APA – Dakar (Senegal) – Illegal fishing costs the Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone almost 1,500 billion CFA francs a year between them, an Amnesty International report says.
The report, entitled “The human cost of overfishing: Overfishing in Sanyang threatens human rights,” examined the impact of the fishing industry on human rights in The Gambia. The study, presented in Dakar on Wednesday 31 May, was carried out following violent protests in March 2021 in Sanyang, a fishing village some forty kilometres south of Banjul, the capital of this West African country of 11,300 km² which borders Senegal on all sides except its western coast, which opens onto the Atlantic Ocean.
At the time, the murder of a Gambian man by a Senegalese fisherman sparked a firestorm. The Dakar-based Amnesty International’s regional office for West and Central Africa was inspired by this unfortunate event to conduct research in the country, which has been led by President Adama Barrow since 2017, to find out what has not been said about these clashes. The aim is to draw the attention of those involved, first and foremost the Gambian authorities, to the “devastating consequences” of overfishing for the local population.
“The bad practices of certain actors in the fishing industry are damaging the environment and undermining the livelihoods of local people. The Gambian authorities must immediately take all necessary measures to hold them accountable and to protect the human rights of the people concerned, in particular their economic and social rights,” said Samira Daoud, Regional Director of the NGO’s Human Rights Office, who presented the report with two colleagues on Wednesday 31 May.
A difficult situation
In addition to Gambia, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone “lose a total of 2.3 billion US dollars,” or more than 1,400 billion CFA francs, each year as a result of illegal fishing. In Sanyang in particular, Amnesty’s researchers found that those involved in fishing were finding it difficult to make a living. This situation, caused by the presence of foreign industrial vessels “that sometimes engage in illegal fishing,” has worsened since the establishment of Nessim Fishing And Fish Processing Co., Ltd (Nessim), a large foreign company that produces fishmeal and fish oil, in late 2017.
It began operations in 2018, the investigators said, adding that these factories mainly target “sardinella and bonga,” two species that until recently were “an essential source of income” for coastal dwellers and a “cheap source of protein.”
Faced with this situation, which “deprives” the people of Sanyang of a decent standard of living, “the Gambian authorities must urgently take measures to better protect the environment and the fundamental rights of these people,” whose “socio-economic rights” are “particularly threatened,” Ms Daoud recommends.
In interviews with 63 people, including employees of Nessim Fishing and Fish Processing, members of civil society organisations and government representatives, Amnesty found that people working in the fishing industry “often find themselves in competition with foreign industrial vessels which, due to a lack of sufficient patrols by the Gambian navy, come closer to the coast than they are allowed to, in areas reserved for artisanal fishermen.”
Risk of food insecurity
The human rights organisation noted that “these illegal practices” have serious consequences for the livelihoods of the Sanyang, who depend on fishing for their survival. They also lead to a “risk of food insecurity,” as fish is an essential source of protein for the inhabitants. The large amount of fish exported each year through the activities of foreign industrial vessels and fishmeal factories is rapidly depleting the fish stocks available to the local population, Amnesty said.
In light of this series of violations, the NGO is calling on the authorities to ensure that large-scale fishing companies do not undermine the fundamental rights of the local population and are held accountable for the damage they cause.
“The Gambian authorities must ensure that, as part of their environmental impact assessments, companies carry out genuine consultations with the people potentially affected by their project before commencing their activities, as they are required to do under the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations 2014. Nessim must regularly consult with local residents and comply with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in particular by exercising due diligence to remedy the human rights impacts of its factory,” added Samira Daoud, before announcing that she would soon be presenting reports on “Corruption in Africa and its impact on human rights.”
ODL/ac/lb/abj/APA