Wisdom Akpalu, Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Research Initiative

Ghana and other developing countries must call on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to push developed countries to withdraw subsidies to foreign industrial fishing vessels to prevent them from over-exploiting developing countries’ fishery resources, Director of the Environment and Natural Resources Research Initiative (ENRRI EfD Ghana), pleaded Dr Wisdom Akpalu.

ENRRI-EfD also called on the government to urgently report to the WTO all foreign vessels operating legally in the country but which nevertheless participate in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities in the waters of the country.

Dr Akpalu, who is also dean of graduate studies at GIMPA, believes that the amount of subsidies given to owners of foreign fishing vessels by the governments of developed countries makes it easier and cheaper for these trawlers to venture into the territorial waters of developing countries. for fishing purposes – a situation which has contributed significantly to the phenomenon of IUU fishing.

This illegal practice, known locally as “saiko”, has become the main contributor to the depletion of the country’s fish stocks.

ENRRI-EfD also suggested that banning foreign vessels might be a better option, given that the significant share of fish consumed in developing countries, in the case of Ghana, is supplied by artisanal fishermen.

“There would be enough fish available to feed the population even when these foreign vessels are prohibited. Banning them will not have a significant impact on national catches because local trawlers, as they are, catch enough to feed the population. Rather, banning foreign vessels can lead to stock rebuilding, ”said Dr Akpalu.

Catches deficit with increasing imports

Ghana, which consumes over 950,000 metric tonnes of fish per year, currently imports over 60 percent of its fish. The Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development attributed the high imports to the depletion of the country’s stocks and the need to urgently address it. Over 600,000 metric tonnes of fish are imported into Ghana each year, with the country’s annual catch estimated to be less than 400,000 metric tonnes.

Meanwhile, IUU fishing, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), costs Ghana more than US $ 80 million when catches are sold at sea to foreign vessels. Ghana’s fishing industry brings more than US $ 500 million to the economy each year and employs more than 3 million people in the value chain, according to the EJF.

Dominant Chinese interest and the benefit of subsidies

EJF report, titled “At What Price: How Ghana Loses Fishing Agreements with Chinese Distant Water Fleet,” indicates lack of transparency regarding vessel ownership as lawsuits fail to target owners manpower – often a much larger entity with controlling interests in the ship – to secure sanctions, affects the industry.

The report identified several cases of suspected illegal fishing in the country, linked to Chinese state-owned companies receiving subsidies from China with the resulting effects leading to an undervaluation of Ghana’s fishing sector.

A Chinese state-owned company with trawling activities in Ghana, Shandong Zhonglu Oceanic Fisheries Co Ltd, reported operating revenues of approximately US $ 164.5 million in 2019, receiving grants for the development of its operations overseas fishing of about 3 million US dollars from the Chinese government in this year.

At least seven Chinese fishing companies with trawling activities in Ghana have obtained ocean fishing enterprise qualifications from the Chinese government which confer the right to receive state subsidies.

At the same time, a total of 52 Ghanaian companies have held trawler licenses since 2015. The majority of local licensees reported an expected annual income of less than USD 10,000 upon incorporation. Almost half of the companies for which data was obtained reported expected annual revenue of less than $ 1,000.

In this vein, Prof Akpalu said, looking at how Ghana’s fish stocks are regularly depleting, the government must do something quickly to prevent a complete depletion of stocks.

Official letter to the WTO in the journal Science by nearly 300 scientists

Indeed, Professor Akpalu was one of some 300 scientists from six other continents who came together with one voice to urge WTO members to end harmful fisheries subsidies and protect the health of the oceans. at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Scotland.

The scientists, who range from economists and biologists to nutritionists and health specialists, published a letter in the journal Science on October 29 calling on WTO members to reach an agreement this year to eliminate all destructive subsidies. fishing – which could help curb overfishing, biodiversity degradation, and CO2 losses and emissions to protect food and livelihoods.

Among other demands, the letter called on WTO members to ban subsidies that make it cheaper to buy fuel for ships and that allow deep-sea fishing on the high seas or in the waters of other nations.

These types of subsidies, the letter said, unfairly disadvantage small-scale fishers in developing countries, making them more difficult to compete with the large industrial-scale fishing fleets of developed countries.

ENRRI – EfD Ghana

The Environment and Natural Resources Research Initiative (ENRRI – EfD Ghana) is one of the 15 centers of the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD).

ENRRI is hosted by the Institute for Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana (UG) and the School of Research and Graduate Studies (SRGS) at the Ghana Institute of Management and public administration (GIMPA).