water bodies and wetlands. In the aggregate, these areas offered considerable potential for increased fish production. When this expected increase was combined with a corresponding reduction in post-harvest losses, it could be seen that the Sahel had significant untapped fisheries potential.
4. The Honourable Minister of State and Minister of Environment and Water Resources of Burkina Faso, Dr Arsène Bongnessan Yé, opened the Session. He reiterated the importance of aquatic resources to the Sahelian Zone, noting that the sub-region was already producing an estimated 200 000 tons of fish annually, a harvest of noteworthy socio-economic importance. He observed, moreover, that for this harvest to be sustainable, and indeed to increase, appropriate policies must be put in place to guide all stakeholders. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries provided a framework for such policies and a mechanism to improve the livelihoods of those dependent upon the sub-region's waters for their livelihood. In this regard, the Minister acknowledged the potential role of the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (SFLP) funded by the Government of the United Kingdom and executed by FAO. He further recognized the contribution of staff of the SFLP in the seminar on Fisheries Management in the Sahelian Zone during the Session, a seminar which would explore methods to ensure the optimal long-term contribution of these resources to the sub-region's food security.
5. The Agenda was adopted as given in Appendix A. The documents presented to the Session are shown in Appendix C.
6. The seminar was organized by the Sustainable Fishery Livelihoods Programme in West Africa (SFLP) within the framework of its activities relating to the incorporation of adapted Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) in national strategies. It was chaired by Mrs Kardiatou Kabore, Director of Fisheries of Burkina Faso, who was also the Chairperson of the Sub-Committee.
7. The Seminar had two main objectives. The first objective was to examine the current situation of inland fisheries management in reference to the CCRF and by using the analytical framework of the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA). The second objective was to identify priority actions, to be possibly implemented with the support of SFLP, for the promotion of responsible fisheries and the improvement of livelihoods of communities in inland areas of the Sahel. The seminar was organized four sessions followed by a round table.
8. The first session of the seminar consisted of presentation and discussions of different concepts relating to SLA and pertinent principles of CCRF to be applied in the context of inland fisheries management in the Sahelian zone. During the session, it was emphasized that one of the most appropriate entry points of improving livelihoods of inland fisheries communities would be the Policies, Institutions and Processes (PIP). Based on the analysis of the links between the CCRF and management of Sahelian inland fisheries, assumption was made that a priority step towards responsible fisheries management might be to improve PIP so as to promote, on the one hand, the environmental management of fisheries with a view to conserving and if possible enhancing natural productivity of the aquatic ecosystems and, on the second hand, the social and economic management of fisheries, that would be flexible, adaptive and specific depending on the type of fishery as well as based on co-management mechanisms.
9. During the second session, existing Traditional Management Systems (TMS) in the region were analysed and an evaluation of their potential contribution to poverty alleviation considered. The participants agreed on the necessity to take into account local management practices when setting up co-management mechanisms. This should equally be accompanied by the reenforcement of the participation capacity of the community-based organizations to ensure equity in the context of co-management.
10. The third session looked more particularly at the experiences in the region relating to the development of fisheries enhancement. This aspect of management, that refers to the improvement of natural fisheries productivity, was considered as an opportunity in the Sahelian zone, in particular in the context of poverty alleviation. The participants did however stress the necessity to pay particular attention to the social, economic and legal aspects from the very start of projects to guarantee viable conditions and sustainability of the systems, as well as to take account of past experiences undertaken in the region with the support of technical assistance or through community initiatives.
11. The fourth session of the seminar offered an opportunity to discuss two important policy instruments for fisheries management, i.e. legislation and information systems. The current legal fisheries framework is favourable in general for the implementation of responsible management policies that would be based on the establishment of co-management mechanisms and on the elaboration of specific and participatory management plans depending on the type of fishery. This framework should however be strengthened through the adoption of regulation to support the effective implementation of such policies.
12. Based on discussions concerning information systems, the need for developing more simple and cost-effective systems in the future was highlighted. These systems should firstly serve as a tool to defend the interests of the fisheries sector in public policies for integrated resource management as well as to support collective decision making in the context of co-management. To this effect, the participants stressed the necessity to be creative when devising these systems, particularly for data collection and to pay particular attention to the process of dissemination of information.
13. A round table followed which enabled further discussions on concepts relating to responsible inland fishery management and to strategies aimed at alleviating poverty in the Sahel. It is apparent that certain questions required further investigation. In particular, the need to continue reflecting on the interpretation of the CCRF in the context of Sahelian inland fisheries was clearly stressed.
14. Another important theme, associated with poverty alleviation, was debated in depth. It referred to the criteria of poverty in the context of inland Sahelian fisheries. In reference to the criteria of the capital of sustainable livelihoods, the outcome of the discussions was that financial capital should not constitute the only reference criteria. Also, it was stressed that in order to avoid generalisation that would be incompatible with the diversity of the situations of fisheries and fishing communities, poverty criteria should be identified case by case on a participative basis.
15. A consensus was reached that it was necessary to re-enforce the natural capital of fishery livelihoods in a sustainable manner. This should require the implementation of fisheries environmental policies including inter alia the conservation of the quality of the aquatic ecosystems and the increased productivity of the environment through fisheries enhancement. The participants also drew attention to the fact that strategies for poverty alleviation within Sahelian inland fisheries communities should take into account the diversity of economic activities by stakeholders. However, participants recognized that this was beyond the direct scope of the SFLP.
16. On the basis of the foregoing discussions, the seminar formulated recommendations focussing on the improvements of PIP, particularly aimed at implementing and re-enforcing those co-management processes that most of the Sahelian countries had initiated some years ago.
17. Participants were assured that the report of the seminar including the papers presented would be the subject of a publication in the context of the SFLP. This publication would be widely distributed in the region, particularly through the National Co-ordinating Units of the Programme. It was considered that this publication should serve to orient the future activities of the SFLP in its support to responsible fisheries management and poverty alleviation in the Sahelian inland zone.
SEMINAR RECOMMENDATIONS
18. The seminar recommended that the priorities for responsible inland fisheries and poverty alleviation in the Sahelian zone should be put on the development of co-management processes. In particular the seminar recommended:
19. This Agenda item was introduced by the Secretariat on the basis of document CIFA/PD:S/2000/3. The presentation started with a brief review of the importance of irrigation and aquaculture individually and the synergy that could be developed when the two activities were combined in a truly integrated manner. A number of recent prominent international fora were cited which had recommended that an integrated resource management approach be the cornerstone of food production systems in the new millenium.
20. The Sub-Committee was informed that Integrated Irrigation/Aquaculture, or IIA, was founded on the “more crop per drop” principle which was critical in drought-phone areas where demand on aquatic resources was increasing with increasing population while supplies were stagnant or even declining. IIA offered a system of water re-use, obtaining two or more crops from the same volume of water. A number of existing IIA systems being practiced in member countries were reviewed, including rice/fish culture and artisanal marsh aquaculture.
21. It was noted that FAO had funded two recent missions in the sub-region to evaluate ongoing and potential IIA activities, especially within the context of the FAO Special Programme for Food Security. These missions concluded that the un-or under-utilized water resources of the sub-region could produce more than 10 000 additional tons of fish if existing IIA practices were improved and new systems identified and adopted.
22. However, participants were reminded that there were several constraints to IIA development starting with the environmental challenges provided by the Sahelian Zone with limited water, high evaporation rates, porous soils and often erratic climate. In addition, there were economic constraints including the high cost of establishing water control and delivery systems, expensive production inputs and competition with produce from other less expensive sources. Finally, there were social and cultural issues including questions of land tenure, difficulties in forming cohesive producer groups, gender inequality and theft as well as a lack of a fish husbandry tradition.
23. Nonetheless, many of these constraints could be met by benefiting from current opportunities for IIA development which included unexploited land and water resources, high demand for irrigation and aquaculture products, high priority placed on food security by Governments and a corresponding ever-improving policy environment. In this light, a proposed Programme Profile for Integrated Inland Water Resources Management in Drought-prone West African Countries (CIFA/PD:S/2000/Inf.24) was reviewed by participants with the aim of determining the suitability of the proposal to the sub-region's needs.
24. Participants presented brief exposés of different types of IIA activities currently employed in their countries and examined past related efforts for aquaculture development in the Sahelian Zone. Given the limited successes of these previous efforts, it was emphasized that any new activities should take heed of the lessons learned to ensure that previous pitfalls were not once again encountered.
25. The Programme Profile was discussed and the Sub-Committee emphasized that a programme on IIA development was both timely and of great relevance to the Sahelian Zone. A number of constraints were analyzed in detail including the availability of fingerlings and other production inputs. It was stressed that site selection and effective beneficiary groups were of the utmost importance, that valorization of exiting irrigation schemes should be an important consideration and that the proposed programme should have a strong focus on women's involvement. The Sub-Committee subsequently fully endorsed the integrated resource management approach and recommended that the Programme Profile be further developed and presented to CIFA for approval.
26. The Secretariat presented a synthesis of national reports assessing the post-harvest situation in each member country with a focus on the small-scale sub-sector. The analysis emphasized several aspects concerning the important contribution of fish from the sub-sector. The following characteristics were highlighted:
Freshwater artisanal capture fisheries accounted for more than 65% of total catch.
Inland capture fisheries are entirely artisanal.
Fish was a major item in household food security and income.
The average per capita total fish consumption in the region of 12kg/person/year was higher than that for red meat.
Curing dominated the post-harvest preservation, women providing 60% of the labour.
Marketing was dynamic, involving a variety of transactions and stakeholders.
There seemed to be no logical pattern for processed fish movement within the region.
Fish imports to the sub-region accounted for 17% of the total fish supply, frozen and canned small pelagics being the majority of the products.
27. It was further pointed out that these characteristics, however, shielded a set of discrete but linked weaknesses, which often led to post-harvest losses, estimated to be 20–30% in the region. The contributing issues identified by the national reviews involve:
unhygienic practices during handling and processing;
inappropriate technologies in use, particularly the poor level of improved smoking;
the need for more value-added products. Yet, since the economic context within the region is characterised by weak purchasing power of consumers, value-added products might need to be placed in more robust markets; the simplest method of adding value consists of keeping whole fish in a chilled form;
under-development of communication facilities and inadequate marketing facilities and information;
the marginal capacity of the artisanal fishworkers in business and accounting;
the scarcity of flexible institutional credit and weak micro-finance systems.
weak professional groups or associations;
imposition of levies and taxes, in some cases, of up to 30% of the total value of the end product, which seriously weakened the competitiveness of local processed products with respect to imports; and
weak capacity of inspection and quality control services arising from insufficient and poorly trained personnel along with under-equipped laboratories.
28. The Sub-Committee recognized that upgrading from an artisanal to a semi-industrial approach could assist in overcoming these constraints.
29. Delegates expressed their satisfaction with the presentation, their comments focusing on improved smoking and drying techniques, fresh fish preservation as well as the need for information dissemination and access to credit. It was further noted that technologies such as the modified Chorkor ovens in Gambia, solar fish dryers and gas/biogas smoking in Nigeria and “ice silos” in Senegal should be evaluated, with results shared among member countries.
30. Participants also emphasized that with globalisation a reality, it was imperative that governments pay more attention to quality assurance issues in artisanal fisheries in order to compete with products coming from other parts of the world. It was recommended that based on the experiences already made by FAO in Nigeria to introduce quality assurance in artisanal fisheries, FAO should assist member countries in the introduction of quality assurance in their artisanal fisheries. Moreover, it was stressed that there was a need to develop a collaborative programme dealing with post-harvest issues, integrating the recommendations made during the regional workshop on this subject which was organized under the auspices of the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme in Grand-Bassam (Côte d'Ivoire) in March 2000.
31. Delegates acknowledged that, though external assistance would be required to address the issues and practices hampering the sustainable development of the artisanal sub-sector, many solutions to tackle these issues existed within the region. In any case, the commitment and involvement of the fishworkers were fundamental. Action to be taken by the Governments related to strengthening, training and sensitisation of fishworkers, establishment of a framework to enable fair competitiveness of local fishery products as well as access to credit and services involving well structured groups. International institutions should play a key role in the validation of non-documented, but apparently low-cost technologies currently in use, in the support of research on post-harvest losses and in the establishment of relevant strategies and capacity building, while intergovernmental organizations, such as INFOPECHE, should be a cornerstone in the improvement and dissemination of market information, including data collection.
(a) Future of the Sub-Committee
32. The Chairperson of the Sub-Committee reminded delegates that during the Sixth Session it was recommended that the Sub-Committee be strengthened through increased support from member countries rather than being disbanded. However, faced with increasing economic and financial difficulties, member countries had not been able to make the financial and technical contributions initially foreseen. Indeed, the convocation of the present Session would not have been possible without significant external funding. Thus, the sustainability of the Sub-Committee was now questionable.
33. An analysis of the Sub-Committee's future should bear in mind that the Sahelian Zone was presently receiving support from a number of sources including the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme and the SPFS, support which it was once felt would be the domain of the Sub-Committee. Moreover, many of the issues confronting the sub-region were now acknowledged as being pan-African in nature and the subject of several region-wide activities.
34. Within this context, and to ensure a more productive use of available limited financial and human resources, the Sub-Committee recommended to its parent body, CIFA that in line with Resolution 13/97 adopted by the FAO Conference at its Twenty-ninth Session in November 1997, the CIFA Sub-Committee for the Protection and Development of the Fisheries in the Sahelian Zone be abolished and that ad hoc Working Groups be established, as appropriate, to address issues relevant to the sub-region.
(b) Upcoming FAO meetings
35. The Secretariat informed the Sub-Committee of the following upcoming FAO Fisheries meetings of interest to member countries of the Sub-Committee:
Eleventh Session of the Committee for Inland Fisheries of Africa (CIFA), Abuja, Nigeria, 24–27 October 2000;
First Session of the Fishery Committee for the Eastern Central Atlantic (CECAF) Scientific Sub-Committee (SSC), Abuja, Nigeria, 30–31 October 2000; and
Fifteenth Session of CECAF, Abuja, Nigeria, 1–3 November 2000.
(c) Miscellaneous
36. The Sub-Committee noted the importance of having harmonised fisheries statistics in the sub-region and called upon FAO to provide assistance in the use of related statistical programmes such as ARTFISH.
37. In view of the recommendation to abolish the Sub-Committee and set up ad hoc Working Groups, delegates unanimously voted to maintain Burkina Faso as the Chair during the transitional period.
38. Given the aforementioned recommendation, no plans were made for an Eighth Session.
39. The report was adopted on 6 July 2000.
