In Senegal, while the electoral campaign is in full swing, fishing stakeholders have organized to submit a charter for sustainable fishing to the 19 candidates for the presidential election which is being held on March 24. So far, eight candidates have signed this charter but the fishermen hope to attract as many contenders as possible to their proposals.
2 mins
With our correspondents in Dakar, Théa Ollivier and Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
Freeze the granting of new licenses for overexploited resources, clean the seabed, audit the canoe fleet and the industrial fleet… Here are some of the thirteen commitments proposed in this charter drawn up by the national coalition for sustainable fishing.
“ Nowadays, there is a scarcity of the resource. Before, we argued, we were frustrated… But now, we have put this charter in place. These are solutions so that the benefits of fishing return to the Senegal », Explains Mamadou Sarr, secretary general of the local fishing committee (CLP) of Ouakam.
“17% of the population lives from the fishing sector”
Manage stocks on a sub-regional scale, audit the fishing agreement with the European Union or allocating to the fishing sector a percentage from oil and gas exploitation are other proposals in the charter which was supported by Greenpeace.
Aliou Ba, responsible for the NGO’s ocean campaign in Africainsists on the importance of submitting these solutions to the presidential candidates: “ As soon as they have promised to integrate these 13 points into their program. This will allow us to monitor compliance with the commitments made by the candidates. “, he believes.
For the moment, eight candidates out of nineteen have promised to respect these commitments if they are elected. This is particularly the case of candidate Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dione who visited fishermen from Ouakam this Tuesday. The candidate signed the charter because he believes that fishing is “ one of the most important sectors » for the country. “ We are lucky to have more than 500km of coastline on the Atlantic and 17% of the population makes a living from the fishing sector so it is important to work with them “, did he declare.
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