Fisherfolks in the Niger Delta have called for immediate government action to protect their trade and dwindling fish production in the region. The call was collectively made at an interactive session organized by Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Center in Port Harcourt recently to share their experiences on the realities of climate change ahead of the United Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC and the Conference of Parties, COPs.
The fisherfolks lamented that the encroachment of the waterways by trawler operators who fish beyond the legal limits, is making it difficult for local operators to fish. They also decried the heightened insecurity in the waterways by pirates which is causing loss of lives and properties and the damage being done to aquatic life by use of chemicals and dynamites in fishing, further compounding their plight as it adds to the effects of constant oil pollution in the water. They said many species of fish are going extinct.
Narrating how the once rich fishing zone has lost its abundance leaving fisherfolks in abject poverty and hunger, a female participant from Akwa Ibom State stated, “In the past we were eating different types of fish. My father was a farmer and he would bring home different types and tell us the names of fishes but now, some of them like snake fish, electric fish, you no longer see.1
“Before, we get baskets full of fish but now, it is difficult to get a full wash-hand basin of fish in Itu, Oron. Now, you fish all night and come back empty after borrowing money to fuel your engine, running at a loss. Periwinkle that used to cost N300 a bag is now N22,000. ”
She complained that the sea water is hot adding to the difficulty in getting fishes and also lamented over the menace of pirates. “Police, pirate are attacking us, taking away our engines and properties. We need government’s quick attention.”
“Government should help us keep trawlers away from our communities so our fisher men can have room to fish,” one of the fisher men demanded.
The fisherfolks called on government to step in and help them end the poverty that the identified illegal activities are causing which, is made worse by the harsh realities of climate change.
Participants were drawn from fishing communities in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers states.
Earlier in her welcome address, convener of the assembly and executive director of Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Center, Dr. Emem Okon said that climate change has manifested negatively in many forms in Nigeria including, including in heat waves, drought, storms, locust plagues, flooding, rise in sea levels and other disasters, since the year 2000.
She noted that the 10 hottest years in Africa has been recorded since 2005 with projections that it will get hotter, a situation she described as a threat to food security in the continent as about 60 per cent of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
Said she, “The 10 hottest years in Africa have been recorded since 2005. The temperature across Africa is projected to be hotter than previously experienced in the recorded past and will rise faster than the global average across most of the continent.
“With about 60 per cent of our people, mostly peasant women, as food producers depending on agriculture and local food systems to survive, food insecurity levels are being intensified and African lives and livelihoods are at severe risk.”
To address the challenge, Dr. Emem said the Fishnet Alliance set up by Health of Mother Earth Foundation, HOMEF, an environmental justice NGO, is being leveraged on by Kebetkache to provide a platform for fisherfolks to share experiences and push forward their demands to attract necessary attention.
