Changing fisheries practices and their socioeconomic implications in South Coast Kenya

Power Asymmetries in Small-Scale Fisheries: a Barrier to Governance Transformability?

“…Furthermore, Bailey (1982) and Allison and Ellis (2001) have reported that full owners of fishing assets are less willing to accept occupational and geographic changes than part owners or nonowning crewmen. Our analysis shows that many of the potential opinion leaders in fact do not perceive local fisheries to be in a state warranting concern, in contrast to other reports showing that, albeit displaying fluctuations over time, in-shore fisheries in the area are experiencing a decline and showing signs of overexploitation (McClanahan and Mangi 2001, Ochiewo 2004, Maina et al 2008. We cannot conclusively demonstrate the reason behind these perceptions, but draw attention to the fact that humans often ignore evidence that contradicts their beliefs, or tend to avoid challenging their own mental models.…”

“…We explore whether an in-depth look at the power relations stemming from asymmetric access to fishing gear in combination with an examination of knowledge-sharing networks, can help us to understand why a community with a high dependence on local fisheries has not initiated any form of collective action to deal with documented inshore habitat degradation and a declining fishery (Ochiewo 2004, Crona and Bodin 2006, Maina et al 2008. In light of this apparent inertia, we explore the interaction between informal power structures and knowledge-sharing networks to examine whether the way in which these are linked creates barriers for transformability in the village.…”

Supporting and Enhancing Development of Heterogeneous Ecological Knowledge among Resource Users in a Kenyan Seascape

“…The occupational categories associated with each area are indicated in the figure. measures but without sufficient capacity for enforcement (GOK 1991(GOK , 2001, has led to a situation in which the inshore fishery along the southern Kenyan coast is a virtually open access system (Alidina 2005). This has led to overfishing and depletion of inshore stocks (Ochiewo 2004). Mangroves have also suffered, as intensive mangrove timber extraction reached a maximum in the 1970's, leading the government to impose a mangrove cutting ban, which has since been in force on and off.…”

From Farming to Fishing: Marine Resource Conservation and a New Generation of Fishermen

“…A positive effect that can be expected from fishing restrictions is an increase in fish biomass (Cinner et al, 2005), and spillover of exploitable fish into the reserves and surrounding areas to the benefit of local fishermen (McClanahan and Mangi, 2000). However, this effect can be nullified by a greater concentration of fishermen in a smaller area (Ochiewo, 2004).…”