Madagascar has become the latest country to join the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), a potentially significant move, given the country’s location in the Indian Ocean has made it a target for Chinese fisheries investment.
Madagascar is the fifth country to join the FiTI, after Seychelles, Senegal, Mauritania, and Cabo Verde. Set up in 2017, FiTI said it is also in discussions with government actors from Comoros, Ecuador, Mauritius, Mexico, Peru, Sao Tome, and Principe for them to potentially join the initiative, which has the mission of improving the sustainability of global fisheries by increasing transparency in government management of stocks.
“This is a huge milestone for sustainable fisheries in Madagascar – a country perhaps not typically associated with open governance,” noted a statement by the FiTI, which is funded by donors and members’ subscriptions. “By joining the FiTI, Madagascar has committed to increasing public access to fisheries information and multi-stakeholder participation in the way the sector is managed, providing the foundations for more effective oversight and accountability of decision-makers.”
FiTI said the initiative will help Madagascar gain more control of its fisheries industry through gaining a better understanding of their status.
“This transformative journey towards greater transparency will provide Malagasy and international stakeholders answers to questions such as: What is the status of fish stocks? How many vessels are allowed to fish? Under which conditions? How much is being caught? And how much is paid for the right to fish? Knowing these kinds of information is crucial for making informed management decisions, tackling IUU fishing in Madagascan waters, and increasing the sector’s ability to tackle pressing issues like malnutrition and food insecurity,” the FiTI statement announcing the partnership said.
The Indian Ocean region is “home to some of the richest marine fisheries in the world”, noted the statement, which “in turn, are a source of food, jobs and income for hundreds of millions of people.
“Ensuring the sustainable exploitation of these resources is therefore of vital importance,” it said.
But Madagascar’s fisheries are under increasing pressure from China, which is the country’s leading trade partner. Earlier this year, a delegate to China’s annual National People’s Congress called for more governmental support to enable the country’s distant-water fishing fleet to expand operations in the Indian Ocean. Xia Yang Xiang, who represents Zhoushan city, one of China’s main distant-water ports and home to numerous tuna canneries, called for more government tax reliefs and subsidies to be focused on expanding Chinese trawlers’ presence in the north Pacific and in the Indian Ocean. He said expanding the country’s distant-water fleet would also allow China to improve the “ecological conditions” in its own waters.
At the same time it has joined FiTI, Madagascar has also aimed to improve relations with China. It is one of the nations listed as joining the Hunan Macao Portuguese-Speaking African Nations Fisheries Service Alliance, the creation of which was announced recently at the second China Africa Trade Expo and Economic Cooperation summit in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province.
Photo courtesy of Lubo Ivanko/Shutterstock
