The European Union (EU) and Gabon signed on February 10 a new protocol to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFAA) lasting five and with a global value of around 17 billion francs CFA.
After eight months of intense negotiations between the European Union and Gabon, the two parties signed on February 10 a new protocol to the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA). This new protocol will enter into force as soon as the validation process by the two parties is completed.
Through this new generation instrument in the field of sustainable fishing, Gabon authorizes the access of EU vessels to its waters for a period of five years, as part of the development and transformation of the fishing sector. fishing in Gabon. This agreement is worth around CFAF 17 billion. The European fleet with access to Gabonese waters will be made up of 27 tuna seiners, 6 pole-and-line tuna vessels and 4 trawlers targeting demersal species of fish and crustaceans, as part of exploratory fishing.
According to the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Biendi Maganga Moussavou, and the Ambassador of the European Union to Gabon, Ms. Rosário Bento Pais, this new protocol will contribute to the preservation maritime resources, the protection of the marine environment, food and nutritional security and the diversification of the Gabonese economy, in line with the objectives of the Emerging Gabon Strategic Plan 2025 (PSGE 2025) and the partnership policy of the EU.
It will also create added value and jobs, by encouraging transhipment and landing of catches in Gabonese ports as well as by embarking Gabonese sailors and observers on European vessels. The objective is to develop a hub for tuna fishing resulting in the processing of tuna in Gabon.
According to the minister in charge of the sector, this protocol “responds to Gabon’s desire to strengthen the industrialization and competitiveness of the sector, given the preponderant place occupied by the Gabon fishing zone in the tuna industry in the sector. ‘Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, the agreed reference tonnage of 32,000 tonnes per year makes Gabon the EU’s second-largest tuna fishing partner, ”says Biendi Maganga Moussavou.
According to the EU, it will thus contribute, through this partnership, to the strengthening of scientific capacities, to the professionalization of actors, to the observation and management of the marine environment and marine protected areas, to the sustainable management of stocks, fishing surveillance, as well as the fight against illegal fishing. In this regard, the Protocol provides in particular for an avant-garde limitation of the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs) to 125, the international standard being 300 per year and per vessel.
The EU’s contribution to this new protocol to the DPA is estimated at 26 million Euros, or 17 billion CFA francs over a period of 5 years. However, depending on the production and deployment of the other fisheries included in the protocol, financial income could exceed 30 million euros, or 20 billion FCFA over the same period.
