The client: COMHAFAT
COMHAFAT is an intergovernmental organization bringing together 22 African coastal states along the Atlantic. Its mission is to strengthen cooperation and harmonize fisheries policies among its members. The sustainable management of marine resources is a major challenge in this biodiversity-rich region, which faces multiple threats, including overfishing and IUU fishing.
The project
The harmonization of fisheries legal frameworks is a strategic issue for COMHAFAT, the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation among African States bordering the Atlantic Ocean, which includes twenty-two countries from Morocco to Namibia. Through this platform, these countries are committed to promoting regional cooperation for the development of a sustainable fisheries management policy. Given the diversity of national fisheries regulations and the challenges of combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, COMHAFAT launched an ambitious project to compile a compendium of national fisheries regulations.
This project was carried out with the support of a consortium of experts, including Eric Mostert, President of SKREO Consulting - Fisheries MCS & Compliance expert at FAO, Bertrand Cazalet, CEO of MAREPOLIS - Maritime Policy Consultant, and Stefano Piredda, CEO of NAES Consulting - IT Consultant at FAO. Their mission was to compile and analyze the legislative frameworks of member states. The compendium is provided as interactive PDF and Excel documents with search and filtering capabilities, facilitating access to legal information while encouraging the adoption of common standards. Additionally, a web-based demonstration application was developed to enhance navigation and facilitate updates to the legal texts. This article outlines the key milestones of the project, from its inception to its implementation, while considering the challenges and expected benefits for member states.
The lack of a common legal framework among member states is an obstacle to the effective management of fisheries resources. Indeed, this disparity makes fisheries resource management complex and difficult to implement while discouraging investments in the sector due to the variability of regulatory requirements. The project, therefore, aimed to compile and harmonize legislative and regulatory texts related to marine fisheries to facilitate their consultation and progressive adoption in line with regulatory developments in different countries.
The challenge
The specific objectives included:
- The collection and analysis of legal texts in force in each member state,
- The validation and dissemination of the compendium at the sub-regional level in collaboration with regional fisheries organizations (SRFC, FCWC, COREP),
- The digitalization of the compendium for optimized and interactive access,
- The enrichment of the compendium with references to relevant international and regional legal instruments.
Our approach
In collaboration with Eric Mostert and Bertrand Cazalet, we designed a rigorous and proven methodology, combining documentary research, interviews with national stakeholders, and validation of the collected data. Special attention was given to harmonizing information to ensure consistency in the presentation of national regulations.
The final compendium was delivered in the form of interactive PDF and Excel documents, incorporating search and filtering tools that allow efficient navigation by country and theme. In parallel, a web-based demonstration application built on Drupal was developed to illustrate how legal texts could be consulted and dynamically updated.
Post-project support
COMHAFAT has established a framework for the continuous updating of the compendium to reflect new regulatory developments. The organization's secretariat, in collaboration with focal points from member states, will produce an annual legal data report to ensure the relevance and accuracy of legal information.
A communication plan has also been developed to ensure the broad dissemination of the compendium among governments, regional and international organizations, as well as civil society and private sector stakeholders.
With this initiative, COMHAFAT now has a structuring tool for fisheries governance in the region, facilitating cooperation between member states. The progressive adoption of harmonized regulatory frameworks is expected to support more sustainable exploitation of marine resources for the benefit of food security and economic prosperity in the region.
