A lot of focus was placed on the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication during this year's MARE Conference in Amsterdam. A specific workshop convened by Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris and Nicole Franz of FAO was titled “From crisis to recovery – how can research support recovery of fisheries resources and livelihoods? Exploring the case of Senegal”.

It formed one of the contributions towards pushing implementation efforts of the SSF Guidelines further.

At about half the actual extractions officially unaccounted for, fisheries statistics in Senegal and neighbouring countries are a poor guide to policy and investment decisions. What is visible though is the huge increase in the number of fishing boats and effort over the last decade in the dynamic small-scale sector, frequent incursions of industrial vessels mostly flying different foreign flags into the coastal waters reserved for small-scale fishers and significant disregard by most actors for regulations promulgated by the government with support by international aid projects.

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