We are excited to announce the official launch of our project, scheduled for Monday, June 24, 2024, at Canoe Basin, Tema, Ghana.
The project is led by Dr Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood as part of her PEW Marine Fellowship and supported by Mrs Josephine Asare as part of her PhD research, which will run from 2023 to 2027. We are pleased to collaborate with local Ghanaian partners, including the Canoe and Fishing Gear Owners Association of Ghana (CaFGOAG), the Fisheries Commission of Ghana, and the Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC). The project is funded by the PEW Fellows Program in Marine Conservation at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The research objectives are threefold:
-
- Assess the gendered socio-economic impacts induced by implementing the fishing closed season.
-
- Identify overlapping conservation practices among fisherfolk (informed by Traditional Ecological Knowledge – TEK) that could be harmonised with the closed season (a management measure informed by scientific knowledge).
-
- Disseminate research findings to develop an inclusive fisheries management framework.
The project will focus on the following fishing communities:
-
- Abeliakope and Abutiakope in the Volta Region
-
- Akplabanya and Tema (Canoe Basin) in the Greater Accra Region
-
- Apam and Cape Coast in the Central Region
-
- Abuesi and Sekondi in the Western Region
Our project is collaborative in many ways, including directly involving fishers in the data collection process, and will ensure they have access to the findings. Transparency is central to our research; as a result, we are publishing the project details to encourage broad participation from fisherfolk while strictly adhering to research ethics.
Following the project’s launch, we are excited to begin a one-month intensive data collection from July 1 to 31st, coinciding with the closed fishing season for artisanal fisheries.