Sustainable Development or Maldevelopment? Fishmeal Factories and the Dispossession of Women in The Gambia

Keywords: Ecofeminism, Feminist Political Ecology, Fisheries and Aquaculture
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

The Gambian government considers fishmeal, a high-value feed protein for aquaculture, as a good source of FDI as well as an opportunity to industrialize the Gambian fisheries sector. Consequently, since 2016, three Chinese and Mauritanian fishmeal factories have been operating in coastal regions. However, coastal communities, especially women who live and work within the vicinity of the three relatively new Chinese-Mauritanian fishmeal factories, have been protesting the operations of the factories since 2017.

Communities complain about livelihood dispossessions such as the displacement and disruption of women’s work, food insecurity, environmental and health concerns engendered by the factories. Fishmeal is produced in The Gambia by processing bonga (Ethmalosa fimbriata), a hitherto low-value staple small pelagic fish. Furthermore, the production process entails several environmental and health concerns such as air pollution and toxic wastewater disposal that render the industry prone to resistance from local communities who live and/or work within the vicinity of production sites. Based on findings collected through ethnographic research with coastal communities in The Gambia, my paper will use an ecofeminist perspective to examine the ongoing conflict between fishmeal factories and local communities in order to question neo-Malthusians' simplistic explanation of scarcity and population growth as the cause of women’s dispossession