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Euros vs. Yuan: Comparing European and Chinese Fishing Access in West Africa

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Belhabib, Dyhia, Sumaila, U. Rashid, Lam, Vicky W. Y., Zeller, Dirk, Le Billon, Philippe, Abou Kane, Elimane, Pauly, Daniel·2015·PLOS ONE
DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0118351PMC PMC4368511
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Abstract

We compare the performance of European Union (EU) and Chinese fisheries access agreements with West African countries in terms of illegal and unreported fishing, economic equity, and patterns of exploitation. Bottom-up re-estimations of catch reveal that the EU (1.6 million t•year(-1)) and China (2.3 million t•year(-1)) report only 29% and 8%, respectively, of their estimated total catches (including estimated discards whenever possible) from West African countries between 2000 and 2010. EU catches are declining, while Chinese catches are increasing and are yet to reach the historic maximum level of EU catches (3 million t•year(-1) on average in the 1970s-1980s). The monetary value of EU fishing agreements, correlated in theory with reported catches, is straightforward to access, in contrast to Chinese agreements. However, once quantified, the value of Chinese agreements is readily traceable within the African economy through the different projects they directly cover, in contrast to the funds disbursed [to host governments] by the EU. Overall, China provides resources equivalent to about 4% of the ex-vessel value [value at landing] of the catch taken by Chinese distant-water fleets from West African waters, while the EU pays 8%. We address the difficulties of separating fees directly related to fishing from other economic or political motivations for Chinese fees, which could introduce a bias to the present findings as this operation is not performed for EU access fees officially related to fishing. Our study reveals that the EU and China perform similarly in terms of illegal fishing, patterns of exploitation and sustainability of resource use, while under-reporting by the EU increases and that by China decreases. The EU agreements provide, in theory, room for improving scientific research, monitoring and surveillance, suggesting a better performance than for Chinese agreements, but the end-use of the EU funds are more difficult, and sometime impossible to ascertain.

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  • Governments of countries in the Gulf of Guinea take advantage of resource demands to generate more revenue without effectively monitoring the activities of fishing vessels from distant water nations.

    “Equally, the governments of the respective countries in the region take advantage of the resource demands to generate more revenue for their countries; however, they do so without taking into account their need to effectively monitor the activities of fishing vessels from those nations (Belhabib et al., 2015;Okafor-Yarwood, 2019;Okafor-Yarwood and Belhabib, 2020).”

    From The Cyclical Nature of Maritime Security Threats: Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing as a Threat to Human and National Security in the Gulf of Guinea (2020) · cites this paper as Belhabib et al., 2015

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Authors
Belhabib, D., Sumaila, U. R., Lam, V. W. Y., Zeller, D., Le Billon, P., Abou Kane, E., & Pauly, D.
Affiliations
University of British Columbia (CA)
Corresponding author
Belhabib, Dyhia
ORCID
Venue
PLOS ONE
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Published
2015-03-20
Volume
10
Issue
3
Pages
e0118351
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0118351
PMC
PMC4368511
OpenAlex
W2025641593
Cited by
120
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 19 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3
FWCI
3.83
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • Pew Charitable Trusts
  • Paul G. Allen Family Foundation
  • MAVA Foundation
  • University of British Columbia
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine and fisheries research
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Coastal and Marine Management
  • Social Sciences › Transportation › Maritime Security and History
Keywords
EU fisheries policy, West African fisheries, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, discards, economic equity, sustainable fisheries
MeSH terms
Africa, Western, Animals, China, Costs and Cost Analysis, European Union, Fisheries, Fishes, Geography

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