Eco-fish project to boost Kenya's blue economy

Kenya is among 25 African countries set to benefit from the eco-fish programme aimed at mainstreaming the Blue Economy.

The programme, championed by COMESA and IGAD targets streamlining the weaknesses and gaps in the fisheries data collection, management and capacity gaps.

According to the United Nations, more than 12 million people are employed in fisheries alone, the largest of the African blue economy sectors.

It provides food security and nutrition for over 200 million Africans and generates value-added estimated at more than $24 billion, or 1.26 per cent of the GDP of all African countries. It accounts for 18 per cent of animal protein intake.

Speaking during the Eco-fish workshop held in Nairobi on Tuesday Fisheries director, Rodrick Kundu, said:  “The Blue Economy policy is a tool kit that is going to improve on data capture and analysis so that we  get the real-time results so that information is used for policy and management measures.”

The sector is both a source of revenue and expenditure for the government which is derived from fishing rights and taxes.

Blue Economy (BE), sustainable exploitation of resources in oceans, seas, lakes and rivers could contribute up to $1.5 trillion to the global economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The project is considered a small investment with a paramount impact, which is vital in executing  BE in the marine fisheries and other marine-based industries.

The coastal marine fisheries are a pinnacle of the BE for their significant contribution to livelihoods, food-fish security, cultural diversity alongside wealth creation in local and national economies. 

However, the sub-sector has reached its tipping point because of policy failures, inadequate institutional governance, and weak management.

Speaking during a Blue Economy conference in 2018,  Cyrus Rustomjee, an expert, said: “Expanding fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, transportation and maritime and inland ports can help to reduce African poverty and enhance food and energy security, employment, economic growth, and exports, ocean health and sustainable use of ocean resources.”

Africa has 38 coastal and island states and a coastline of over 47,000 km, and hence presents an enormous opportunity for the continent to develop the sectors typically associated with the blue economy.

The significance of the fisheries sector in terms of livelihoods, food security, wealth creation,  is still not on the radar screen of policymakers at national and regional levels.

Overall, about 90 per cent of the marine fisheries are small-scale and the remaining 10 per cent, are industrial activities.

To date, nearly 80 per cent of the world's capture fisheries, mostly inshore subsistence and traditional artisanal fishing, remain without scientific and socio-economic information to enable their sustainable and inclusionary management.

The Ecofish Marine Fisheries Work Plan has provided for the development of a Regional Blue Economy Marine Fisheries Account to promote informed policy engineering in the EA-SA-IO region.

The satellite account approach is a simpler, less data demanding method that can generate GDP measures for annual assessment and monitoring.

 Blue Economy Fisheries Satellite Account can provide a more holistic and accurate representation of the economic contribution of the marine fisheries.

A study conducted by the World Bank shows that the global marine fisheries are an underperforming asset and the difference between potential and actual net economic benefits are in the range of US$ 88 billion per year which is equivalent to half of the value of global seafood trade.

Commercial fishing constitutes the economic base for an extended value chain through processing, marketing, retailing, and the foodservice industry.

 Subsistence fisheries are important for food security and rural livelihoods. The economics of the informal sector is not fully captured by the economic measures.

The marine fisheries of the EA-SA-IO region is a contrasting landscape where 90 per cent of the coastal fisheries resources is harvested in the inshore waters by small-scale subsistence and traditional artisanal fishers.

 These fisheries are mostly poorly regulated open access and informal economy. The catch is destined for household consumption and any surplus is sold on the local markets.

The per-caput consumption of fish is less than 10 kg which is half of the global average and projected to decline to 7 kg by 2030 if appropriate measures are not expedited.

In Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan, the inland fish production is much higher than the marine counterparts.

The post-harvest physical and economic losses account for nearly 40 per cent of the total annual catch which is a huge loss for the local and national economies.

Most of the fishers are in fact fishing labors since the fishing assets are owned by fish traders and external investors who have no direct interest in sustainable fisheries.

 The governments are unable to invest in basic socio-economic infrastructure and services to empower the fishing communities and to connect them to the economic mainstream.

While the inshore fisheries resources are overexploited, the existing fishing capabilities and supply-chain ecosystems are inadequate to venture into more productive fishing grounds farther offshore.

 The aggregated fisheries licenses revenue is estimated at US$ 21 million annually. These industrial fisheries are relatively well-managed but there is no record of their direct and indirect socio-economic contribution to the national economies.

 The objectives of Africa’s Agenda 2063 might be missed out without the sustainable and inclusive modernization of the primary industries, including fisheries.

Driven by the fundamentals of the Green Economy, the BE is a deeper dive into greening the traditional and emerging marine-based industries with fairness – humanity first.