Sao Tome and Principe: Artisanal Fisheries

Overfishing, biodiversity loss, and COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions have further exacerbated the precarious condition of many people relying on small-scale fisheries. 

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), overfishing, biodiversity loss, and COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions have further exacerbated the precarious condition of many people relying on small-scale fisheries.

FAO is working in Sao Tome and Principe with artisanal fishers and fishmongers to support their livelihoods, promote healthy diets, and make fisheries more sustainable.

Artisanal fisheries play an important role in food security and nutrition, poverty eradication and natural resource management, and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In Sao Tome and Principe, fisheries are mainly artisanal and focused on coastal pelagics, including flying fish and frigate tuna.

The sector represents a crucial revenue source for low-income families after cacao.

At least 35 coastal communities depend on inshore pelagic fishing; the sector employs 3,000 artisanal fishermen and 2,500 female fishmongers, generating a value of 24 million dollars.

Edmilsom Bonfim, fisherman from the town of Pantufo, has seen a reduction of the fish population off the coasts of Sao Tome and Principe in recent years. He said, “many species that we used to capture can’t be caught anymore.”

The COVID-19 related restrictions have increased the vulnerability of numerous people employed in fish transformation and sales.

One of them is Maria Olga Andrade dos Ramos who has a shop at the Bobo Forro market where she sells dried salted fish. She said, “everything was shut down so a lot of fish got spoiled because we couldn’t sell it.”

The economic downturn caused by the pandemic continues to affect Maria Olga’s economic activity. She explained, “I spend a lot on transport, and sometimes I get here and don’t even sell one kilo of fish.”

FAO is committed to strengthening artisanal fishing activities, ensuring sustainability in the use of resources, and contributing to achieving the SDGs.

FAO’s Nicole Franz explained that about 40 percent of the global capture fisheries production from inland and marine fisheries comes from small-scale fisheries. She added that “maybe, more importantly, they provide employment for 60 million people. And if we also consider people that are fishing for subsistence and if we in addition, consider also the household members of all of these people, then about 500 million people actually depend at least partially on small scale fisheries for their livelihoods.”

In a continent like Africa, where the population has high growth rates, fish can represent an excellent source of essential nutrients for many people who need food.

Franz added, “In Africa, small-scale fisheries are very important in marine fisheries, but also in inland fisheries, in the in the Big African Lake Region, for example, they provide not only the local consumers with highly nutritious food but also all the consumers in the regions, for example, that greatly benefit, for example, from small, dried fish that is in particularly important for the nutrition of the of the more vulnerable parts of the populations.”