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fishing mainly by foreign vessels. Small-scale fishers are
vulnerable as they have a lower fishing range, lower capacity
in terms of harvest efficiency and a lower buffer or alternative
operational range if local areas are overexploited by industrial-
scale fishing. In fewer places is this more critical than in West
Africa where foreign vessels are increasingly overexploiting
local fish stocks, including illegal, unreported and unregulated
fishing. Globally, illegal fisheries account for 14–33 per cent of
the total landings, but in West Africa it is as high as 40 per cent.
Similar problems also exist on the east coast of Africa. Both
regions have high population growth rates and high incidents
of food insecurity – and it is therefore highly problematic that
foreign vessels cause overexploitation of their fish stocks.
Estimates show that the recovery of depleted fish stocks has
the potential of feeding an additional 90 million people, while
the 40 million tonnes of fish and seafood that are discarded can
satisfy the daily protein needs of a further 370 million people
for a year.
Preventing further food loss due to degradation of ecosystems
is a challenge. An estimated 5–25 per cent of the world’s food
production may be lost by 2050 due to climate change, land
degradation, cropland losses, water scarcity and species
infestations. Of these, water scarcity and land degradation are
the most significant, strengthening further the importance of
restoring ecosystems to become more resilient to change.
Dependence on cropland expansion, intensified fisheries and
aquaculture as the only solutions to increasing demands for
food is likely to undermine the very environmental resources
upon which food production is based. Restoring degraded lands
through improvedwater conservation, tree planting and organic
farming systems, along with reducing illegal fisheries and
unsustainable harvest levels are key components to improving
food security where it is needed most, while sustaining a green
economy and local livelihoods and markets.
In conclusion, with over 2 billion hectares of degraded land,
food produced on 1.4 billion hectares being lost and wasted and
an increasingly large share of food production going to animal
feed, a new agricultural and food consumption paradigm is
needed for sustainable food production. Such a paradigm shift
towards sustainable production calls for investing in better
management of food producing ecosystems.