Moenieba Isaacs
IN THE era of a global health pandemic that is exacerbating issues such as poverty, gender inequality, food insecurity and unemployment, ocean conservation and sustainability in South Africa and along the Atlantic Ocean coast of Africa, are a vital focus of research efforts by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies.
Looking at the societal challenges for small-scale fisheries from the point of view of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and the vulnerability of women in small-scale fisheries owing to a lack of credit and inadequate water and sanitation, among other challenges, it is clear the government participation is crucial in research to ensure equity.
The UN declared 2021 to 2030 the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to support efforts to reverse the growing decline in ocean health, and to get ocean stakeholders worldwide behind a common framework to create improved conditions for a sustainable blue economy.
Marine science is a cross-cutter in preserving the health of ocean ecosystems and in ensuring the use of ocean resources for economic growth and improved livelihoods in an environmentally acceptable way.
Science and technology make it possible to tap the resources of phosphate, oil and gas beneath the ocean to feed into local economies, but competing players vie for a share in the new frontier for capital.
Often, oil and gas concessions and property developments for elite tourism are given the go-ahead by governments without sufficient consideration being given to long-term environmental effects or the livelihoods of smaller players.
The largest group of ocean users, small-scale fishers, are excluded from blue economy initiatives. This is a mistake, as Africa has the most food-insecure populations, and its people could do with the protein and other nutritional value offered by fish, especially smaller species.
The language government and business use around inclusion and participation do not equate to meaningful engagement with affected communities.
For example, with fish being the most-traded commodity in the world, there is data available for large-scale and industrialised fisheries, but there is inadequate information about the state of the resources that small-scale fishers need for their livelihoods.
In discussions where the goal is to address societal challenges through ocean sciences, we need to start with the research design, method, approach and team composition as these aspects are crucial.
In South Africa we have shown excellence in marine and ocean sciences since 1896, but we have failed to raise social sciences in this sector to the same level of excellence.
We need natural and social scientists to be part of research teams, and a good mix of emerging and young scholars involved in a transdisciplinary approach – not because the call for proposals say so but because we really want to make a difference to society.
Travel bans resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic have shown us the importance of researchers on research teams, and it is important to invest in researchers and scholarship programmes to ensure inclusivity in any blue economy research.
We have a long way to go in ensuring the inclusion and leadership of black women scientists in research on the continent.
A good starting point would be to invest in expanding networking platforms, using innovative forms and formats to connect with researchers.
Equality in infrastructure to communicate is key in regard to the cost of data and a common open-source database with interactive online systems and a common language.
Social scientists need to learn the language of marine scientists and vice versa. Integrated research projects, and transdisciplinary research and methods, need not only investment, but also commitment to impact change. Funding opportunities should be localised and regionalised.
The bulk of research funding comes from developed countries in the global North. More national research foundations on the continent need to fund research, and to build, nurture, support and invest in local, national and regional capacity through active learning and training.
When we co-design projects with researchers and communities, we also need to make sure we co-author and make the community part of the research. This can be done only when we increase the role of resident researchers in international collaborative teams – not only to collect the data but also to be part of the conception of the research and proposal development.
When we have the teams, we need to see how we can address the Sustainable Development Goals holistically, taking into account the social, infrastructure and conservation goals of SDGs 1 to 6 – no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, and clean water and sanitation.
The Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework has ambitious targets, to safeguard at least 30% of the ocean in a network of protected, well-managed marine areas and to take other effective area-based conservation measures by 2030. However, we cannot address SDG14 on life below water in isolation of SDGs 1, 2 and 3.
I am referring specifically to the small-scale fishers who are using low technology gear, target multiple species in the inshore coastal areas, and produce about 60% of Africa's fish.
Women, in particular, play a critical role in small-scale fisheries, processing, salting, drying and trading fish. This sector provides significant employment and income for more than 10 million people on the continent, and is an affordable source of protein for 200 million (mostly local) people.
We need to acknowledge the historical rights of traditional users, small-scale fisheries and fishing communities to marine and inland resources and coastal space. To ensure the protection of their access, rights and livelihoods – blue justice – it is critical that these people be part of decision making.
To achieve the sustainability and social benefit goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, research needs to be disruptive and transformative in nature, mindful of new frontier research, and bringing the political economy and food security into debates on ocean sciences. We need to transform the economy, rethinking and disaggregating the idea of economic growth to ensure a more equitable distribution of the wealth that we have.
Marine protected areas – large wild areas necessary for the survival of important biodiversity – are vital to allow nature to flourish.
The people who use the ocean for their livelihoods must also be allowed to flourish, and the sciences – human and natural – play an essential part in finding sustainable solutions.
* Isaacs is a professor at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of Western Cape.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL.