Islands Business - PNG’s fisheries act ‘needs review’

PORT MORESBY, PNG (POST COURIER) ---- The Papua New Guinea (PNG)Fisheries Management Act needs to be reviewed and be made more inclusive of all stakeholders, according to a NGO group. The current Fisheries Management act is more focused on the large scale fishing in the country, it said However with the review, the Act should give provisions for management and regulation of small fishing activities by landowners. Centre for Law and Environment and Community Rights (CELCOR) Community Education Co-coordinator Lynette Bokas said the current Fisheries Management Act gave more provisions for regulation and management of large scale fishing. This means the National Fisheries Authority which is the statutory body managing and licensing fishing in the country will enforce laws to ensure that large businesses abide by the laws and regulations. But Mrs Bokas said local fishermen using traditional fishing such as “Papua dynamite” or poisonous roots to catch fish are not prosecuted for using poison to catch fish. She said a review of the act would create a “flat playing field” for all parties. Mrs Bokas however said that under the Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government (OLPLLG), Local Level Governments have the power to make laws for small scale fishing activities in the province. Mrs Bokas said currently most provincial governments in the country had created provincial laws using the OLPLLG and the Flora and Fauna Act to protect areas within the province as marine protected areas. She however said the Flora and Fauna Act did not give a clear cut direction because it was a law that dealt with terrestrial or land creatures and not marine. The works to amend the current Fisheries Management Act 1998 commenced in 2008 however is still going through drafts. Mrs Bokas said so far there had been seven drafts done. She said the amendments is in its draft form and would also require political will to have it passed by Parliament.