By Yunus S Saliu
Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters funded by the EU Sector Support Program over the weekend on different platforms brought together Alkalolou, members of Village Development Committees across oyster communities in the North Bank Region to discuss the Oyster Management Plan for the region.
The meetings’ objective is to involve the Alkalolou and the VDCs of the communities that are harvesting oysters so that they can be aware of the oyster co-management plan that the department is preparing, this is with idea that they should come on board and help support the oyster harvesters in the implementation of the management plan, “because there are bylaws in the management plan.”
The bylaws as explained by Babanding Kanyi, the Head of the Inspectorate unit at the Department of Fisheries, include harvesting sites of the oysters, harvesting limit shifts, closed areas, the fines, and the penalties attached to the infringements. “So the implementation of those bylaws, the Alkalo of each community and the VDC, as they are going to be part of the community-based management committee, would help in the implementation,” he disclosed.
He informed that there will be two types of committees set up in the management plan, “One committee is the Oyster Management Committee. This will comprise the oyster harvesters only. It can be either three members, five members, or seven members, depending on the size of the community. The second committee, which is the Community-Based Management Committee will comprise the Alkalo, VDC, and two or three oyster harvesters, as well as a fisherman and any other person in the community associated with working around the sea.”
This community-based management committee, he explained further, main function is to support the implementation of the bylaws and management measures in the management plan. They have to support the oyster harvesters in enforcing the rules and regulations governing the exploitation of Western resources.
More so, he disclosed that the Department of Fisheries collaborates with the Department of Parks and Wildlife as they are the custodians of the biodiversity in these areas.