In-Situ Adaptation and Coastal Vulnerabilities in Ghana and Tanzania

• Author: Victor Owusu,Jeasurk Yang,Edo Andriesse,Austin Dziwornu Ablo
• Published date: 01 September 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/1070496519852992
• Date: 01 September 2019
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

In-Situ Adaptation and

Coastal Vulnerabilities

in Ghana and Tanzania

Jeasurk Yang

1

, Victor Owusu

1

,

Edo Andriesse

1

, and Austin Dziwornu Ablo

2

Abstract

Coastal fisheries communities in sub-Saharan Africa are under high socioeconomic

vulnerability in the face of environmental pressures. This article contributes to the

current adaptation debate by revisiting the benefits of in-situ adaptation. We assess

possible in-situ adaptation strategies amid ongoing vulnerabilities by comparing

Ghana and Tanzania. A total of 441 household surveys were conducted in four

study sites. The major findings of the study are as follows: First, the three major

in-situ adaptation strategies are regular changes of nondestructive fisheries tech-

niques, alternative occupations, and collective action. Second, all three strategies

have a significant relationship with income change. Finally, the communities in

Tanzania utilized all three strategies more and performed better economically than

those in Ghana. On the basis of these insights, we suggest implications of in-situ

adaptation for future coastal development in sub-Saharan Africa.

Keywords

small-scale fisheries, in-situ adaptation, poverty reduction, coastal livelihoods,

climate change, Ghana, Tanzania

Many coastal communities in the global South continue to heavily depend on

f‌isheries and aquaculture. Consequently, climate change and its associated

extreme weather events, as well as socioeconomic vulnerability from practices

such as illegal f‌ishing and overf‌ishing, have adverse impacts on small-scale f‌ish-

eries ecosystems (Badjeck, Allison, Halls, & Dulvy, 2010; Brander, 2010).

Journal of Environment &

Development

2019, Vol. 28(3) 282–308

!The Author(s) 2019

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/1070496519852992

journals.sagepub.com/home/jed

1

Department of Geography, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea

2

Department of Geography and Resource Development, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

Corresponding Author:

Edo Andriesse, Department of Geography, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Email: edoandriesse@snu.ac.kr

Sub-Saharan Africa is among the vulnerable regions with higher sensitivity and

lower adaptive capacities in relation to the impacts of climate change and other

environmental pressures (Allison et al., 2009). In this context, a key challenge for

rural coastal development is how adaptation strategies can lead to sustainable

livelihoods (Allison & Ellis, 2001).

This article focuses on in-situ adaptation. Among adaptation strategies, in-

situ adaptation is def‌ined as localized adjustment to climate change and other

environmental pressures. However, in-situ adaptation has received less attention

in comparison to other strategies, especially out-migration (Castells-Quintana,

Lopez-Uribe, & McDermott, 2018). This is mainly because the former is usually

seen as submitting to vulnerability, while the latter as reducing it in the long run

(Schef‌fran, Marmer, & Sow, 2012).

Nevertheless, in this article, we argue that in-situ adaptation should be ser-

iously considered, particularly considering the following circumstances often

found in sub-Saharan Africa: (a) insuf‌f‌icient support from government agencies

and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), (b) signif‌icant continuing depend-

ency on f‌isheries in many countries, and (c) low expected advantages from

migration. Successful in-situ adaptation could also culminate in less rural–

urban migration to already overburdened metropolises such as Lagos,

Luanda, Mogadishu, Nairobi, Accra, and Dar es Salaam. In-situ adaptation

could play an important role in contributing to a ‘‘revitalization of

the world’s countryside’’ and less severe spatial inequalities (Liu & Li, 2017,

pp. 275–277). Therefore, it is important to understand which in-situ strategies

are viable, how to bring them about, and how to foster collaboration to

ensure ef‌fectiveness. This article contributes to the current adaptation debate

by revisiting the benef‌its of in-situ adaptation. Our purpose is to assess possible

in-situ adaptation strategies amidst vulnerability. We use a comparative case

study of communities in two sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana and

Tanzania. These countries present suitable comparative cases as coastal com-

munities in both countries are heavily dependent on f‌isheries and aquaculture

and face various vulnerabilities including climate change, illegal f‌ishing,

and overf‌ishing. The empirical inquiry is based on surveys among a total of

441 f‌isherfolk households in four study sites. We address the following four

research questions:

1. W hat are the common vulnerability conditions in coastal small-scale f‌isheries

communities in Ghana and Tanzania?

2. What are the in-situ adaptation strategies deployed by these communities,

and how ef‌fective are these strategies in building resilience?

3. Comparing the four study sites, under what conditions does in-situ adapta-

tion thrive?

4. What are the implications of our results for coastal development in sub-

Saharan Africa?

Yang et al. 283