Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea
Working Groups
The FCWC institutional instruments on the part 4 final provisions Article 17 states, “the committee shall cooperate with active intergovernmental organizations and institutions in fisheries sector to contribute to the work and further objectives of the committee”. This generated the creation of two working groups: The West African Task Force (WATF) and the Statistics and Research Group (SRG).
Both Groups bring together the six Member Countries of the FCWC – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo – to tackle illegal fishing and fisheries crime, for the former, and to facilitate the information and adequate data for the latter. The Task Force and the SRG are facilitated by the FCWC Secretariat and supported by dedicated technical and financial partners.
West Africa Task Force
The West Africa Task Force is the MCS arm of FCWC. It operationalizes key FCWC conventions on information sharing and MCS cooperation. The approach underpinning the Task Force rests on the sharing of intelligence and information between fisheries enforcement officers, technical experts, national agencies, regional organisations and other regional and global players, supported by practical tools, to spur enforcement actions against illegal fishing operators and ultimately contribute to improved compliance
Working Group on Aquaculture (WGAq)
The FCWC Secretariat, in partnership with the Japanese International cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation of Africa States of Atlantic Ocean (ATLAFCO) held a kick-off workshop for the Working Group on Aquaculture (WGAq) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, leading to the adoption of its three-year action plan 2022 – 2024.
The WGAq mission is “to create a coordinated regional stakeholders networking initiative to support aquaculture development actions in the FCWC jurisdictions in accordance with the Comprehensive Strategic Framework for Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (CSFS FAD) of ECOWAS
Statistics & Data Collection
In our quest to fulfill our obligation to disseminate information on the status of fisheries and fish stocks, and assist our Member States for that purpose, the FCWC is establishing a Statistics and Research Working Group with the following objectives:
- To offer guidance and assistance to improve fisheries data collection and management in the sub-region
- Lead fisheries research activities in the sub-region
- Adopt and implement regional fisheries management measures for the sub-region
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