The Challenges of managing small scale fisheries in West Africa.
Abstract
Although recent studies show that overall, poverty in Ghana's coastal areas is decreasing, considerable challenges still face government and communities alike in their bid to improve living conditions in fishing communities. In order to achieve the goal of sustainable livelihoods in small-scale fisheries in Ghana a number of issues need to be addressed. Firstly the current mismatch between the traditional management system operating in the myriad villages along the coast and the modern management system that influences national policy relating to fisheries. Secondly, the economic and political conditions that have resulted in the reduced capacity for enforcement between the multiple users of the narrow continental shelf. Finally, the contradiction between current neo-liberal policy which aims to increase fisheries production (for export) and the small-scale fisheries sector which is struggling to provide sufficient supply for domestic consumption. The Community Based Fisheries Management programme is one example of how the Government of Ghana is attempting to bring the traditional and the modern together in order to address at least some of the above issues.
Citation
CEMARE, University of Portsmouth, UK, 18 pp.
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