On International Women’s Day, we are calling on all women around the world to support our call to the president and government of Senegal. It is time to act responsibly and shut down fishmeal factories because these factories are causing illness everywhere in Gandiol Joal and Mbour.
These are the words of Maimouna Sabaly, a fishmonger in the fishing town of Joal in Senegal. She is one of many brave women from fishing ports in West Africa, fighting for access to food, jobs, and healthy seas, basic human rights.
In West African countries, people depend largely on fish as an important source of protein. The expanding fishmeal and fish oil industry in the region is swallowing enormous volumes of fresh fish and taking away a staple food supply, to feed fish like salmon and sea bass, as well as pigs, chickens, and even pets in Europe and Asia. The fishmeal and fish oil factories are destabilising fish populations that were already scarce due to illegal overfishing which is worth US$2.3 billion in the region.
This contradicts several UN Sustainable Development Goals on sustainable development, like rights to have access to resources and market, contradicts national regulations, poverty alleviation efforts, food security initiatives, and gender equality. But the resistance from the local population towards this profit-driven and reckless industry is growing bigger by the hour.
Maimouna Sabaly and the female fish processors of West Africa are standing up against a giant fishmeal and fish oil industry that is putting the food security and livelihoods of 40 million people at risk. Overfishing is decimating local populations of fish.
But these women are not planning on giving in. Support from sisters around the world will make them even stronger. Today, women climate activists in Africa are joining Maimouna and others to Stand 4 Women in West Africa and demand better solutions for people and the planet.
Greenpeace International 2020