Monrovia – The Government of Liberia (GoL) says it has taken due note of the interest expressed by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) relative to Executive Order 84, which reduced Liberia’s Inshore Exclusion Zone (IEZ) from six (6) Nautical Miles (NM) to three (3) Nautical Miles (NM) for the purpose of revitalizing commercial and semi-industrial fishing in Liberia.
However, the GoL terms as inaccurate the interpretation of Executive Order 84 by the EFJ, on which, wrong basis, the advocacy organization has anchored its misleading media campaign against the GoL for its decision.
According to the Ministry of Information press release, contrary to what the EJF asserts through its media campaign, the revitalization of the commercial and semi-industrial fishing will, in no way, cause a drop in fish supply to the local market. It will lead to an increase, instead.
As the new guidelines, which will be published before any new license is issued, will ensure all fishing vessels land all catch in Liberia, the local market is expected to receive more fish supply and experience the consequent reduction in fish imports from Sierra Leone and other countries. Liberia currently imports nearly 50,000 metric tons of fish per year.
The economic benefits from the domestic harvesting of fish rather than importing of fish will help the country’s balance of payment and the foreign exchange situation. This benefit, the Government believes, will help the entire country including artisanal fishermen.
Additionally, by using fish harvested in the country’s domestic waters to supply the local market, the price of food will naturally drop as opposed to the EJF’s assertion that there would be an increase in the price of food on the market.
It is difficult to understand how the EJF reached this conclusion.
For the advocacy group to have assumed that all fish products harvested in Liberian waters will be exported, demonstrates that the EJF was probably engaging in a campaign to incite rather than protect ordinary people including those living in coastal communities.
The EJF’s conclusion that there is no sustainable way to undertake semi-industrial fishing without destroying the coastal ecosystem is equally hard to comprehend because the government and its partners believe that proper monitoring and regulation of the types of vessels, gear and fishing methods can indeed ensure that the twin goals of sustainable management and revenue generation can be achieved.
MICAT quotes the Liberia Maritime Authority (LMA) as assuring all of Government’s partners that Executive Order 84 is not intended to undermine any of the gains made in the sustainable management of Liberia’s fishery resources but rather to begin to reap the benefits of the investments that have been made over the last seven years.
MICAT says it is worthy of note that over the last seven (7) years, the government has worked diligently with its partners to rebuild the country’s fish stock and also make critical investment in the fishery sub-sector, an example being the ongoing construction of the Mesurado Pier under the World Bank’s WARF project, which is nearing completion to be turned over to GoL on June 30, 2017.
The Government believes strongly that fishery has great potential for the domestic economy if done properly. The Executive Order seeks to ensure that the full economic benefits of the country’s fishery resources are harnessed without compromising the livelihood of our artisanal fishermen as well as the sustainable management of our resources.
Consistent with the Executive Order, before the Bureau of National Fisheries–now being supervised by the Liberia Maritime Authority–issues any fishing license under the Executive Order, the proper regulations and guidelines that will ensure that all of the goals are achieved, will be promulgated and issued.
The LMA promises all of Liberia’s partners and artisanal fishing communities that due care will be taken to ensure that their interests and those of other Liberians, many of whom do not live along the coast, are protected within the context of protecting and promoting the national interests.
The LMA also assures that efforts will be made and a mechanism put in place to ensure that there are no conflicts at sea between artisanal fishermen and industrial fishing vessels and that the necessary actions will be taken to ensure that rigorous enforcement is done so that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is eliminated.
The Government remains confident that by revitalizing the fishery sub-sector and developing all the other sectors associated with fishery, the Government and people of Liberia stand to benefit enormously and it is to this end that Government has instituted Executive Order 84.