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Fisheries management, energy and human migration in West Africa should be considered together in a holistic social and ecological systems framework

Marcos Llope,B. Diop,Sandra Kloff

Published 2025 in ICES Journal of Marine Science

ABSTRACT

One of West Africa’s defining characteristics is its strong reliance on the sea. This is especially true for the Lower Senegal River Basin, on the border between Mauritania and Senegal, where a perfect storm is unfolding, with ripple effects reaching Europe. Overfishing and collateral damage to marine biodiversity undermine the future of fishing. Coastal erosion, worsened by sea-level rise, swallow homes, while saltwater intrusion has made farming increasingly difficult. Offshore oil and gas development, seen by many as the final straw, claimed an ancestral fishing ground. The site now hosts a liquefied natural gas hub designed to meet Europe’s demand following the ban on Russian gas. Young people see no future at home and brave the open ocean to the Canary Islands, fuelling political tension in Spain and across the EU. Despite obvious links between ecology, livelihoods, and migration, policy responses remain fragmented. The EU funds border control operations like FRONTEX while neglecting the root causes. Fisheries agreements focus narrowly on stock levels, ignoring broader ecological and social impacts while energy projects rely on simplistic environmental assessments based on IUCN red-list species and protected areas. This article combines personal frontline stories with an analysis to show how current marine policies miss the bigger socio-ecological picture. We recommend that the European Commission upgrade its next generation of Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreements and ambitions for (alternative) energy sources into integrated policy strategies that are socially just and address concerns for biodiversity more effectively.

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