He Sunday, November 17 concluded the five-year period agreed between Senegal and the European Union so that European vessels could fish in Senegalese waters. The same Sunday, the legislative elections again gave the victory at Pan-Africanist party Pastef (African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity). The party led by Bassirou Diomaye Faye already snatched the power of the executive from the ruling party in the previous March presidential election. Now his party, in addition to governing, has a majority in Parliament so that his executive’s proposals are not blocked.
Faye rose to power in March promoting economic patriotism and renegotiating mining, oil and fishing contracts, and now he can show his voters that he can do it. A first example is that you have decided not to renew the fishing agreement with the European Unionwhich mainly affects Spanish and French ships. The agreement allowed fishing for 10,000 tons of tuna and 1,750 tons of hake per year.
Overfishing is frequently linked to fishing exploitation in the global north. But he statement from the European Union that announced the end of the agreement estimated European fishing at less than 1% of the total catches reported in Senegalese waters. Despite these figures, overfishing is a problem for Senegalese seeking job opportunities in the fishing sector and part of the blame lies with vessels owned by the global north.
According to a study of Environmental Justice Foundationthere are Senegalese-flagged ships that actually have foreign beneficiaries, and there are quite a few of them. They represent more than half of all trawlers operating off the Senegalese coast. Trawlers have grown in the last decade and 77% of traditional fishermen surveyed by the study noticed a drop in their income. At least one 29% of trawlers flying the Senegalese flag They are linked to beneficiaries from the EU (23% to Spain), another 20% to beneficiaries from China and there is a remaining 25% that the NGO was unable to identify the property, hidden behind shell companies.
The report estimates that in 2019 the entire industrial fleet flying the Senegalese flag disembarked almost 18% of the total fish caught in Senegal, while traditional fishing accounted for 82%. This situation would be directly affecting Senegalese fishermen because these vessels operate outside international treatiesincreasing its fishing volume every year since 2010. In addition, the report also warns that these vessels have been accused of illegally transshipping fishing to other vessels, which could take the fishing to other ports. In 2019 the academic study Analysis of the tragedy of illegal fishing in the coastal region of West Africa located Las Palmas as one of the landing ports for this fishing.
The CEAR highlights the political instability in the country as the main factor in the increase in Senegalese migration to the Canary Islands
This is one of the reasons why young people take the dangerous path to the Canary Islands, explains the report. How bottom trawling precipitates the collapse of artisanal fishing in Senegal from the Environmental Justice Foundation. The scarcity of fish affects job opportunities and, in addition, illegal fishing is compounded by the warming of the sea as a result of the climate crisis. Both situations that affect all of West Africa were joined in 2023 by the instability that Senegal experienced when the Pastef leaders were imprisoned. Which, according to CEARwas the cause of exceptional increase in Senegalese migration to the Canary Islandswhich is now the main nationality on the islands with 17,000 people migrated.
The EU calls for more fight against illegal fishing, and Senegal, for greater national sovereignty
The new Senegalese president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has the challenge of lowering a unemployment rate exceeding 20% of the population in Senegal and offer job opportunities. Its commitment to improving the living conditions of its population is greater national sovereignty.
The EU designates Senegal as a non-cooperative country in the fight against illegal and unreported fishing
The European Union issued a statement in which he stressed that the fishing disagreement was the result of identifying Senegal as a non-cooperative country in the fight against illegal fishingunreported and unregulated. According to the announcement, the European Commission would have been the one who decided to suspend the renewal of the agreement. But during the election campaign, the Minister of Higher Education, Abdourahmane Dioufcategorically denied it and assured that it was the Senegalese Government that opposed it. “We cannot continue signing fishing agreements that will impoverish Senegal’s fishermen,” explained the minister, predicting an uncertain future for their renewal.
The finalization of the agreement coincides with the ruling of the European Justice, which annulled in October the fishing agreement with Morocco by violate the rights of the Sahrawi people. Both agreements especially affect Spanish fishing vessels. For Morocco it means the loss of 52 million euros annually, and for Senegal, three million annually. Papa Sowresearcher of Northern Africa Institute, believes that the Senegalese Government was the one who refused to renew the agreement with a view to renegotiating the agreement upwards. “The prime minister denounced it during the election campaign. They believe that Morocco receives more money for the treaties than Senegal receives,” he explains.
“The Government also wants to protect its fishermen to prevent them from emigrating,” says Sow, a researcher on the climate crisis and migration. “Many of the migrants in cayucos are the same fishermen who know how to drive them. They are highly qualified fishing labor who leave the country or die during the journey at sea.”
Warming of the sea, the other problem for fishermen
A direct effect of the climate crisis has been added to overfishing and that is the warming of water. This is pointed out by another recent study carried out between Dakar-Thiaore Oceanographic Research Center (CRODT-ISRA) and the French Institute for Research and Development (IDR).
Sardine is one of the most consumed species in the country and has begun to become scarce on the Senegalese coast. The CRODT and IDR study explains that catches of this fish have decreased between 70% and 80% and warn that the surface waters of the coastal area of Senegal and Mauritania “have experienced the most pronounced warming of all the world’s intertropical regions“.
A study warns of the alarming warming of the surface waters of the coastal area of Senegal and Mauritania
IDR researchers warn that these fish would be moving 180 kilometers north due to the increase in sea temperature and “could alter the marine food chain,” they warn. Patrice BrehmerIDR researcher. The Environmental Justice Foundation report also explained that the volume of captures had decreased by 58% between 2012 and 2019.
Beatriz Pérez, doctor of law from Rovira i Virgili University and expert in climate crisis and migration, points out that this factor could be behind a climate migration. In an ongoing and unfinished investigation for the UNED, the researcher has carried out surveys of the migrant population of the Canary Islands to investigate whether the Spanish asylum regime should recognize climate migration. “The majority of the Senegalese population explained to us that they were dedicated to fishing and that they had less work. But if they went to look for work in agriculture, they found drought. That greatly limited their aspirations,” explains the researcher.
Papa Sow considers that in Senegal the climate impact mainly affects fishing and drought. “Climate change has abrupt effects such as floods, but also slow consequences such as land degradation and droughts,” details the project collaborator. Migraclima of the University of Valencia. “In Senegal, a large part of the current peanut production had forest, and that has favored desertification. If you cut down trees, the desert advances,” the researcher concludes.
The IDR has identified that the sea temperature in Nouadhibou and towards the south increases between 0.1ºC and 0.3ºC per decade and relates it directly to the climate crisis. The next government of Senegal faces the challenge of confronting illegal fishing and overfishing, but also adapting to the climate crisis.
Papa Sow: “The president will have to make social policies so that people vote for them”
“Now the Government is focused on cleaning up corruption and on what is called good governance,” says Senegalese researcher Papa Sow, “but governance does not provide food“. “The president will have to make social policies so that people vote for them.”
“At the international level more can be done,” says Beatriz Felipe. “Not only focusing on asylum and refuge, but also creating special work or humanitarian visas and in terms of cooperation, first of all, helping people not have to leave. The majority of people do not want to migrate.” For this, the researcher considers that mitigation “is super important”, and believes that we must “invest more in the climate adaptation of the countries of origin.” “All is not lost.” Economic funds are needed to reverse the situation and “increase climate financing of losses and damages at the Climate Conference.” Precisely, renegotiating climate financing upwards has been one of the most difficult issues of this COP29which finally has increased from 100 billion dollars annually to 300 billion.
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