‘For us, it has no sense or benefit because the industrial fishing boats don’t leave us any chance of survival. They fish right up to the coast without being stopped and the government doesn’t have the means to control their activities. If the government would listen to us, we wouldn’t sign an agreement with people who catch everything, even the small fish,’ says Mario Alberto Da Silva, a West African artisanal fisherman. The fisheries sector is an essential component in Senegal’s development: It provides 75 percent of local protein needs and generates about 100,000 direct jobs for Senegalese nationals, of which more than 90 percent are in small scale (artisanal) fishing. Another 600,000 people or 15 percent of the working Senegalese population are employed in related industries. The rising global demand for fish combined with pressures on world supplies means that Senegal’s ‘blue gold’ is an increasingly valuable resource.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed in 1982 and in force since 1994, provides for an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of 200 nautical miles. This places 95 percent of the world’s fish stocks and 35 percent of the oceans under the jurisdiction of coastal nations. The open access previously enjoyed by the long distance fishing fleets was lost, so the European Union (EU) had to negotiate access through fisheries agreements or through private license and joint venture arrangements. Already in the 1980s, the Senegalese government first reduced support for the fisheries sector and then introduced export-stimulating mechanisms as part of an agreement with IMF-World Bank. Since then, it has concluded a number of fishing access agreements, principally with the EU, that have a significant contribution to government revenues. Like many African governments, short-term financial compensation from fisheries access agreements was favoured over a thriving informal domestic sector from which it is difficult to extract revenue. Fish exports have grown and the revenues have been an important source for debt repayments.

However, the value of this sector is being eroded by multilateral trade liberalisation. The pressure on West African fish stocks increased six-fold between the 1960s and the 1990s, mainly as a result of fishing by the EU, Russian and Asian fleets. The small-scale fishing industry of Senegal is now in direct competition with the fishing fleets of the EU to supply both the local and the European Union market. The risk of supply shortages and price increases on local markets looms ahead as fishing efforts shift from locally consumed to export-oriented species. The EU has been strongly criticised for its role in the depletion. It ‘exports’ EU fishing fleets to already resource-scarce regions and partly subsidises these vessels. It concludes intransparent agreements with signatory states who have quite limited capability to monitor or control the EU fleet activities. Local interests suffer from its lobbying power. The fisheries policies are in conflict with EU development policies in West Africa. To address these criticisms, the EU has developed a new approach to Fisheries Agreements. The latest agreement with Senegal (2002–2006) made some improvements but is still an old style ‘cash for access’ agreement.

[* This story is based on UNDP Human Development Report 2005 Occasional Paper (http://hdr.undp.org).]