The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) is encouraging Liberia to safeguard its artisanal fisheries by installing a ring-fence along its six-nautical-mile inshore exclusion zone.
EJF’s notice comes in response to a plan in the West African nation to reduce or fully eliminate its IEZ along its 579-kilometer coastline.
“The six-nautical-mile limit is crucial to the well-being of hundreds of thousands of Liberians living in coastal communities and across the country,” EJF Executive Director Steve Trent said in a press release. “It underpins the sustainability of the fisheries that provide vital food, livelihoods and incomes. Removing the limit would threaten the very survival of these fisheries, and with them the well-being of all those who depend on them. There can be no room for short-term thinking or minority interests in this; the government must act for the welfare of the majority and protect the [IEZ] limit.”
Reducing or removing the IEZ would see Liberia face an “almost inevitable rise” of competition from foreign industrial vessels fishing in coastal waters, EJF said, with much of the catch being exported to overseas markets. Considering the fact that about 80 percent of Liberia’s population depends on cheap fish as a part of its diet, “maintaining a steady flow of fish products into Liberia is vital,” Trent said.
Liberia’s IEZ was created in 2010 as a means to support the country’s artisanal fisheries. It has resulted in the improvement of food security and steadier incomes for the country’s approximately 11,000 fishers across the country and 33,000 people dependent on the country’s fisheries for income, according to the Community Management Association from Robertsport, representing artisanal fisherman in Robertsport, Liberia.
“The IEZ has been a huge benefit for artisanal fisherman in Liberia. By stopping industrial trawlers from fishing in our coastal waters, it has meant we have seen a huge boost in fish catch and in turn an increase in our income,” the association said in a statement. “We, our families and the whole of Liberia depend on the IEZ for our food and our incomes and we urge the government to continue to maintain the zone and not to eliminate or reduce it."
