Artisanal fishing is critically important for not only food in Liberiabut for jobs, income, nutrition, food security, significantly safeguarding livelihoods for artisanal fishermen and as major source of protein for coastal populations.
The health of the fish stocks means there is still a good potential for Liberia to increase its income from fisheries in a sustainable manner and that is why the fishery administrators should now concern themselves with promoting the appropriate fishing innovations and harvesting of the untapped resources in deeper waters and possibly off the slope.
The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), in partnership with the National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) in December of 2020 launched a four-year project: Communities for Fisheries under the umbrella of the EU-Liberia Agriculture Program now empoweringcommunities to co-manage fisheries and reduce illegal fishing, building lasting sustainability and social equity into Liberia’s fishing sector.
What impact has the project made on Artisanal Fisheries in Liberia?
In its 2nd year of implementation, the EJF Communities for Fisheries Project is building local capacity to identify and report illegal fishing with high level of advocacy, Support to collaborative management Associations to strengthen the voice of communities in managing and protecting essential fish populations, and campaigning to protect fishing spaces for small scale fishers in Liberia’s Inshore Exclusion Zone keeping industrial trawlers away from the sea and most importantly helpingto safeguard food security and coastal livelihoods across the country.
The EJF still maintains it objective of the project to support livelihoods of coastal communities and safeguarding the food security of 11,000 direct beneficiaries and 56,000 indirect beneficiaries through improved management and governance of the marine ecosystems and fish stocks in Liberia.
While the EJF and fishery administrators are still making frantic efforts, the dominance of illegal and overfishing activities on the Liberian waters continues to threaten food security of 80% of the country’s population that depend on fish for essential dietary protein.
Cognizant of the fact that Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture make critical contributions to development in the areas of employment, fishery administrators are still being cautioned in the environmental impact of overfishing that creates an imbalance that can erode the food web and lead to a loss of other important marine life, including vulnerable species like sea turtles and corals.