African Fish & Wildlife

09/10/2026

Transform Bottom Trawling

How can destructive fishing practices be curbed and local communities strengthened in managing their fisheries in The Gambia? The “Transform Bottom Trawling” project addresses these questions in Bakau, Tanji, Gunjur, Sanyang, Brufut and Kartong. It is supported by Ventures International through its Advocacy project.

At an information-sharing workshop, participants stressed the need to enforce existing laws more consistently and clarify responsibilities. Awareness-raising and penalties should help ensure compliance with fisheries rules. The committees managing fisheries centres need clear mandates, enforceable term limits and the ability to take legal action against offenders.

The discussions identified four priorities for the next steps:
🔹 Assess existing structures and legal frameworks at each site.
🔹 Develop community fisheries management plans covering fishing gear and mesh sizes, juvenile catch, night fishing and access to fishing grounds.
🔹 Strengthen and formally document the mandates and responsibilities of centre management committees.
🔹 Advance advocacy before the next parliamentary elections for a resolution reaffirming the exclusion of industrial fishing from the nine-nautical-mile artisanal fishing zone.

📢 Clear rules, effective local committees and consistent implementation are essential!

07/08/2026

Trees provide a living for the women, who plant and care for them, and shield the island capital from erosion, flooding.

06/08/2026

Les ressources halieutiques ne connaissent pas les frontières. Pour...

23/07/2026

LE CLIMAT CHANGE. LES OCEANS AUSSI. MAIS QUI PAIE LE PRIX ?

Quand les températures montent et que les pollutions se multiplient, les communautés de pêche artisanale sont en première ligne.

Ressources qui se déplacent, poissons contaminés, habitats dégradés, revenus fragilisés…

👉 Quelles solutions concrètes pour protéger à la fois les océans, la sécurité alimentaire et les moyens de subsistance des pêcheurs ?

La CAOPA ouvre le débat lors du 5ᵉ webinaire des « Mercredis de la Pêche ».

🎙️ Des experts et acteurs de terrain partageront leurs analyses et leurs propositions.

📅 Rendez-vous le mercredi 29 juillet 2026.

🔗 Inscrivez-vous ici :
https://bit.ly/4fzdcYA

fans
Koukoudé Port Ministere Des Ressources Animales Et Halieutiques
Ministère de la Pêche et de l'Economie Bleue
UN Climate Change
African Fish & Wildlife
Agence Régionale pour l'Agriculture et l'Alimentation
Brian Béatrice O'Riordan Gorez

19/07/2026

🌍 THREE COUNTRIES. ONE SHARED GOAL. STRONGER COOPERATION FOR SUSTAINABLE SMALL-SCALE FISHERIES.

Under the leadership of CAOPA, representatives of RENAMUP (Guinea-Bissau), NAAFO (The Gambia), and CONIPAS (Senegal) came together in Bissau to discuss how to strengthen cross-border cooperation and promote the sustainable management of our shared fisheries resources.

For generations, the coastal and estuarine waters of The Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau have been closely connected. Small-scale fishers regularly cross national borders in search of fishing opportunities and to sustain their livelihoods. While bilateral fisheries agreements already exist between these countries, there is still a need for more transparent, inclusive, and effective mechanisms to ensure their successful implementation.

🎯 A key proposal is the establishment of Small-Scale Fisheries Joint Committees between:
🇬🇲 The Gambia and Senegal, and
🇸🇳 Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.

These Joint Committees would bring together governments, fisheries administrations, professional fisher organizations, women's associations, and other key stakeholders. Their purpose is to develop joint solutions to transboundary fisheries challenges while ensuring that the voices of small-scale fishers and coastal communities are reflected in decision-making processes.

The proposed committees would focus on:
✅ Promoting dialogue on fisher migration, access rights, and the sustainable sharing of fisheries resources.
✅ Strengthening joint Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and reduce conflicts over fishing gear and fishing grounds.
✅ Increasing the participation of small-scale fishers, women fish processors, and local communities in fisheries governance.
✅ Raising awareness of existing bilateral fisheries agreements to improve understanding, compliance, and cooperation.
✅ Supporting the harmonization of co-management approaches for shared fish stocks across national borders.

19/06/2026

Mombasa Declaration at the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Why it is important:

Sixteen national governments from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific adopted the Mombasa Declaration at the 11th Our Ocean Conference, committing to advance global fisheries transparency and strengthen efforts to combat IUU fishing.

🔷It is a call to action for coastal and flag States on fisheries transparency, with a particular focus on better collection and dissemination of vessel information — building support for the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, which outlines 10 low-cost or no-cost policy principles.

🔷Signatories

The Declaration was endorsed by Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, the Dominican Republic, France (on behalf of its overseas territories), Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of Congo, Somalia, and South Korea. The Gambia is among the signatories — directly relevant to our work with , AFWIC, and .

🔹Concrete Commitments

Signatory countries commit to modernizing vessel registries, publishing fishing authorizations, and strengthening information-sharing to support enforcement and accountability across fisheries sectors.

🔹The SSF Angle

The Declaration responds to IUU challenges by advancing practical transparency measures to improve access to information on vessel ownership, licensing, and fishing activity; strengthening accountability; and enabling more sustainable and equitable management of marine resources.

🔷What's Next

The signing launches a campaign for other nations to join the effort in advance of the next Our Ocean Conference in 2027.

©️Cornelia Wilss/ Passage

18/06/2026

15/06/2026

Importance and Use of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK)

At the Global Forum in Mombasa, Dawda today was talking the floor and raising the importance of local ecological knowledge:

🔹Fishers, processors, and coastal communities hold detailed, long-running empirical knowledge — on species behaviour, habitat change, and historical abundance — that often exceeds what scientific surveys can capture in data-poor West African fisheries. 🔹To use this knowledge as evidence rather than anecdote, it needs structured collection methods (interviews, participatory mapping, oral histories, community monitoring) with deliberate attention to bias and validation. 🔷 Integrating it requires formal pathways — through LANDING SITES MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES (LCCs), joint fisher-scientist working groups, EAF planning, and regional SRFC/PRCM data-sharing — so co-management becomes substantive rather than symbolic.

Foto: ©️Sara Fröcklin

16/05/2026

WEBINAIRE CAOPA - LES MERCREDIS DE LA PÊCHE N°3

La pêche continentale nourrit des millions de familles africaines, soutient les économies locales et joue un rôle essentiel dans la sécurité alimentaire… pourtant, elle reste largement sous-estimée dans les politiques publiques.

📢 Rejoignez-nous pour un échange autour du thème :

« La pêche continentale : richesse invisible, un secteur oublié en Afrique »

📅 Date : 20 mai
🕙 Heure : 10h00 – 11h30 GMT
💻 En ligne via Zoom

👉 Inscrivez-vous ici :
https://bit.ly/4noRJoN

Après votre inscription, vous recevrez un e-mail de confirmation contenant les instructions pour rejoindre la réunion.

Mettons en exergue les enjeux, les défis et les opportunités de la pêche continentale en Afrique. 🌍🐟

fans CAOPA Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

30/04/2026

Sustainable Livelihoods of Fishing!

At the Regional Forum (FOMACO) in Nouakchott, on behalf of my consider adding the key threats to the sustainable livelihoods of fishing communities. These include:

🔹Unsustainable fishing practices and inadequate stock management, leading to the depletion of fish resources
🔹Insufficient protection and restoration of critical habitats (mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass) and weak enforcement of pollution controls
🔹Limited integration of climate adaptation strategies in fisheries management, despite rising sea levels and shifting fish stocks
Governance gaps and weak enforcement mechanisms, enabling illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing
🔹Barriers to market access and financial inclusion, restricting investment and value creation in local fishing communities ➡️ Addressing these challenges requires stronger policy frameworks, improved enforcement, and targeted investments to enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of coastal communities.