2023-05-26 10:08:13
Every year, developing countries, including Benin, lose billions of dollars in flows of illicit money directly linked to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. A phenomenon denounced in a recent report by 11 international NGOs. Actor in the protection of marine resources in Benin, Dr. Zacharie Sohou, Researcher, Oceanographer, Fisherman and Director of the Fisheries and Ocean Research Institute of Benin (IRHOB/CBRSI), returns here to the case of Benin with proposals to the key. Interview.
More and more voices are being raised to denounce illegal and undeclared fishing in West African waters. What can you tell us about Benin?
Benin cannot stand aside from this process of data transparency and the fight against IUU fishing. When we talk about IUU fishing, we must know that it is undeclared, unregulated fishing. And this fishing is practiced all over the coast, all over the world. So, it means that in order to be able to carry out a fight of such magnitude, the countries must necessarily join forces to do so. This is why within the framework of this project with CEMLAWS which brings together several countries, it is a great initiative which will allow all countries to be able to monitor their fishery for profitability. Because IUU fishing wastes a lot of resources. There is currency leakage because when people fish illegally, they don’t pay the taxes, they don’t pay the License, etc. and it doesn’t even create jobs in our country. It affects our economy. In this case, we really have to fight against this type of fishing in order to be able to guarantee biological diversity and preserve our resources.
What, in your opinion, makes possible the expansion of this phenomenon, despite the existence of laws and texts on fishing?
It’s not just in Benin or the Gulf of Guinea, it’s all over the world that IUU fishing happens. Because, in the race for increasing profit, people always want to cheat to get their profit. That’s what sustains this form of illegal fishing that people are doing.
What does the Institute you manage do to promote good fishing practices in Benin and provide the administration with reliable statistics on fishing?
Our Institute, as the name suggests, works on the marine and coastal ecosystem. The ecosystem that constitutes living coastal marine resources and non-living resources. We are also working on stock assessments, to know the stock we have. When we know the potential we have, it is at this time that we can issue licenses to be able to really fish, in order to be able to sustain the stock. We must not fish everything at the same time but we must fish in a proportion to be able to guarantee the sustainability of these resources. So our institute is working in this area to be able to monitor fishery resources, also monitor the environment, that is to say what concerns temperature, salinity; all the physicochemical parameters.
Benin, in its dynamic of preserving marine resources, has set up marine protected areas. Isn’t this an initiative that could have a following in Africa?
Marine Protected Areas are one of the measures to be able to manage resources sustainably because these are areas which, as soon as they are declared as Marine Protected Areas, can constitute spawning grounds for resources because we know that fishing in these areas is regulated or prohibited for a given period, in order to be able to sustain the exploitation of the resources. But we first had to identify them as areas of ecological or biological interest. In a Marine Protected Area, fishing may not be completely prohibited, but gear that is selective for fishing is authorized. In this case, these devices will then allow the small fish to escape and live to a stage of maturity before they are caught. It is in this sense that marine protected areas then constitute a key measure in order to be able to preserve the resource.
Public administration statistics show that only 34% of local needs are covered by Beninese fishing. Is it not possible to achieve self-sufficiency in fishery products in Benin?
Of course ! Benin can manage to ensure its self-sufficiency in fish products if we develop aquaculture, not only in continental areas, but also aquaculture in the marine environment, mariculture. This is the only way that will allow us to fill this gap between the needs and what is provided, and what is fished today. Therefore, it is necessary to switch to aquaculture. It is very very important! And in aquaculture, you have to take care of the inputs. Our Institute has worked, for example, on inputs from local materials so that fish food costs less. If fish food is cheaper, it means that fish will also be cheaper and within reach of the whole population. Today, this is not yet the case because all inputs are imported. This is why we worked on local inputs, what we can draw from our environment to be able to manufacture the food at a lower cost and make them available to fish farmers.
What call do you have to make to the different actors?
My appeal is to tell the authorities that we must necessarily finance the collection of data in the field of fishing and that we must provide the means to be able to develop aquaculture. If we manage to do these two things and we do the follow-up, I think that Benin will really be able to be self-sufficient in terms of fish products.
Directed by Sylvestre TCHOMAKOU
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