Schlüter, Achim

This paper looks at the boom and bust of small-scale pelagic fisheries in Saint Louis, located on the Senegalese-Mauritanian border. During the last 15 years this Senegalese fishery mainly provided input for the Mauritania-based fishmeal and fishoil industry. New arrangements of property rights, new ways of financing this cross-border business emerged but also collapsed with the short period of time. Since 2017 the activities of Senegalese fishers have declined constantly. This rather short business cycle cannot be described as being sustainable, nor did it solve any food and nutritional insecurity problems existing in Senegal. Rather the opposite, the process might be described as nutrient and capital grabbing. The paper analyses, using a qualitative case study approach, the changes that have taken place in the contractual arrangements of Saint Louis pelagic fisheries, to understand the capital grabbing observed. It started with the early arrival of the first purse seiners in the 1970s. They were independent artisanal fishers, owning their boats, being wealthy people and leading the supply chain. Their wealth was built on abundant resources, in territory, including that which now has become Mauritanian waters. The fleet has exploded to various hundreds of purse seiners, who are mostly financed through international capital and who used to feed the Mauritanian, largely Chinese owned, fish meal industry, before fish stock started to decline. The previously independent sector has become highly indebted and patron client relationships are the norm. The paper describes this complex process and aims to deepen understanding using theories of institutional change.

Sechura Bay, Peru is a highly productive marine resource system, but rapid institutional changes and increasing climate impacts make the future uncertain for local livelihoods dependent on the bay. In the last two decades following the introduction of high-value scallop mariculture for export to international markets, the previous largely informal and open-access system in the bay has transformed towards formalization. What has emerged is a complex arrangement of formal institutional structures dominated by large processing firms and private property regimes, yet still characterized by many informal arrangements and activities, and simultaneously facing a high degree of uncertainty from warming ocean temperatures, harmful algal blooms, and other climate impacts. In this study, we apply participatory modeling, specifically fuzzy cognitive mapping, through a series of iterative workshop activities to model this complex social-ecological system from the perspective of local people. These people are embedded in various marine resource subsectors which are often competing, conflicting, coexisting, and codependent on each other. We synthesize and reflect on benefits and limitations of participatory modeling for (1) navigating conflict and consensus-making in marine resource governance, by exploring similarities and differences between mental models, social group identity, and normative values, and for (2) navigating uncertainty in marine resource governance, by using mental models and “what-if?” simulations to inform discussion and deliberation with local people regarding viable policy and adaptation strategies under potential future governance and environmental actors scenarios.