RECALLING the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in particular Sustainable Development Goal 14.4 which sets the objective to “effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and destructive fishing practices” by 2020;
RECALLING ALSO the approval of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) on 22 November 2009 at the 36th session of the FAO Conference, held in Rome, Italy, and the accession of Liberia to the PSMA on 21 May 2019,
RECALLING ALSO the adoption of the C188 Work in Fishing Convention on 14 June 2007 by the General C0onference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), held in Geneva, Switzerland,
RECALLING ALSO the adoption of the Cape Town Agreement for the Safety of Fishing Vessels on 11 October 2012 by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) International Conference on the Safety of Fishing Vessels, held in Cape Town, South Africa,
RECALLING FURTHER the 2019 Accra Call for Action which called on Member States of the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) to ratify and effectively implement the ILO C188 Work in Fishing Convention and IMO Cape Town Agreement,
ENCOURAGED BY the commitment of the 51 signatory States of the Torremolinos Declaration on the Cape Town Agreement for the Safety of Fishing Vessels to ratify the Agreement by October 2022, which marks the 10th anniversary of its adoption at IMO,
RECOGNIZING the importance of global and regional cooperation, and convinced that IUU fishing and destructive fishing practices could be prevented, deterred, and eliminated, with an effective and coordinated implementation of all three treaties,
DETERMINED to put an end to such practices to ensure the welfare and safety of fishers together with the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources for present and future generations, in accordance with SDG 14,
NOTING the importance of technical assistance provided by the FAO, ILO, IMO for capacity building towards the ratification and implementation processes of all three treaties,
NOTING ALSO the importance of the initiatives led by the FCWC to fight IUU fishing in the region, in particular through the West Africa Task Force on monitoring, control and surveillance,
ACKNOWLEDGING AND VALUING the contributions made by the FAO, ILO, IMO, FCWC, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Environmental Justice Foundation and the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority of Liberia, for the organisation and coordination of the workshop,
EXPRESS their gratitude to the facilitators and speakers for exchange best practices and experience and expert advice provided to the Participants with a view to ending illegal fishing in Liberia;
RESOLVE to strengthen their cooperation to realise the ratification of both ILO C188 Work in Fishing Convention and IMO Cape Town Agreement for the Safety of Fishing Vessels by the Government;
REITERATE their commitment to the effective implementation of the FAO PSMA through continued work to align legal, institutional and operational frameworks with the requirements of the Agreement;
COMMIT to adopting a coordinated approach to the implementation of port controls, including the collaboration of, and information exchange between, all relevant agencies and administrations [through the establishment of a dedicated task force], to ensure that ports represent an effective front in combating IUU fishing, whilst contributing to improved safety and health in the fisheries sector and labour conditions on board fishing vessels;
REITERATE their intention to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by adopting appropriate measures and taking enforcement action at national level, in line with the provisions of the PSMA, CTA, and C188, and encourage FCWC Member States to take coordinated action to that effect, and to ratify and implement the three treaties to enhance regional cooperation.
