By Leocadia Bongben
The Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries, and Animal Industries, MINEPIA, has published a list of 28 vessels allowed to fish in its territorial waters in 2026, barely four months before the end of the year, unlike the previous years when the licenses were made public early. Yet some of the vessels are allegedly fishing in the Douala-Edea marine protected area.
Data from Global Fishing Watch indicates that a vessel like Runtai 7 was fishing for 1.34 hours in the Douala-Edea Marine Protected Area in April 2026. Runtai 5 had four fishing events, two in March, one in May, and another in July inside the Douala-Edea marine protected area.
The 2024 Environmental Justice Foundation report already indicated that vessels continue to fish in marine protected areas, some without licenses and within areas reserved for artisanal fishing.
Cameroon is aligning with the 30×30 marine target, aiming to effectively conserve and manage at least 30 percent of terrestrial, inland water, and coastal/marine areas by 2030 under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It is among the sixteen national governments from across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Pacific that adopted the Mombasa Declaration at the 11th Our Ocean Conference, committing to advance global fisheries transparency and strengthen efforts to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The Mombasa Declaration is a call to action for coastal and flag states on fisheries transparency, with a particular focus on better collection and dissemination of vessel information and allowing for better access to fisheries data. It builds support and momentum for the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, which outlines 10 low-cost or no-cost policy principles that governments can adopt globally, in law and in practice.
However, the publication of the license is a step towards a safe, sustainable ocean, a priority under the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency, and can be used by the actors involved in participatory surveillance in Cameroon, other governments, businesses, and NGOs to help eradicate illegal fishing from supply chains. Cameroon signed the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency in 2024.
For the fourth consecutive year, Cameroon has made public vessels authorized in its territorial waters with the same familiar names. The company Dimarphel Shipping Sarl obtained seven licenses for Runtai; ASA Global Services has three licenses; Boukagne Bertin has nine licenses for the vessel Hong DA; Nganko Jean Marie has seven licenses for the vessel Chang Long; and Societe Gulf Fisheries and Sipecam each obtained a license. Except for a few, most of the vessels are flying the Chinese flag.