Government urged to support WWF-SASSI Marine Campaign
Discrepancies in the implementation and monitoring of small scale fishing policies have hampered the development of most South African communities.
"We need the government, through the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, to lend support to this project and see its potential to help fishing communities feed themselves and their families as well as to conserve marine ecosystems," said Pavs Pillay, Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI) programme manager at WWF-SA.
She was speaking at a WWF-SASSI Marine Campaign event which - in the month of August - is spotlighting the small scale Fisheries Improvement Project (FIP) in Kleinmond in the Western Cape. The Kleinmond project is a partnership between WWF-SA, Pick n Pay and several other partners.
Enforcement needed
The small scale fisheries policy, once implemented, needs to be enforced and monitored in order to win the fight against poverty and the collapse of marine ecosystems in fishing communities, said Pillay.
She added that the WWF-SASSI campaign is aimed at activating all seafood consumers to use their voice and hold all fishmongers accountable regarding sustainable seafood. "The campaign has developed a special website (www.sassistories.co.za) where people can contact all major seafood retailers/suppliers, asking them what their commitment is to sourcing responsibly fished seafood and how they see themselves contributing to enabling the small scale fishers to find a value chain market for what they are catching," she said.
The small scale fisheries policy, which was adopted by cabinet in June 2012, has a people centred development focus specifically around the areas of human rights, gender and development. It also gives legal recognition to small scale fishers.
