Seychelles releases its 2020 Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI) report |17 December 2021

Seychelles on Wednesday this week submitted its 2020 report to the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), summarising key information on the status of Seychelles’ fisheries sector and detailing the extent of the country’s compliance with the FiTI Standard.

The FiTI Standard is the only internationally-recognised transparency framework defining what fisheries information should be published online by national authorities. It is split into 12 thematic areas relating to different areas of fisheries management, such as large-scale fisheries, the state of fisheries resources, and fisheries subsidies, among others.

The 2020 FiTI report covers calendar year 2020 and is the second Seychelles has published to date. It is worth noting that Seychelles’ first FiTI Report (covering calendar year 2019) was launched on April 16, 2020 to much praise, making it the first country in the world to produce such a report.

The 2020 FiTI Report notes the significant efforts made by Seychelles since the launch of its first report to increase public access to information on the management of the fisheries sector. For example, over the last eight months, the government has published:

-           A summary of fisheries tenure arrangements for each of Seychelles’ fisheries in an easy to comprehend FAQ format;

-           An online registry of large-scale fishing vessels licenced to fish in Seychelles’ waters, including payment details for each vessel;

-           A summary of the status of Seychelles’ fish stocks, as well as a schedule of future stock assessments up to the year 2024.

Seychelles’ 2020 FiTI report includes information on all 12 thematic areas of the FiTI Standard, and the country has managed to meet the deadline for submission despite delays resulting from public health restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Seychelles’ FiTI National Multi-Stakeholder Group worked together to produce the report. The group is made up of equal numbers of representatives from government, the private sector (both industrial and small-scale) and civil society. The Seychelles Fishing Authority (SFA) and the Ministry of Fisheries and the Blue Economy also significantly contributed their expertise.

The 2020 report is split into a Summary Section and a Detailed Section. Both are available to the general public through the website of the SFA via the following links:

FiTI Report Summary Section:

https://www.sfa.sc/index.php/fisheries-report-other-document?task=download.send&id=166&catid=33&m=0

FiTI Report Detailed Section:

https://www.sfa.sc/index.php/fisheries-report-other-document?task=download.send&id=165&catid=33&m=0