The sustainable management of fisheries resources is at the heart of the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea ( FCWC ) held this Friday, December 13, 2013 at Novotel in Cotonou. The works that followed the meeting of experts Wednesday 11 and Thursday, December 12 have been launched by the Beninese Minister in charge of fishery at Novotel. Ms. Fatouma Djibril particularly appreciated the presence of the President of the FCWC, his counterpart from Togo, Colonel Ouro Koura Agadazi.
Better refine the strategies for the sustainable management of fisheries resources in the West Central Gulf of Guinea to be a reality. This is the main objective of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the FCWC. Specifically it is for participants to make:

– ”the review of the achievements of Member States in the implementation of the FCWC‘s regional plan in the fight against IUU fishing adopted in 2009“

– “the examination of new conventions aiming at harmonizing the conditions of access to the resource and facilitating the sharing of information in said fight“

– “the examination of a regional draft of aquaculture development as revenue generating activity and the fight against poverty in the subregion and the review of the development of the plans of fisheries management based on ecosystem approach recommended by the FAO ”.

To achieve these goals, the experts made ​​important proposals to the ministers responsible for fisheries in the West Central Gulf of Guinea.

As a reminder, it is concerned by the diversity of fraudulent practices feeding illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in the Gulf of Guinea, including the issuance of false licenses or false declarations of capture that six (06) countries have decided , 7th November 2007 in Cotonou to create the FCWC. These are Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia. The FCWC is responsible among other things to provide a forum for discussion on all issues related to fisheries and improve the livelihoods of fishermen in the area to work for the strengthening of sub-regional cooperation for monitoring, control, surveillance and enforcement, including the gradual development of common procedures, to promote the development of research capacity on fishing and promote the development of standards for the collection, exchange and publication of data on fishing. Claude ALOFA

Source: www.linformateur – benin.info