Writes Leo Odera Omolo
A new partnership for African development (DEPAD) will this morning hold a two days meeting in Kenya, which is expected to finalize strategy aimed at improving returns for small scale players for the fishing industry across African Continent.
The meeting scheduled to be held in the Kenyan resort town of Naivasha about 100 kilometers from the capital Nairobi on today and tomorrow, is expected to agree on fisheries policy for Africa that will then be localized by individual countries on the continent.
The December 17 and 18 meeting aimed at incorporating the views of the small scale sector and fishing dependent communities and generate a shared vision on a Pan-African strategy to guide exploitation of a gigantic resources. The meeting brings together policy makers, government representatives and non-state outers from across the continent.
The strategy expected to boost the management the fishing industry that for long been neglected.
The meeting is expected to finalize the Pan-African strategy is critical for once approved by stakeholders at the second conference of African Ministers of Fisheries and Africa culture (CAMFA), scheduled to be held in February 2014.
The strategy is expected to boost the management of Fishing industry that has long been neglected, according to NEPAD and African Union Interactrican Bureau on Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) statement.
A recent United Nations Food and Agriculture (FAO) state of Fisheries and aquaculture report noted that many fisheries in Africa are characterized by weak management system and threatened by over-exploitation in situation has gradually worsened since 1974 eroding initial successes seen in fisheries projects and turning them to failures.
The meeting is part of the wider efforts following the comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Progarmme which was endorsed by the African Heads of State and Government in Maputo Mozambique in 2003 as a framework for Agriculture – economic development.
Despite the potential of the fishing Industry in Africa it has largely been sidelined in the National Development Plans of many African Countries and players still use old fishing methods giving them original returns and at the same time causing damage to the breeding grounds for fish.
The statement adds that the meeting will respond directly to the CAMEA resolution urging African member states to urgently incline small scale fisheries their natural strategies.
ENDS