By RFIPosted on 02-04-2019Modified on 02-04-2019 at 00:37

Sierra Leone has banned industrial fishing in its waters for one month from Monday 1 April to preserve stocks. Industrial fishing companies, often Asian, must also stop exports. The ban is intended, in principle, to protect fish stocks.

The ban announced by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Fisheries targets, in particular, foreign trawlers. In Sierra Leone, the president of the National Consortium of Fish Harvesters, Alpha Sheku Kamara, is pleased with this move. But for conservationists, that's not enough.

" It's good, but it's not enough," says Ibrahima Cissé, the Greenpeace Africa Oceans Campaigner. It is not sustainable what is happening now. We know that in the long term, it is food security problems, it is poverty problems, it is a lot of problems that will be raised in the sub-region. There is an effort to make sure that at least the common problems are managed in a common way. "

It remains to be seen whether Sierra Leone can enforce this ban. Illegal fishing represents about 30% of the catch of foreign trawlers.

" This does not mean that there will be zero illegal fishing, Ibrahima Cisse emphasizes. But it is already a very strong measure that will still mark and show that something is still being done. "

According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, some 37 species are already endangered from Angola to Mauritania. Fourteen other species may soon be in turn.

Sierra Leone's decision did not go unnoticed abroad. Haidar El Ali, an environmental activist, is a former Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs of Senegal.

I would really, really, with all my heart, encourage and congratulate the Government of Sierra Leone.

Haïdar El Ali, environmental activist and former Minister of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs of Senegal

01-04-2019 - By Michel Arseneault

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