FIDEA Fishing Data East Africa

Artisanal fisheries are crucial for the livelihoods of coastal communities in East Africa, contributing to poverty reduction and economic development in the region. Yet overexploitation and destructive fishing activities continuously harm the coastal and marine ecosystems, and the lack of data hinders an effective and sustainable fisheries management in the region. Fishing Data East Africa (FIDEA) addressed this lack head-on by developing a regional framework for the collection, sharing, analysis and reporting of fisheries data. The project has achieved a significant impact on policymaking in the East African region by successfully linking policymakers and fisheries researchers through an international partnership supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This enabled the project partners to conduct an extensive review of the fisheries information system in Tanzania, Zanzibar and Mozambique and provided the opportunity for the countries in the Western Indian Ocean Region to submit their first report on the progress towards SDG 14.4.1.