Fishermen unload a catch at Remba Island on Lake Victoria. Africa,
unlike European and Asian regions, still needs huge financial inputs for
the development of Blue Economy. PHOTO | BARACK ODUOR | NMG
Marine security, overfishing, dumping of toxic waste, piracy and
unregulated mining topped the agenda of the Sustainable Blue Economy
Conference in Nairobi this past week, with participants saying fixing
these issues would accelerate economic growth.
The over
15,000 delegates agreed that enhanced marine security will boost the
Blue Economy, create jobs and help in the fight against poverty.
This
calls for countries to act locally but think regionally and globally
through new marine policies and laws on illegal fishing, pollution of
water bodies and the sharing of water resources.
The
conference recommended promotion of economic activities consistent with
conservation around all water bodies; the formulation of maritime
polices that are based on scientific data, support growth of small and
medium enterprises in the Blue Economy, and embrace research and
teaching programmes related to marine and coastal environments.
The
African maritime industry — fisheries, marine transport, offshore
mining and tourism — is estimated to be worth $1 trillion a year worth,
but is not fully exploited or protected.
For instance, the continent loses $1.3 billion annually to illegal fishing, especially off the coast of Somalia.
Infrastructure development
Africa,
unlike European and Asian regions, still needs huge financial inputs
for the development of Blue Economy infrastructure and deal with
challenges such as illegal fishing, insecurity, toxic dumping,
unsustainable mineral extraction and the negative impacts of climate
change on marine biodiversity.
Karmenu Vella, the
European Union commissioner for environment and maritime affairs, said
that the EU is ready to work with African coastal countries to fight
illegal fishing and strengthen their control systems to increase
healthier stocks, improve food security and provide more fishing
opportunities for local fishermen.
The EU already has
Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements with Morocco, Mauritius,
Senegal and Seychelles that provide financial and technical support in
exchange for fishing of sustainable stocks in the countries' territorial
waters.
The EU is negotiating an alliance with at
least 50 African countries. This is expected to create up to 10 million
jobs in Africa in the next five years, according to Mr Vella.
In the EU, the Blue Economy generates 640 billion euros and creates jobs for nearly 3.5 million people.
Isabella
Lovin, Swedish deputy Prime Minister and the minister for international
development co-operation and climate, said that her country has offered
$33.3 million to fight the effects of climate change on the Marine
environment such as rise in sea temperatures, depletion of oxygen in the
oceans and the death of coral reefs.
International conventions
It
emerged that most African countries lack the resources to implement the
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
(Marpol) because they cannot afford new, cleaner technologies.
But
the biggest constraint for African countries is the inability to
maintain marine security to deal with illegal fishing, piracy and toxic
dumping.
Michelle Stallone, a maritime security expert
who has worked in East Africa for the past 10 years, said that existing
international conventions on maritime security have gaps in enforcement
because of lack of infrastructure and resources.
She said that fishery strategies must be formulated in collaboration with law enforcement agencies and transport.
“Information
sharing among different government agencies and among countries of the
region is crucial to the implementation of maritime laws. But due to
financial constraints, many countries don’t have enough vessels to
patrol the waters. It means that joint patrols are the answer to
overfishing, piracy, pollution, said Ms Stallone.
Raychelle
Omamo, Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Defence said that maritime
security must be seen in relation to national, human and regional
security as well youth employment.
She said that there
are dozens of navies patrolling the Gulf Of Eden but thousands of youth
along the East African coast are unemployed and idle, forcing them to
resort to criminal activities.
“The Western Indian
Ocean has the longest coastline and governments don’t have the capacity
to monitor it. We need the private sector and regional co-operation, but
we have to take into account foreign interests in our coastlines too,”
said Ms Omamo.
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