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Gambia News : USAID fisheries project for Senegambia launched
The United States Embassy, in collaboration with the University of
Rhodes Island, the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) and the Government
of the Gambia, Wednesday launched the Gambia-Senegal sustainable
fisheries project, supported by USAID.
The five-year project aims to contribute to the profitability and
sustainability of fisheries in the Gambia, PANA reported from here.
Speaking
at the launching ceremony, American Ambassador to the Gambia, Mr. Barry
L. Wells, said the fisheries sector employs more than 200,000 Gambians
and contributes four per cent to GDP.
"Over the past years, fish
has become the world's most extracted wildlife and the largest traded
food product globally. Overfishing in marine waters continues to pose
threat of depletion and exposes certain species to near extinction,
coupled with destruction of ecosystem" Wells said.
He said these
challenges called for bold, swift and sustained partnership to protect
the judicious exploit of marine resources without depriving future
generations the right to the same resources.
According to him,
the Gambia-Senegal Sustainable Fisheries Project, codenamed "Ba Nafaa"
(a mandinka word for marine benefit), was initiated to mitigate the
effects of these challenges through integrated approach, while ensuring
profitable and sustainable fisheries in the Gambia.
Gambia's
Minister of Forestry and Environment, Momodou Kuto Cham, said the
fisheries sector had the potential to make significant contribution to
the economic and social development of the country in terms of food
security and improved nutritional standards, employment generation and
poverty reduction, revenue and foreign exchange earnings.
Cham
also said the sector contributes to GDP and provides direct and
indirect em ployment to an estimated 200,000 people, adding that this
level of contribution to national socio-economic development can be
increased significantly if the sector is managed and developed in a
sustainable manner.
"The government of the Gambia attaches high
priority to the conservation and sustainable management and utilization
of the fisheries resources and government is fully committed to
ensuring that the greater part of the benefits from the exploitation of
the fisheries resources accrues to the Gambia and the Gambian people"
he said.
He emphasised that the government was deeply concerned
about a number of issues that may affect the continued availability of
fisheries' resources.
According to him, these issues include the
over-exploitation of the resources, illegal fishing, destructive and
unsustainable fishing methods, degradation of habitats and ecosystems
and other issues that mitigate against sustainable management of
fisheries' resources.
According to Cham, the Gambia government
recognised the fact that most of the fisheries resources of the country
are also found in the waters of other countries of West Africa
sub-region and therefore most of the resources are classified as "
shared resources".
As a result of the shared trans-boundary
nature of the fisheries resources, he said the problems impeding
sustainable resources management and its use are bette r addressed
sub-regionally at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
He also
said this will require re-orientation of policy towards the
ecosystem-based approach to fisheries resources management that
requires close collaboration and cooperation among and between
countries in the sub-region.
Director, International Programmes
Coastal Resources Center, University of Rhodes Island, Dr. Brian
Crawford, described the Gambia-Senegal sustainable fisheries project as
a regional initiative supported by the American people through the
USAID West Africa regional programme, locally called â?Ba Nafaaâ? and
is a five year effort.
The goal of the project, he said is to
support the fisheries' development objective of the government of the
Gambia, including improved poverty reduction, food security,
employment, income generation and export growth from the fisheries
sector.
Crawford noted that these socio-economic benefits can
only be achieved and sustained by promoting the effective management of
the rich fisheries and protecting the associated marine biodiversity
that is found in the Gambia.
The World Wildlife Fund West Africa
Regional Programme Coordinator, Dr. Ibrahima Niamadio said the
implementation of the Ba Nafaa project would engage a partnership which
every stakeholder will be heard, a consensus built and everyone's
contribution to the project captured.
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