Ghana & Nigeria

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Ghana & Nigeria Case Study

In Ghana & Nigeria, we will examine whether and how resolving illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing in the Gulf of Guinea would enhance the resilience of marine ecosystem services for sustainable livelihoods under climate change.

Overview

Project Updates

Q4 2024

  • Dr. Berchie Asiedu visits Dr. Ling Cao at Xiamen University. Find out more.
  • Temitope highlighted the completion of a co-creation workshop on IUU fishing and plastic pollution, the development of infographics, and ongoing fieldwork in Lagos.
  • Margaret provided an update on the Ghana team’s situational analysis of IUU fishing and plans for a project launch event.
  • Ahmed announced a new $6 million project funded by the African Development Bank focused on transboundary fisheries governance, climate resilience, and trade facilitation in the Horn of Africa. He suggested potential collaborations with UBC, including a grant program to train students and conduct policy-relevant studies.
  • Wisdom presented insights from his work investigating the impact of fishing gear regulations and illegal fishing activities in Ghana. Senakpon Tcheton shared his research on the food-climate-biodiversity nexus in the Mono transboundary biosphere reserve. Vinolia Pawar announced her upcoming PhD research on IUU fishing, climate change, and food security in Ghana. The West African team highlighted their work on the FCB project, including an inception workshop held last month. Wisdom discussed using video data to assess compliance with fishing regulations. His team is trying to see whether they can get data to perform analysis and determine to what extent the installation of those video devices impact on compliance, relative to the previous catches that the vessels were making.

Q3 2024

  • The Ghana Inception Workshop of the Solving the Sustainability Challenges at the Food-Climate-Biodiversity Nexus (Solving-FCB) Project was held on 24th September, 2024 at the ACECoR Multipurpose Building, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. In attendance were participants were from the three partner Universities in Ghana, namely the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR). The Director and Co-director of Solving-FCB Project, Professor William Cheung, and Professor Rashid Sumaila respectively and a co-lead of the Solving-FCB West Africa Project Dr. Temitope Sogbanmu also joined the workshop via zoom. Read More.
  • Temitope highlighted the completion of a co-creation workshop on IUU fishing and plastic pollution, the development of infographics, and ongoing fieldwork in Lagos.
  • Margaret provided an update on the Ghana team’s situational analysis of IUU fishing and plans for a project launch event.
  • Ahmed announced a new $6 million project funded by the African Development Bank focused on transboundary fisheries governance, climate resilience, and trade facilitation in the Horn of Africa. He suggested potential collaborations with UBC, including a grant program to train students and conduct policy-relevant studies.

Q2 2024

  • Partner institutions have recruited students from at least 2 to 3 institutions, including a Ms. student at UNILAG, and are reviewing a PhD student.
  • Projects for the West Africa case study were launched last Thursday and live streamed via the Solving FCB YouTube page.
  • Subscriptions to the YouTube page have increased, with positive feedback received.
  • Registrations for the project launch included countries and governmental organizations from both the West African region and internationally.
  • Following the inception meeting on April 4th, Nigeria will hold its first stakeholders participatory workshop, by invitation only.
  • About 37 registrations from government agencies and the private sector have been received for the workshop, targeting middle to top career professionals.
  • The workshop aims to address challenges in IUU fishing and plastic pollution nexus.
  • Dora will facilitate a full-day workshop, with Laura arriving the following night.
  • The aim is to stimulate interest and partnerships across stakeholder groups in Nigeria.
  • Participants are expected from Lagos and other areas.
  • Deliverables for year two include discussions on TII and starting field activities towards the year’s end.
  • Appreciation is expressed for the leadership of Solving FCB, particularly William and Rashid.
  • William mentions that the inception meeting was well-organized and the video of the inception reports will be posted on the website.
  • Temi notes that there were 96 applications for one PhD studentship from diverse applicants worldwide.
  • Capacity building is highlighted as a main focus of the partnership, aiming to share opportunities with interested individuals globally.

Q1 2024

  • Work continues, focusing on Ghana and Nigeria.
  • A new PhD student, Venolia, will be starting with the project shortly.
  • Additionally, they have brought Margaret on board because there are two institutions involved in Ghana, including GIMPA.
  • The plan was to hold an inception meeting followed by a stakeholder co-creation workshop, but they are currently awaiting ethics approval.

Q4 2023

  • Temitope Sogbanmu
    • works is progressing, but is still early stages.
    • research specific to Nigeria and Lagos
    • working with an MSc student, but data is not available on Open Access
    • they created a Word document of progress and a list of stakeholders
    • IUU / Plastic pollution
  • Rashid:  spoke of conference where VP of Ghana will be attending
    • Ibrahim wrote a paper on Blue Economy with Rashid (about inequalities)
      • West Africa fishing activities – paper submitted to Sustainability
      • working on distant water fishing fleets in West Africa; exploitation
    • Senankpon Tcheton
      • about to submit a funding application
    • Ayodele Oloko
      • she’s working on a proposal
      • IUU / climate change > doesn’t see the gender dimension
      • mentions about Costa Rica
        • Ayodele spoke with Astrid. They are discussing about the gender dimension in every project. They hope to see more questions being asked of – “what is the impact of this constraint [climate change] on women Fisher folk?”

Team

Rashid Sumaila

University of British Columbia

Denis Aheto

University of Cape Coast

Shehu Akintola

Lagos State University

Wisdom Akpalu

Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration

Berchie Asiedu

University of Energy and Natural Resources

Matthew O. Ilori

University of Lagos, Nigeria

Ibrahim Issifu

University of British Columbia

Ayodele Oloko

University of British Columbia

Laura Pereira

University of the Witwatersrand

Temitope Sogbanmu

University of Lagos

Sènankpon Tcheton

University of the Witwatersrand