Placing African Fisheries on the COP 17 Agenda

The policy brief highlights that African countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts on fisheries due to high economic sensitivity and low adaptive capacity. It argues that fisheries have been overlooked in climate discourse compared to agriculture and recommends that fisheries-dependent states integrate marine and freshwater systems into national adaptation plans. The author emphasizes that addressing existing governance failures—such as illegal fishing and habitat destruction—is essential to increasing ecological resilience. The brief urges African states to strategically access financing mechanisms like the Adaptation Fund and to ensure fisheries are a priority during COP 17 negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

• African nations exhibit high vulnerability to climate change impacts on fisheries, driven by a combination of high sensitivity—due to the sector's importance for nutrition and the economy—and low adaptive capacity. A study identifying the most vulnerable countries globally found that 21 of the 33 identified countries were in Africa.
• Climate change affects fisheries through ecological disruptions such as coral bleaching, ocean acidification, and changes in water temperature, salinity, and river run-off. It also impacts fishing communities via sea-level rise threatening coastal infrastructure and an increase in extreme weather events like droughts and tropical cyclones.
• Existing governance failures in sub-Saharan Africa, including illegal and unreported fishing which costs the region approximately one billion dollars in annual revenue, undermine the resilience of ecosystems to climate change. Improving scientific monitoring and addressing habitat destruction are seen as synergistic actions that both improve fisheries governance and climate resilience.
• While adaptation is a central component of global responses (such as the Bali Action Plan and Cancun Adaptation Framework), African climate discourse has focused heavily on 'climate-smart agriculture', leaving fisheries and coastal adaptation under-represented in food security agendas.

APA

Benkenstein, A. (2011). Placing African Fisheries on the COP 17 Agenda. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Policy-Briefing-40.pdf

Chicago

Benkenstein, Alex. Placing African Fisheries on the COP 17 Agenda. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2011. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Policy-Briefing-40.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Benkenstein |first1=Alex |title=Placing African Fisheries on the COP 17 Agenda |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=November 2011 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Policy-Briefing-40.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{benkenstein2011placing, author = {Benkenstein, Alex}, title = {{Placing African Fisheries on the COP 17 Agenda}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2011}, month = nov, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Policy-Briefing-40.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }