SECURITY: Is Africa's maritime strategy all at sea?
Illegal and unregulated fishing is a routine activity in Africa's
territorial waters
JOHANNESBURG, 22 October 2012 (IRIN) - The African Union's (AU) deadline for
securing the continent's territorial waters - the world's last major
geographical region without a maritime strategy - has been set at 2050, a
target that may prove untenable.
Without a comprehensive strategy to police, patrol and promote the maritime
economy and resources along its 42,000km coastline, Africa loses billions of
dollars in revenue annually and leaves itself vulnerable to myriad criminal
activities.
"Africa remains the continent that suffers most from illegal and unregulated
fishing, maritime terrorism, piracy and armed robbery at sea, poor legal and
regulatory maritime regimes, illegal drugs, arms and human trafficking, a
lack of effective communication and other technological maritime
requirements, and last but not least, unsuitable ships and ports," Annette
Leijenaar, Head of the Conflict Management and Peacebuilding Division at the
<
http://www.issafrica.org/> Institute for Security Studies (ISS), a
Pretoria-based think tank, said in a recent policy brief titled
<
http://www.issafrica.org/iss_today.php?ID=1552> Africa Should Wake up to
the Importance of an Integrated Maritime Strategy.
A meeting on the Africa Integrated Maritime (AIM) strategy was held earlier
this month in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Leijenaar told IRIN, "It is
the right direction, however, action is required through implementable plans
that are well coordinated and have the political commitment of African
leaders." The AU will also address management of riverine systems, dams and
wetlands.
"Like the rest of the world, more than 90 percent of Africa's imports and
exports are carried by sea. If one includes the illegal market in military
arms and logged forest products, Africa has a maritime economy estimated at
US$1 trillion a year, representing 90 percent of its overall commerce," the
policy brief said.
Of Africa's 54 states, 38 are either coastal or island nations. Johan
Potgieter, a former captain in the South African navy and senior ISS
security sector researcher - referring to neglect of maritime opportunities
and risks - told IRIN, "Sea blindness is our [Africa's] biggest threat."
No defence
Some 70 percent of the continent's rapidly growing population - which
currently stands at over one billion people - depend on fish, both inland
and coastal, for protein, highlighting the importance of policing and
managing the continent's territorial waters.
"I said to a politician, don't look at what it's going to cost you to run a
navy. You need to say, 'What is it going to cost me to feed this population
when there are no more fish? Where I am going to get the food from?'"
Potgieter said.
An October report by the <
http://ejfoundation.org/> Environmental Justice
Foundation,
<
http://ejfoundation.org/sites/default/files/public/Pirate%20Fishing%20Expos
ed.pdf> Pirate Fishing Exposed: The Fight Against Illegal Fishing in West
Africa and the EU [European Union], observed, "Global losses due to Illegal,
Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) or 'pirate fishing' are estimated to be
between $10 billion and $23.5 billion per year. West African waters are
estimated to have the highest levels of IUU fishing in the world,
representing up to 37 percent of the region's catch."
Foreign trawlers have been known to illegally haul up hundreds of tons of
fish per day for export to Europe, while local fishermen's catch is
typically limited to what they can bring up with 8m-long pirogues.
Anti-piracy operations off the Horn of Africa in 2011 cost an estimated $6.9
billion, or about two-thirds the annual GDP of Madagascar, an island country
that has no naval capacity to speak of.
Potgieter said the relative success of anti-piracy operations off East
Africa is having a "balloon effect of pushing the pirates further and
further away [to], we suspect, the east coast of Madagascar, [which] is
fairly unpopulated, and the pirates will find a safe haven there to set up
bases."
Building and maintaining a navy is both a costly and politically fraught
exercise. Navies operate out of the sight of the electorate and are easily
used by opposition parties in "guns versus butter" debates. Additionally,
the procurement of defence systems in Africa has been mired in corruption
issues. The price of a naval vessel can start in the hundreds of millions of
dollars, and keeping ships on operational duties often requires a compliment
of three. The annual running cost for three 80m British Royal Navy patrol
vessels is $32 million.
Helmut Heitman, a defence analyst and correspondent for
<
http://www.janes.com/products/janes/defence-business/news/defence-weekly.as
px> Jane's Defence Weekly, told IRIN that Mozambique does not have a naval
capacity. The "Comoros has nothing. On the west coast [of Africa], there is
very little."
Expanding navies
But increasing piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has prompted several countries
to acquire patrol vessels in a piecemeal fashion to bolster maritime
capacity. Nigeria's navy has requested the procurement of 49 ships and 42
helicopters over the next decade. Earlier this year, the country
commissioned its first locally built 31m patrol craft, the NNS Andoni.
Neighbouring Ghana acquired two former German Navy fast attack crafts in
July, after commissioning four new Chinese patrol boats earlier in the year.
Namibia brought in a 100m refurbished Chinese patrol vessel earlier this
year, adding to a naval compliment that includes harbour and inshore patrol
boats.
There is also a growing trend towards aerial reconnaissance over the ocean,
especially in West Africa, with Ghana and Nigeria acquiring aircraft for
monitoring and addressing piracy.
''It's not just about buying ships. It takes three generations of officers
to build up a competent navy''
Heitman said, "It's not just about buying ships. It takes three generations
of officers to build up a competent navy. So 30 years [the 2050 AIM goal] is
a reasonable timeframe. [However,] a ship without an aircraft is pointless.
An aircraft without a ship is also pointless."
The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, is also finding greater
currency as an option for policing territorial waters. Potgieter said, "You
don't need a warship to fight a pirate... If you use a drone, you can have
18 to 24 hours of flight time. But it is not necessarily cheap." The price
tags for drones range from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of
dollars.
"But you still have to send a boat out to make the arrest, and this is where
the problem starts. If we detect something on the other side of Madagascar -
collaboration becomes important - and maybe the French are better suited to
help. But we have to start talking to one another," he said.
Aligning legislation
Developing coastal security is one step toward protecting continental
waters. Creating the required legislation for individual AU members states
to cooperate on a continental level presents another set of time-consuming
complications.
Read more
http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif Shrinking lake threatens
livelihoods
<
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96329/MALAWI-Shrinking-lake-threatens-liveli
hoods>
http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif Overfishing - culprits and
consequences
<
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95893/SENEGAL-Overfishing-culprits-and-conse
quences>
http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/page.gif
<
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95825/FOOD-Fishy-business-the-cost-of-illega
l-trawling> Fishy business - the cost of illegal trawling
http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/icon-photoreport.gif Fishermen on Lake
Tanganyika
<
http://www.irinnews.org/Photo/Slideshow/5/Fishermen-on-Lake-Tanganyika>
http://www.irinnews.org/images/design/icon-videoreport.gif Coastal erosion
<
http://www.irinnews.org/film/4126/Coastal-Erosion>
"Maritime security and policing management is an inter-departmental/agency
function that is extremely difficult to coordinate and achieve. Among other
[issues], it requires good governance, an industrial infrastructure,
technological competence, effective information-sharing mechanisms and
political commitment. Few African countries, if any, meet these
requirements," the ISS policy brief said.
Leijenaar said developing a domestic maritime strategy involves numerous
government departments, from environmental affairs to tourism and defence,
and these ministry's first have to be aligned at a country level, then at a
regional level and finally at the continental level.
Each country has to sift through memoranda of understanding and protocols
signed by each department and then change conflicting legislation, "a small
task that can take five to ten years," Potgieter said. "Then [to] get it
through [each country's] parliament - some of these things will take you ten
years."
And that's before countries can begin to address the issue of "hot pursuit"
through neighbouring territorial waters. "Most countries will still not
allow your ships to go through their waters unless you have permission in
advance," Potgieter said.
"The importance of assuming collective responsibility for Africa's maritime
domain is essential - within national governments, regions and Africa," he
said.
go/rz
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Received on Tue Oct 23 2012 - 10:08:07 EDT
