Stakeholders in the fishing industry have appealed to the government to protect landing beaches from the activities of private developers and the effects of climatic conditions, which would soon affect these sites if urgent steps were not taken.
At a workshop to discuss the need to safeguard the landing sites, they called for the facilitation of a national dialogue on climate change, improved spatial and land use activities to protect all sites and livelihoods of the over 140,000 population in that sector.
The workshop, dubbed: ‘Western Regional Workshop on Fish Landing Site Mapping and Documentation, under the Sustainable Oceans Project,” is to help build grassroots capacity for a sustainable ocean economy.
The three-year project is being implemented by the Environmental Justice Foundation and Hen Mpoano (our beach) with funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Corporation.
Mr Justice Camillus Mensah, the Project Manager at Hen Mpoano, who spoke on ‘Fishing Landing Sites Documentation Strategy,’ said the project would build on existing activities and add four new sites for documentation.
Mr Nyantakyi Osei-Akoto, the Environmental Justice Foundation representative, said the overall goal was to achieve a resilient sector built on inclusiveness of all stakeholders.
It would build capacity of the security agencies, regulatory authorities, media, and women among others for a better understanding and support while improving land tenure governance for a sustainable seafood system.
Mr Stephen Kankam, the Deputy Director of Hen Mpoano, said the organization had been working with fishers for the past 10 years to identify best practices for fisheries management.
“We are also working with others like government and land use planning authorities on site registration and management,” he said.
Mr. Kankam said fishing activities including buying, processing and transportation should ideally happen around the shore to ensure a viable business.
He expressed the worry that variety of factors, including climate change, human activities and development actions within the shore were hampering the effective activities of fishers, coupled with more coastal erosion.
Reversing the current trend called for multifaceted approach by all concerned institutions, particularly the traditional authorities, to safeguard the landing beaches for now and posterity.
GNA