Ghanaian fishermen. (Photo: PRCA)

USAID and NGOs partner to restore Ghanaian fishing sector

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has partnered some non-governmental organisations to boost fisheries resource management in Ghana as part of a co-management scheme.

The scheme, recognised as a global best practice to sustain fisheries resources to ensure food security, is aimed at empowering Ghanaian fishing communities on how to properly manage their fisheries, the Ghana News Agency reported.

The USAID is implementing the programme through its Sustainable Fisheries Management Programmes (SFMP), with partners including Hen Mpoano, Friends of the Nation (FoN), the Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association and the Village Savings and Loans Association.

The scheme supporters have developed draft local management plans together with communities in the Densu, Pra and Ankobra estuaries, which include community-led written plans aligned with the draft national co-management policy and further development of the national co-management framework.

The partnership is also working to restore the mangroves, where most fish lay and hatch their fingerlings, which later swim back to the rivers and mature.

During a recent media outreach, organised by the USAID-SFMP, to fishing communities in the Western and Central Regions, it was revealed that most of the fishmongers depended on the mangroves as firewood fuel to smoke their fishes, leading to the depletion of the mangroves.

The Community members have also been empowered to institute their own closed season and fisheries and mangrove resources protected area along the estuary and on parts of the Pra River to promote fish conservation.

On the Ankobra Estuary, the Community had been assisted by Hen Mpoano to identify and preserve key mangrove areas that provided important breeding areas for some species and supported to replant the degraded mangroves.

This organisation also provided technical support to map the degraded mangrove sites and provided logistics to set up and maintain a mangrove nursery in Ankobra.

The Central and Western Fishmongers Improvement Association and SFMP are assisting the fishmongers to adopt best practices towards reducing post-harvest losses and ensuring improvement in the value chain.

The women at Elmina and Anlo Beach were also being empowered to adopt hygienic fish handling practices through the use of Ahotor Oven, an improved fish smoking technology developed by the Fisheries Commission and SFMP, thereby reducing the high polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) levels in the smoked fish that, hitherto, made it to be rejected on the EU markets.

Both the fishermen and fishmongers expressed happiness about the SFMP intervention and indicated their readiness to support efforts at sustaining the fisheries activities in the country.
 
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