Spotlighting Women-Led Fisheries Livelihoods Toward Sustainable Coastal Governance: The Estuarine and Mangrove Ecosystem Shellfisheries of West Africa

• DOI: 10.3389/fmars.2022.884715
• Publication Date: 2022-07-18T06:41:07Z
• Authors: Ernest Obeng Chuku; Elizabeth Effah; Joshua Adotey; Sika Abrokwah; Richard Adade; Isaac Okyere; Denis Worlanyo Aheto; Karen Kent; Isaac Kofi Osei; Emmanuel Dami Omo...; Alphonse Adité; Kossi Ahoedo; Salieu Kabba Sankoh; Yaya Soro; Moussa Wélé; Dawda Foday Saine; Brian Crawford
• Keywords: 0106 biological sciences; co-management; Science; Fisheries Sustainability; QH1-199.5; Shellfish Farming; 01 natural sciences; estuary; 12. Responsible consumption; Livelihood; Impact of Aquaculture on Marine Ecosystems and Food Supply; Mangrove ecosystem; 14. Life underwater; Mangrove; Biology; Ecosystem; Shellfish; 2. Zero hunger; Global and Planetary Change; livelihood; Resilience of Coral Reef Ecosystems to Climate Change; Ecology; Geography; Oyster; Q; Estuary; General. Including nature conservation, geographical distribution; fisheries governance; Agriculture; shellfish; Fish; Fishery; Archaeology; FOS: Biological sciences; Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Fisheries; Environmental Science; Physical Sciences; Aquatic animal; women

The governance of coastal and marine resources remains a complex socio-ecological endeavor in many African countries, but women are leading the way and demonstrating a pathway for food fish security through rights-based co-management of shellfisheries in estuarine and mangrove ecosystems in West Africa. We report comprehensively, for the first time, the scale of estuarine and mangrove ecosystem-based shellfisheries across the West African coast (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria), the gender dynamics, and implications for the sustainable management of this small-scale fishery. We find an extensive geographical coverage of active shellfisheries within these ecosystems with close to 571,000 household beneficiaries and over 50,000 harvesters, mainly women, being the primary resource users. An annual shellfish harvest of over 300,000 MT valued at USD 336 million is potentially undocumented across the region. Harvested shellfish species of economic importance comprised 18 species of mollusks, 11 species of crustaceans, and a few unidentified groups of gastropods, crustaceans, and cephalopods. The West African mangrove oyster, periwinkle, bloody cockle, whelk, and razor clam were, in that order, the most harvested estuarine shellfish. The bivalve and gastropod value chains are dominated by women harvesters at all nodes whereas women play significant roles in the processing and marketing of crustacean and cephalopod fisheries. Formal laws specific to the regulation of estuarine shellfisheries are generally nonexistent, however, the organized women shellfish harvester groups of the Tanbi wetlands (The Gambia) and Densu Delta (Ghana) have championed sustainable governance actions resulting in successful women resource user-led fisheries co-management. The elements of success and opportunities for scaling up these examples are discussed. The presence of such groups in several locations offers an entry point for replicating a similar co-management approach across the West African coast.