Curbing overfishing and child labour and trafficking are among key fisheries sector challenges a new $24 million (GHC77m) project is seeking to solve.

The United States Agency for Interna­tional Development, USAID, is funding the five-year initiative known as Sus­tainable Fisheries Management Project, SFMP.

Takoradi-based Friends of the Na­tion, FoN, has been selected as one of the implementing partners while the Coastal Resources Centre, CRC at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, USA is the lead in the proj­ect which is lasting from October 2014 to October 2019.

Altogether, lead implementing partner CRC will work with a consortium of other international and local organisations, namely FoN, Hen Mpoano, the Nether­lands Development Organization, SNV, SSG Advisors, the Central & Western Fishmongers Improvement Association, CEWEFIA, Daasgift Quality Foundation, DQF, Development Action Association, DAA, and Spatial Solutions.

According to FoN, the fisheries management project has the objective to rebuild Ghana’s marine fisheries stocks and catches through facilitating adoption of responsible fishing practices.

It complements the Government of Ghana’s fisheries development objec­tives and USAID’s Feed the Future (FtF) Initiative goals of improved food security, economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Also, the project, which will contribute to consolidating the gains made by the Integrated Coastal and Fisheries Gover­nance (ICFG) Initiative (2009-2014), will also contribute to the strengthening of marine and fisheries management training at the University of Cape Coast, UCC, and coastal spatial planning capacity of districts in the Central and Western Regions.

“We are delighted to be part of this project. It rekindles our longstand­ing endeavour to promote broad-based education to fishermen along the coast of Ghana,” said Donkris Mevuta, Executive Director of Friends of the Nation. “Our work in this area, particularly the ICFG project, was focused more on the Western Region. The SFMP will go beyond to in­volve more fisher folk, which is necessary for a broader voluntary compliance of the Fisheries Regulations by fishers con­tributing to responsible fisheries and the rebuilding of stocks. Further, the project seeks to improve governance in the sector where fisher folk will have space to act as co-managers of their resources.”

Dr. Brian Crawford of CRC, Chief of Party for the SFMP, said “This will be a very challenging and ambitious project.”

Working with the Ghanaian Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MoFAD) and the Fisheries Commission, the project team hopes to reverse the trend in declining fish catches. “With improved management, tens of thousands of metric tons of high-quality, low-cost fish protein supply can be recovered, benefiting not only tens of thousands of fishermen and women processors, but improving food security for millions of people in Ghana and its neighbours in West Africa,” Dr. Crawford said.

The project aims at ending overfishing of some key marine fish stocks like her­rings, sardinella and anchovies, which are crucial to local food security.

It was critically stated at a recent plan­ning meeting for the project in Accra that, “managing fisheries is not about manag­ing fish but rather managing humans.” Therefore, the project also aims to deepen the information behind the drivers of unsustainable fisheries and helping to re­duce Child Labour and Trafficking in the fisheries sector in the Central Region, and to assist women processors and marketers to promote improved fish smoking and processing techniques.