The Africa Progress Panel welcomes recommendations published this week by the Global Ocean Commission, which if properly implemented will regenerate the ocean -- including actions and policies to tackle illegal fishing.

This year’s Africa Progress Report - Grain, Fish, Money: Financing Africa’s Green and Blue Revolutions - demands an end to illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing This fishing destroys African communities by reducing fish stocks and damaging the livelihoods of millions who catch, trade, and eat fish in Africa.

“In Africa’s coastal waters, illegal unregulated and unreported fishing has reached epidemic proportions. This plunder destroys entire coastal communities when they lose opportunities to catch process and trade,” Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Chair of the Africa Progress Panel said.

“Commercial trawlers which operate under flags of convenience and unload in ports that do not record their catch are engaging in organised theft disguised as commerce,” he added.

Grain, Fish, Money finds that Africa loses billions of dollars each year to illegal fishing practices. “We are storing up problems for the future. While personal fortunes are consolidated by a corrupt few, the vast majority of African’s present and future generations are being deprived of the benefits of common resources that might otherwise deliver incomes, livelihoods and better nutrition,” Mr Annan said.

“Africa’s fish and other harvests can help feed an expanding global population,” Mr Annan said, noting that fish provide jobs and livelihoods for millions.

“We all benefit from an Africa that is prosperous, stable, and fair,” he said.