Abstract:
As coastal communities across the Global South confront the multiple challenges of climate change, overfishing, poverty and other socio-environmental pressures, there is an increasing need to understand diverse coastal governance responses and livelihood trajectories from a comparative perspective. This paper presents a holistic investigation of the pressures coastal communities face in four countries and examines possible meeting points between bottom-up initiatives and top-down policies. We compare the experiences of eight fishing areas in Ghana, Tanzania, Thailand and the Philippines and ask how small-scale fishing communities perceive overfishing and other socio-environmental pressures; what factors determine the success and failure of coastal governance initiatives; and how different initiatives can be made congruent to improve coastal, rural development outcomes. Results from an extensive survey of 835 fisherfolk and semi-structured interviews with 196 key informants show that overfishing remains a significant driver of livelihood trajectories in the communities and that fisherfolk respond through informal mechanisms of collective action. Drawing from these diverse experiences, we propose viewing coastal livelihood trajectories through the integrated dimensions of socio-environmental relationships and coastal governance options and discuss implications that address institutional scalar flexibility, illegal fishing, and persistent marginalisation. � 2022 Elsevier Ltd
Description:
Andriesse, E., Department of Geography, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea; Saguin, K., Department of Geography, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines; Ablo, A.D., Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, Center for the Humanities, Washington University St. Louis CampusMO, United States; Kittitornkool, J., Marine and Coastal Resources Institute, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand, Coastal Oceanography and Climate Change Research Center, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand; Kongkaew, C., Faculty of Technology and Environment, Prince of Songkla University, Phuket Campus, Thailand; Mang'ena, J., Department of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Technology, University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Director and Co-Founder of Aqua-Farms Organization, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Onyango, P.; Owusu, V., Department of Geography Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana; Yang, J., Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, Singapore