Posted by By: Modou Kanteh
The Government of the Gambia through the Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly matters has recently participated in a prelude conservation and sustainability of living marine resources planned for the second half of 2022 at Tangier, Morocco.
The forum in particular is the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of CITES and the 68th meeting of the International Whaling Conference (IWC).
According to Omar S. M. Gibba, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly matters who represented the Gambia at the meeting, the main objective of the meeting was to strengthen and consolidate the voice of Africa to better take into account the interests of African States.“It had to identify and propose the necessary actions for a better participation in international bodies dealing with the management of living marine species,” Gibba said.
PS Gibba is also a Commissioner of International Whaling Commission (IWC) indicated that at the end of the meeting, the participants came up with the following recommendations:
Promote the sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources by relying on the best available scientific advice from competent national, sub-regional, regional and international institutions and bodies in decision making for the conservation and rational management of living marine resources.
To ensure that the fishing sectors are involved in all coordination and decision making processes that establish national and international policies that have an impact on the management of commercially exploited living aquatic resources.
To strengthen communication, diplomatic lobbying and cooperation efforts to promote the legitimacy and benefits of science-based conservation and sustainable use in order to address growing pressure from those opposing the principle of sustainable use among others.
The Commissioners of the following Member States attended Benin, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Sierra-Leone and Togo.