EASTERN CAPE - SMALL-SCALE FISHING CO-OPS TO GET 15 YEAR FISHING RIGHTS

After the Department amended its legislation in 2016 to recognise the importance of small-scale fishers, it launched an Expression of Interest process.

The Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy will on Saturday announce a 15-year fishing rights allocations to small-scale fishing cooperatives in the Eastern Cape.

She is also expected to make an announcement on the ‘basket of species’ in the rights being granted and some of the support programmes that government is facilitating to assist with the sustainability of the cooperatives allocated with fishing rights.

After the Department amended its legislation in 2016 to recognise the importance of small-scale fishers, it launched an Expression of Interest process.

A total of 316 communities from the four coastal provinces registered their interest.

This prompted the Department to physically visit all these cooperatives to register small-scale fishers in South Africa.

The Department was also directed to provide a transition from the current interim relief arrangement to a permanent and more structured small-scale fisheries sector in the Western Cape.

via - SABC