The World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) hosted its first-ever African continental meeting in Saly, Senegal, coinciding with World Fisheries Day celebrations on 21 November 2025. This landmark gathering that was held from 17-21 November 2025, signals a transformative moment for fisher communities across the continent.
The five-day event brought together fisher peoples from throughout Africa to strengthen solidarity and position WFFP as the leading voice representing their interests and rights. The meeting focused on a unified understanding of WFFP’s functions and importance while strengthening bonds among African members. A key priority was expanding membership across the continent to ensure broader representation.
Delegates addressed pressing threats facing their communities, particularly capitalist developments encroaching on traditional fishing territories. The gathering developed strategies to resist ocean grabbing, combat destructive industrial aquaculture practices, and challenge market-oriented conservation schemes like Marine Protected Areas and the 30by30 initiative. Central to these discussions was advancing food sovereignty for fishing communities.
The meeting represents a proactive step toward amplifying African fisher peoples’ voices on the global stage and building collective power to protect their livelihoods, traditions, and ocean resources for future generations.
On World Fisheries Day, the WFFP Africa delegation joined fishing communities in Mbour for celebrations and delivered a powerful joint statement. The statement underscored the demand that “our fish must feed our people”, calling for restitution for the injustices fisher people face and the regeneration of the ecosystems that sustain their cultures and livelihoods.
“On this World Fisheries Day, we continue our struggle for our human rights, our rights to fish, to protect and govern our territories, and to sustain the livelihoods of our men, women and youth. We demand climate reparations, the restoration of nature, and the restitution of rights that have been stripped away from us. We call on our governments to recognise us as fisher peoples who hold real solutions to the crises we face. We have fought for the adoption of the United Nations Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines, and we insist that our governments work hand-in-hand with our members to implement these Guidelines in ways that honour their true spirit.”
Read the full statement here