By Amin Kef Sesay
Research done by The Calabash newspaper with regards Sierra Leone’s potential to escape from poverty to mass prosperity within a decade or two clearly showed that Government after Government since the war ended in 2002 have been barking up the wrong tree in terms of what economic resource to focus most on to exploit, in order to bring returns to the country and its long suffering people.
Based on a move that was undertaken by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), an assessment was made of the potential contribution of one of the country’s major natural resource sectors—fisheries—to future economic recovery.
It was confirmed that the fish resources of Sierra Leone have an estimated capitalized economic value of USD 735 million and could potentially make an increased contribution to GDP under suitable conditions, over and above the current estimated level of 10 per cent.
However, our results also show that the sector is unlikely to realize its full potential unless a number of specific areas are addressed (based on analysis valid up to January 2016).
These include an improvement in fisheries economic assessment, the upgrading of the fisheries governance and management framework, and the establishment of a fisheries development strategy and implementation plan to channel future investments and interventions in an appropriate sequence.
Particular attention should be paid to Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing which remain the greatest threats to marine ecosystems due to its potent ability to undermine national and regional efforts to manage fisheries sustainably as well as endeavor to conserve marine biodiversity.
IUU fishing takes advantage of corrupt administrations and exploits weak management regimes, in particular those of developing countries lacking the capacity and resources for effective monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS). IUU fishing is found in all types and dimensions of fisheries; it occurs both on the high seas and in areas within national jurisdiction, it concerns all aspects and stages of the capture and utilization of fish, and it may sometimes be associated with organized crime.
Fisheries resources available to bona fide fishers are removed by IUU fishing, which can lead to the collapse of local fisheries, with small-scale fisheries in developing countries proving particularly vulnerable.
Products derived from IUU fishing can find their way into overseas trade markets thus throttling local food supply. IUU fishing therefore threatens livelihoods, exacerbates poverty and augment food insecurity.
As such, in his statement last week at the commissioning of four speedboats to patrol our waters, President Bio said as a nation, Sierra Leone has to contend with large scale plunder of her marine resources through illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.
He noted that within the country’s 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone alone, such illegal, unregulated and unreported loots by foreign vessels were estimated to have cost the country over 26 million dollars in revenue loss, thousands of jobs, loss of livelihoods for coastal and other communities that could otherwise benefit from an agile fishing industry and great shortage of fish on the local market.
“There is a threat to food security, livelihoods, economic development, and sustainable fisheries management that our small nation can ill-afford.
“Add this to the millions of dollars lost to other such illegal activities as tax evasion; under-reporting of fish catch, and overfishing of our waters that degrade our marine environment and strip local fishing communities of their livelihoods, and the real cost of these illegal acts by illegal foreign vessels mounts,” he said.
