Losses of ecological and social sustainability among small-scale fishers in Kenya’s nearshore fisheries

Abstract

Balancing fish supply, poverty reduction, biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in fisheries management requires a detailed understanding of fishing effort, catch and revenue dynamics. Here a ~27-year time series of ecological and economic data from Kenya’s nearshore fisheries is analysed. Despite rising nominal fish prices and total fisheries revenue, increasing costs of living caused real incomes to decline, leading fishers to exit the fishery and aggregate incomes to stabilize just below national minimum wage thresholds. Reduced fishing effort contributed to partial recovery of fish biomass but failed to restore natural ecosystem structure or maximum production potential. Achieving both ecological recovery and social sustainability will require further rebuilding of fish populations to restore production capacity, fishing effort, livelihood diversity and living wages, while simultaneously meeting the growing societal demand for nutrient-rich fish. Fishers’ livelihoods are threatened by the rising cost of living and dwindling fish stocks. A dataset of Kenya’s small-scale fisheries spanning 27 years reveals increasing poverty despite rising nominal fish prices and incomes, while reduced fishing effort has prompted some recovery in fish biomass.