The Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa experiences some of the highest rates of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the world, but closer collaboration between Beijing-based officials and West African nations could help limit the IUU actions of Chinese vessels in the region, a new report details.
Published by the Stimson Center, a Washington, D.C., U.S.A.-based nonprofit that analyzes issues related to world peace, “Charting a Blue Future for Cooperation between West Africa and China on Sustainable Fisheries” emphasizes the need for “unique engagement” between Chinese and West African civil society groups and governments to “better understand where their perspectives converge and differ.”
To more effectively facilitate such an exchange, the Stimson Center aims to engage civil society groups directly to develop ideas and solutions, which they can then share with their home country’s governments.
“The topic of illegal fishing is not one readily discussed openly between Chinese civil society and their foreign partners, despite shared interests in food security, blue economy development, and sustainable fisheries,” the report states.
Stimson research recommends a regional approach to address fisheries management challenges in the Gulf of Guinea rather than the current system, which relies on under-resourced national governments to combat illegal fishing.
“Fishery resources are critical for the food and economic security of the communities throughout the 10 countries we researched. Fish species migrate up and down the west coast of Africa, so it makes little sense to manage these interconnected fisheries individually,” Sally Yozell, the senior fellow and director of the environmental security program at the Stimson Center and one of the report’s authors, said. “Bilateral fisheries management agreements have created a short-term race for fish instead of a long-term sustainable plan. If governments chose to manage through a regional bloc, it would be better for the resources, the marine environment, reduce corruption, and be more equitable from country to country – not to mention more efficient and effective.”
As the world’s leading seafood producer, China can also share its knowledge in fisheries management, marine protected areas, and mariculture with African nations that border the gulf, the report further suggests.
Chinese government officials, however, have yet to engage in the process, as diplomats from Chinese embassies, as well as representatives from Chinese-owned fishmeal and fish oil factories in West Africa, didn’t respond to repeated invitations to attend Stimson-led workshops.
Though Chinese officials seem apathetic to Stimson’s initiatives so far, Yozell, remains optimistic and believes that “this doesn't necessarily imply that the PRC [China] is not willing to engage beyond its bilateral relations.”
She explained to SeafoodSource that “the process we chose to pursue for this report was one that empowers civil society voices, rather than engaging governments directly.” Stimson, Yozell added, “held a dialogue with civil society groups from China and West Africa … as a means to get experts to think expansively and share their countries’ differing perspectives.”
“The goal of the workshop was to devise feasible solutions on complex topics. Civil society is a good source for innovative but reasonable and palatable ideas on complicated topics, like IUU fishing and fisheries management,” she said.
Talks with civil society groups have progressed well, but some organizations are unsure that Stimson’s approach can work without Chinese government representatives at the table.
“Partnerships between Chinese and West African industry, government agencies, and civil society could be effective but can also be hard to create,” Oceana Senior Director of Global Policy Philip Chou told SeafoodSource. “Unless a partnership or forum for dialogue has been officially sanctioned by the Chinese government, few Chinese entities will engage for fear that their actions might run afoul with China’s national security law. For meaningful policy change to occur through partnerships or dialogues, whether they are state-to-state or between industry and civil society, the issues, or those involved, must first be seen as important to China’s political leadership.”
Complicating the matter, the Chinese government has traditionally preferred to engage on a bilateral basis with nations instead of through intermediaries.
The spread of illegal fishing by unregulated Chinese vessels has made it difficult for small nations in West Africa to manage their fisheries and enforce laws to combat the issue, but the approach taken by Stimson may, at the very least, offer new ideas and communication channels to China’s highly controlled NGO sector.
Signaling some positive collaboration between China and West Africa, Chinese officials told Senegalese Fishery Minister Papu Sagena Mbaye that China wanted to cooperate more with Senegal and help implement expertise into the country’s aquaculture sector. However, when meeting Mbaye in Beijing recently, Deputy Minister of the Chinese Agriculture Ministry Mu You Xiang maintained that China’s distant-water fishing fleet “operates with integrity and is law-abiding.”
Photo courtesy of the Stimson Center
