From vulnerability to viability: A situational analysis of small-scale fisheries in Asia and Africa

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) support over 90% of the 120 million people engaged in capture fisheries globally. Despite their contributions, SSF communities are often economically and politically marginalised, are highly vulnerable to change, and until recently, remained largely invisible in policy debates in most countries and internationally. This paper undertakes a situational analysis of 12 countries with significant small-scale fisheries (i.e., Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Thailand) to better understand the context in which they might transition from vulnerability to viability. Several insights emerge from this analysis. First, we identify the social and ecological drivers of change that exacerbate vulnerability and undermine SSF viability by focusing on five key domains: economic/development, ecological and…