Takoradi, July 16, GNA 97 The Alliance for Fisheries Agenda (CAFA), a civil society organization, on Saturday appealed to the Public Account Committee of Parliament to investigate the management of the Fisheries Development fund. According to the group, since the passage of the Fisheries Act (625) in 2002, which established the fund, managers of the Fund had not openly presented an account thus creating a developmental challenge for the artisanal fisheries sector.



The spokesperson for CAFA, Mr. Richster Amaah Amarfio, who read a press statement issued by the group at the end of a two-day review meeting held in Takoradi, said the fishing sector had experienced steady decline over the years due to poor management and the use of unsustainable fishing methods. He said the Fund, which was supposed to support artisanal fisher folk= s in particular with logistics, capacity building among other needs, had been glossed over by the authorities concerned and this posed a great challenge to the sustainability of the fisheries resources. Mr. Amarfio said issues concerning the sustainability of the fisherie= s resources had been relegated to the background since the discovery of oil and gas in commercial quantities and charged all stakeholders in the sector to put efforts together towards sustenance of the sector.



He said the fisheries sector contributes about US$1 billion annually to the country's economy thus representing 4.5 percent of the Gross Domes= tic Product and employs close to 10 percent of the working population. "The sector also provides livelihood support to over three million Ghanaians as well as food for over 22 million people in the country. "We wish to state that, against the dwindling fish stock, the institutional challenges and the emerging oil industry that poses potential threats to fisheries resources and as such to food, employment and human security, which ultimately impacts on the socio-economic stability of the country, the Fisheries Commission should take its proper space in addressin= g these concerns," Mr Amarfio stressed. The advocacy group, which is serving as an interface between policy makers and the fishing sector, called for listing of fisheries resources under the Natural Resource and Environmental Governance (NREG) programme in order to ensure sustainable management.



The group also criticized the Commission for failing to compel operators in the oil and gas sector to conduct Fisheries Impact Assessment before starting operation on the Jubilee Oilfields. This, according to the group, had exposed the fisheries resources to danger and required critical activities to safeguard the integrity of the fishing industry, livelihood of the fisher folks and the protection of the marine ecosystem.