Accra, Aug. 10, GNA – Mr Philip Prah, Project Officer, Friends of the Nation (FoN) has observed that the interest of fisher folks in the documentation of fish landing sites in the country was going up.
He attributed the positive trend to the Far Ban Bo(FBB) Project, leading to the mapping of 45.488 hectors of five fishing communities landing sites towards securing livelihoods.
Mr Prah was speaking at the close of two-day media capacity workshop on Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) of land, fisheries, and forests and Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF) guidelines in Accra.
The VGGT guidelines were unanimously endorsed on May 11, 2012, by the UN Committee on World Food Security as an international instrument that can be used by many different actors to improve the governance of tenure of land, fisheries, and forest.
The SSF guidelines are aimed at ensuring that all actors worked to secure sustainable small-scale fisheries, to end hunger and poverty, and strengthen human rights.
The FBB Project, which means protecting fisheries livelihoods, is an EU funded four-year (2017 – 2021) fisheries governance project being implemented by a consortium consisting of CARE International (the lead), FoN, and Oxfam in collaboration with key fishery stakeholders.
The overall objective of the project is to contribute to sustainable fisheries resources management to improve food security and nutrition and livelihoods of smallholder fishers and other users of fishery resources.
The pilot project is sited in five coastal communities namely Abutsiakope, Whuti, Kedzikope communities all in the Volta region, Anomabo community in the Central Region, and Abuesi communities in the Western Region.
He said the involvement of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies, Forestry Commission had also contributed to the feat of high interest in documenting landing sites.
“The mapping and demarcation of fish landing site has resulted in consensus building at the community level among community leaders, landowners, and fisherfolks contributing to the securing of the fish landing sites,” Mr Prah added.
He said the interest had also led to communities-led actions to reduce and stop encroachment on the landing sites.
Mr Prah said the mapping and demarcation of fish landing sites had resulted in consensus building at the community level among community leaders, landowners, and fisherfolks contributing to the securing of the fish landing sites.
On why mapping and documentation of Landing Sites, the Project Officer said according to FAO’s VGGT in the Context of National Food Security, the governance of tenure was a crucial element in determining if and how people, communities, and others were able to acquire rights, and associated duties, to use and control land, fisheries, and forests.
He said there could be an increase in poverty, if people lost their tenure rights to their homes, land, fisheries, and forests because of corrupt tenure practices or if implementing agencies failed to protect their tenure rights.
“In Ghana, there is weak documentation of fish landing sites, hence ownership and tenure at the coasts are not well secured,” he added.
GNA