Presentation given at UserRights 2015 (in Cambodia by Andrew Baio) on tenure and fishing rights in Sierra Leone.

1. Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone
Experimentation with Right-Based Fisheries in the Artisanal
Fisheries of Sierra Leone
© Andrew Baio, PhD
Fisheries & Environmental Resource Economist
Tenure and Fishing Rights 2015
A Global Forum on Right-Based Approaches for Fisheries
23-27 March 2015, Siem Reap, Cambodia

2. Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone
Layout:
1. Fisheries of Sierra Leone: Environment, Economics and Organisation
2. International donor supported projects, Policy reforms and the Evolution of
Right-Based Fisheries in the Artisanal Fisheries of Sierra Leone
 West African Regional Fisheries Programme in Sierra Leone (WARFP-SL) -
World Bank/GEF
West African Pilot Project (WAPP) Under the Partnership for
African Fisheries (PAF) - DfID/NEPAD
3. MPAs as a Conduit to TURFs
4. Policy Reform and Impact
5. Lessons Learnt

3. Industrial Fisheries
(Trawlers)
Artisanal
Fisheries (Community
Based)
Artisanal
Fisheries (Community
Based)
Inland Fisheries/
Aquaculture (Rivers & Fish Ponds)
1. The Fisheries of Sierra Leone1. The Fisheries of Sierra Leone

4. 1A. ECOSYSTEMS: THE GCLME AND THE CCLME
•Sierra Leone has a comparative
advantage in west Africa, hosting high
fish biomass of Shrimps, Demersal
Finfish, Pelagic and Tuna Fishery
with Potential Yields For the Small
Pelagics of about 100,000mt
•The Country's marine ecosystem is
favored by the Guinea Current Large
Marine Ecosystem and the Canary
Current Large Marine Ecosystem
(CCLME) that flows with nutrient rich
waters supporting large quantities of
pelagic and demersal fish stocks
Migration of Small Pelagics
Migration of Tuna and Bill Fish

5. 1b. Fisheries Sector Economic Overview
The fisheries sector of Sierra Leone contributes about
10% to the gross domestic product (GDP) of Sierra
Leone and provides some 80% animal protein source for
majority of Sierra Leoneans.
The sector also provides direct and indirect employment
for over 500,000 Sierra Leoneans.
Sierra Leone – Fisheries Valuation:
Potential Annual Economic Rent: US $59 million / year.
Potential Capital Value of fish resources: US $735
million
(DFID, FAO, World Bank Study, 2007).

6. 1c. Social Environment ( Governance Arrangement - Actors)

7. An Overview of Fisheries Management in Sierra Leone
Management Structure: Rigid Hierarchical Top-Down (Post-Independence –
2008) – Slow evolution to participatory approaches i.e. co-management
Reference Point: Yield Maximization (MSY)
Management Instruments: -
Effort control – access control using financial instruments e.g. Licences, taxing,
royalties etc.
Input control i.e. gear restrictions i.e. via minimum mesh size and prohibition of
destructive fishing gears and methods
Area restrictions e.g. IEZ, (MPAs (Introduced);
Biological protection/conservation via banning harvesting of e.g. gravid lobsters,
endangered species such as sea turtles, marine mammals (Manatee, Dolphins,
etc.).
Surveillance for the prevention of IUU and Hard instruments such as court
actions and fines used to curb contravention of legal provisions embodied in the
law e.g. Fisheries Management and Development Act, 1994.

8. 2. International donor support projects, Policy reforms and the Evolution of
Right-Based Fisheries in the Artisanal Fisheries of Sierra Leone
A. West African Regional Fisheries Programme in Sierra Leone (WARFP-SL)
World Bank/GEF Support – US$ 28 Mil
1.Resource governance
2.Reduction of illegal fishing
3.Official quality control & value addition.
1: Focuses on:
•Establish clear principles and policies to increase the wealth from fisheries through
strengthened rights and equitable allocation of these rights which balances economic efficiency
and social benefits;
•Register small-scale fishing vessels in targeted fisheries;
•Allocate fishing rights to communities;
•Reduce number of vessels in targeted fisheries that are overexploited.

9. 2. Focus on: The reduction of illegal fishing.
This part of the project decisively sets out to reduce the USD30million worth of fish
and fish products stolen from Sierra Leone waters yearly. In doing so, the fisheries
have witnessed;
Increased number of total patrol days at sea per year in targeted fisheries;
Functioning satellite-based fishing vessel monitoring system (VMS) in place
3. Official quality control and value-addition Focus on:
Pilot integrated fish landing site clusters established by the program
A sanitary authority is accredited for certification of fish quality for
consumer health and exports to the European Union.
As a way of presenting value added and safe products on the market

10.  B. West African Pilot Project (WAPP)
Under the Partnership for African
Fisheries (PAF) - NEPAD US$ 1.5Mil
For long term policy advice for the management of
Fisheries, PAF of the NEPAD stepped in to support
the MFMR under a DFID grant of WAPP within the
framework of WARFP.
The following activities have been or are being
undertaken:
• Prepare cabinet paper to align the Fisheries and
Aquaculture sector to Agenda for Prosperity.
• Review of the current status of the Fisheries Policy
and Law in Sierra Leone and the identify future
reform options

11. •Development of a five year strategic plan for the
fisheries sector
•Review of the Namibian Right Based Fisheries
Management (RBFM) Model, Quota System (QS) and
Fishing Rights Allocation (FRA) Model to Provide
Recommendations for Complementary RBM, QS and
FRA Models for the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine
Resources of Sierra Leone

12. Fisheries Reform
Why Reform?
 Fisheries are capable of producing wide range of sustainable benefits;
 Many fisheries are greatly under-valued;
 Many fisheries are overexploited (economic, biological)
 On a global scale US $50 billion /year (lost rent) (World Bank “Sunken
Billions Study”);
Sierra Leone – Fisheries Valuation:
Potential Annual Economic Rent: US $59 million / year
About US$ 5Mil/year currently accruing
Potential Capital Value of fish resources: US $735 million
(DFID, FAO, World Bank Study, 2007).
Current status of exploitation: uncertain (high threat of
overexploitation under de facto open access conditions)

13. Range of Policy and Governance Reform in the
Fisheries of Sierra Leone
Co-management through Community Management
Associations
Mechanism to conceive and share vision for fisheries
resource stewardship with the various interest groups.
Establishes a clear line of communication between
interested parties so that the interaction process is both
complimentary and supplementary.
In this way, co-management institutions provide support
to other institutions such as, MPA.
Marine Protected Areas (Evolving into Territorialising
the Sea)
MPA is a programme of investment into the marine
resources that tacitly recognises that wealth generation from
marine resources requires capital formation from which the
stream of goods and services would flow into the future.

14. Right Based Fisheries with Territorial Use Rights
in the Artisanal Subsector
The lack of ownership in open access fisheries gives rise to
the imperative of the commons: i.e.
1.Resource is harvested before someone else does.
2. There is no incentive for investment to improve
productivity as everybody’s business is nobody’s business.
3. The best is taken first. The most desired stock is harvested
first with a rush that generates considerable wastage during
harvest.
Overfishing and depletion of resources as caused by insecure
user rights to the resource leading to perverse but individually
rational behaviour dictated by lack of ownership. Some form
of community rights to introduce incentives to look after the
resource.

15. Example of Right Based Schemes in Fisheries
 Individual Transferable Quota schemes (ITQs)
(fishermen guaranteed right to land ‘X’ tons fish at any
time, with any allowable gear, and any market)
 Harvester Cooperatives
(shares of an allowable catch granted not to individuals
but to groups, then internal arrangements manage
share)
 Territorial Use Right Fisheries (TURFs)
(shares to a group, but not species-based, but rights to
use a unit space in the marine ecosystem; also requires
internal management for harvest within the space)

16. Importance of Rights
Rights-Based Management:
“The most important feature of modern success stories
in fisheries management is that they have reoriented
fundamental behavioural incentives away from
wasteful competition toward more constructive
value creation. This has been achieved through
several different institutions, each an example of a
rights-based scheme”
Crothers and Wilen (2009) ‘Reversing Perverse Incentives: The
Case for a Rights-based Strategy’ in: Bourne, R. And Collins,
M. From Hook to Plate: The State of Marine Fisheries.
Commonwealth Foundation, London.

17. Effort and Catch Regulation
The unit cost of harvest decreases with an increase in
stock size.
This is to say a large stock has a cost saving effect.
Large stock size is maintained by effective effort and
catch control – thus the case for limited entry and rights
based fisheries management.
Most reforms are geared towards effort and catch
controls to maintain a healthy stock level.
This will require exclusion of some segment of actors
as a consequence of such policy reform.
Management and Functional Review of the Ministry
of Fisheries and Marine Resources
Stabilise fleet capacity at sustainable levels in
artisanal fisheries (Capacity capping)

18. 1974 1981 1994 2003 2009 Percentage Change
Region Number of Vessels 1974-81 1981-1994 1994-2003 2003-2009
North 2394 2292 1784 1922 3098 -4.3 -22.2 +7.8 +61.2
Western 1550 1262 1961 1091 1629 -18.6 +55.4 -44.4 +49.3
South 2179 4012 3448 4382 4787 +84.1 -14.1 +27.1 +9.2
Total 6123 7567 7193 7395 9514 +23.6 -4.9 +2.8 +28.7
In 55 years the vessels have increased by 55.4%
Sierra Leone Artisanal Fisheries Fleet Dynamics by Region, 1974-2009.

19. MCS with VMS to curb IUU fishing and Enforce
IEZ
An important reason why so much effort/resources are
spent on MCS is because ownership of resource is
fundamental to wealth creation from environmental
resource
Influencing Marketing to Maximise Value,
Regulate Effort/Catch and Reduce Post Harvest
Losses
Review of Licenses, Fines & Fees
Wealth-Based Fisheries Management
A flexible management system that taps from other
management systems e.g. right-based and incentive-
based management systems - in the process of
maximizing accruable resource rent while ensuring
optimal capital stock formation.

20. Implementation of Policy Reforms for Right-
Based Fisheries - MPAs as a Conduit to TURFs
Establishing MPAs (Gazetted) – Physical
delineation
Community Clustering
Organising CMAs complete with legal requirements
Territorial Negotiations
MPAs
Four areas along the coast of Sierra Leone
have been officially designated as an MPA.
These include
1.Scarcies River Estuary
2.Sierra Leone River Estuary
3.Yawri Bay
4.Sherbro River Estuary

22. Map of Coastal Sierra Leone Showing Major Fishing
Grounds (after Ssentongo and Ansa-Emmim, 1986).

23. Formation of CMAs
Community Clustering
The coastal fishing communities in close proximity have
been organized into Community Management
Associations (CMAs) by clusters, each with a CMA
taking demographic factors into account.
1.The Scarcies River estuary MPA has eight (8)
clusters,
2. Sierra Leone River estuary MPA has six (6) clusters
3.Yawri Bay MPA has five (5) clusters
4.The Sherbro River estuary MPA has nine (9) clusters
14 clusters in the South West
14 clusters in the North West

24. Sensitization and Mobilization of Fishing Communities
 CMA formation preceded by sensitization of fishing
communities on marine protected area establishment and
the role of CMAs in management of the MPAs.
 Stewardship responsibility for regulating access to fish
resources in their own territories.
 Access to fisheries by fishers from another CMA will be
based on permit and other requirements defined under a
constitution and/or bylaws of each of the CMAs.
 Key messages focused on the sustainability of fishery
resources in Sierra Leone.

25. Elected Executives of CMAs
The election process was interactive and involved
identification of representatives by each cluster of
community who met together to conduct elections. The
following positions were contested;
•Chairman
•Secretary General
•Public Relations Officer (PRO)
•Financial Secretary
•Treasurer
•Ex- Officio Members
Constitution Drafting for Registration of CMAs and
final copies left with the Attorney General’s office
and MFMR
The registration of CMAs at the Ministry of Social
Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs.
Boundary delineation and modalities now being
negotiated for TURFS whilst MPA management is
evaluated

26. Policy Reform Impact
Summary of Risks and Opportunities
Summary of Environmental Opportunities
Successful implementation of reforms should, result in very significant environmental gains
with improvements in the condition of the sea bed in coastal waters, reestablishment of
benthic flora and niche habitats, increased fish stock and enriched biodiversity. These
interlinked activities are:
•The exclusion of industrial vessels and trawling within coastal waters,
•Regulation of fish catches through seasonal control of fishing and standards for vessels/gear,
•Stabilisation of the fishing fleet within sustainable harvesting yields,
•The adoption of management plans, formulated and agreed with full cooperation of local
communities,
•The introduction of MPAs and fishing rights (TURFs) through co-management agreements,
and
•Well planned consultation and information dissemination throughout the fisheries sector.

27. Summary of Environmental Risks
A number of consequences from policy and governance
reform have been identified where minor risk to the
physical and biological environment could arise if proper
design and implementation standards are not adhered to.
These relate to:
•A potential risk of over-exploitation of target species in
the artisanal fisheries where industrial operators are now
supporting artisanal operator to target some species
•Rapid development of effort to counteract the effect of
capacity capping

28. Summary of Social Opportunities
Implementation of the policy and governance reform will bring about substantial change in
the fisheries sector and, over time, increased revenue, reduction of post harvest losses and
added value to fish products will bring major economic returns.
Summary of Social Risk
At the same time there will be some individuals who do not participate in direct gains and
whose livelihoods could be adversely affected if appropriate safeguarding measures are not
put in place. The level and extent of these socio-economic risks will be governed by:
• the level of commitment that is entered into by Government and its development partners to
deliver incentives to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and,
•Elite capture
• the speed with which the sector is transformed. Rapid change could cause significant
displacement of less-efficient operators, especially within the artisanal sector which would
have serious ramifications for dependent communities.

29. The main risks to local livelihoods relate to the potential for:
• loss of employment for crews of unseaworthy/obsolete vessels that are withdrawn
from the fishing fleet
• the inability of vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including artisanal fishers,
vendors and individual fish processors in small fishing villages to adjust to new
market conditions.

30. Lessons Learnt
Good Governance and Institutional Reform
Fundamental reforms are required to fully equip the national
fisheries management effort at government level
Political resolve to implement unpopular measures
Stakeholder meetings have confirmed the significance of
party political influence as a constraint on achieving
progress in the reform of the fisheries sector..
Availability of Technical and Financial Resources
The process of moving from complete open access to
restricted use rights will take many years to complete.
Progress will be heavily influenced by the level of
political will, availability of technical assistance and
financial support.

31. Inertia to Change
Traditional fishing practices are quite literally a way of life for
many Sierra Leoneans and have been handed down from
generation to generation. These traditions are closely interlinked
with cultural practices and power and influence resides in specific
families with hereditary authority
Incentives versus Regulation
A top priority in developing existing strategies and plans will be to
ensure that measures are in place to offer encouragement and
practical assistance to fishers to convert to more sustainable
practices while at the same time introducing effective enforcement.
Development of Alternative Livelihoods
The long term success of the fisheries strategy depends upon
reducing fishing effort to a level at which catches become both
sustainable and profitable for those who remain in the business.
This, in turn, requires that those displaced from the industry are
able to find gainful employment and livelihoods in other sectors of
the economy.

32. Thanks