Fisheries Resources Management Programme

A total of 17,500 poor rural households across six regions of Eritrea will benefit from a project designed to boost coastal and inland fisheries and improve the livelihoods of the coastal communities.

Eritrea has substantial and relatively underexploited marine and fisheries resources that have been underutilized for decades compared to neighbouring countries. These resources exist in an unpolluted, underexploited and undercapitalized marine environment. The Fisheries Resources Management Programme (FReMP) intends to invest both in large fisheries and small pelagics.

The Government of Eritrea has been making significant investments in the inland regions by constructing water retention dams. It has also established 330 reservoirs, 70 of which are stocked with different fish species. However, the inland fisheries resources have hardly been utilized, largely because local communities are generally not aware of their nutritional benefits and often lack fishing skills and equipment (apart from the fact that traditionally they are not fishers). The programme aims to change this situation by raising awareness, imparting the right skills, and enabling members of communities (especially youth and women) to acquire equipment for fishing and learn fish processing and marketing.

FReMP will support the establishment of infrastructure and technologies for production, post-harvest operations and marketing of both marine and inland fisheries. It will also promote the development and capacity building of cooperatives and other enterprises and ensure that they have access to the requisite tools to undertake economically viable and sustainable fish-related businesses.

In addition, the programme is expected to transform Eritrea's small-scale fisheries sector from subsistence to a sustainable commercial fish industry.