Overview of fisheries and environmental management in Ghana
The fisheries sector is valuable and its importance is related to employment, livelihood support, poverty reduction, food security as well as foreign exchange earnings.
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The fishery sector employs both men and women; the men are normally engaged in the key fishing activities, while women are engaged in the on-shore post-harvest activities such as processing, storage and trading (Larbi, 2015).
In Ghana, the developed landing sites serve industrial, inshore and artisanal vessels.
Tema Fishing Harbour and Albert Bosomtwe Fishing Harbour are the major landing sites for industrial and inshore vessels.
Important landing sites for the artisanal sector are Teshie, Jamestown, Chorkor, Shama, Axim, Elmina, Winneba, Mumford, Akplabonya, Adina, Atiteti, Abutiakope and Moree.
The marine fisheries cover over 300 different species of commercially important fish (Ofori Adu, 1988).
Most domestic marine fish supplies are the sardinellas, chub-mackerels and anchovies and large pelagic species such as tunas.
There are also fisheries for demersal species of the families Sparidae, Mullidae, Pomadasydae, Serranidae and Penaeidae (Quaatey, 1997). The type of vessels used is mostly made up of 30-200hp diesel engines, and large steel-hulled foreign built vessels. They operate in Ghanaian waters and are restricted to between 50-75m deep, but frequently stray into shallow waters. They either purse seine or use the pole and line with live bait (anchovy) to land tunas (skipjack, yellow fin and big eye) (Bank of Ghana, 2008).
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The fishing craft for the artisanal sector is the dug-out canoe. The canoes range in size between three and 18m long and from 0.5 to 1.8m wide depending on the type of fishery that it is used for. The canoe is propelled by an outboard motor of up to 40hp, or sail and oars depending on the fishing include operation that it is used for (Amador et al., 2006). The gears used in artisanal fishing purse seines, beach seines, trawl nets, gillnets and entangling nets (including set and drifting gillnets; trammel nets), traps (including pots, stow or bag nets, fixed traps) and hooks and lines.
The semi-industrial or inshore fleet consists of locally built, wooden-hulled vessels, between eight and 22m long and powered by inboard engines of between 90 and 400hp. They are used for purse seining during the upwelling seasons for sardinella, and trawling is done during the off-season (Bank of Ghana, 2008). They operate from seven coastal landing centres, namely: Tema, Apam, Mumford, Elmina, Sekondi, Takoradi and Axim.
Fisheries Management in Ghana
In Ghana, there are independent management systems for marine fisheries and lake fisheries. Together, the two management plan attempts to respond to ecological, socio-economic and institutional issues related to the development of the national fishery. To conform to the global policy environment, the national fisheries management plans draw heavily on the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF).
The existing regime for the regulation of the fisheries industry is a mixture of customary rules and statutory enactments in consonance with Article 11 of the 1992 Constitution. The fisheries industry in Ghana is regulated by the Fisheries Act of 2002, Fisheries Regulation 2010 (LI 1968), Fisheries (Amendment) Act 880 (2014), Fisheries (Amendment) Regulation (2014) and all other Acts, Decrees, Laws, Legislative Instruments (and other subsidiary/subordinate legislation) on or relating to the sector that are still in force and not inconsistent with the Constitution (the Existing Law); and Customary Laws that are not inconsistent with the Constitution or the Existing Law.
The purpose of the Fisheries Act is to amalgamate with amendments the laws on fisheries; to provide for the regulation and management of fisheries; to provide for the development of the fishing industry and the sustainable exploitation of fishery resources and to provide for connected matters.
Alongside this formal fisheries management regime is a traditional fisheries management regime that operates and varies from one ethnic group to the other. At each landing beach is an elected chief fisherman who is the administrative head and chief arbiter in all disputes related to the landing site. In recent times, the position of a chief fishmonger (Konkohemaa) has evolved to play a similar role as that of the chief fisherman.
The National Environmental Action Plan
Ghana has a National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) which defines a set of policy actions, related investments, and institutional strengthening activities to make Ghana's development strategy more environmentally sustainable and to improve the surroundings, living conditions and the quality of life for all generations of Ghanaians. Degradation of the coastal environment is one of the key issues identified in Ghana’s Environmental Plan. Some of the specific issues are fisheries degradation, industrial pollution of water resources in the coastal zone, coastal erosion, and biodiversity loss.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by law is therefore the leading public institution for protecting and improving the environment in Ghana. It performs these functions with the following guiding principles: partnerships, pollution prevention and control, ecosystem management, environmental justice, environmental education, compliance and enforcement. It is supposed to provide standards and guidelines in relation to air, water and other forms of environmental pollution. It also has authority to ensure that developers of commercial entities comply with environmental impact assessments. At the local level, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies are responsible for sanitation and are required to promote aggressively the construction and use of domestic latrines, and enforce by-laws on the provision of sanitation facilities by landlords and public latrines to be restricted to public places.