British Colonialism, Marine Sciences, and Fisheries Governance: Lessons from Lake Malawi in the Mid-Twentieth Century

英国殖民主义、海洋科学和渔业治理：二十世纪中叶马拉维湖的教训

• 批准号: AH/W009099/1
• 负责人: David Wilson
• 金额: $ 13.75万
• 依托单位: University of Strathclyde
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW009099%2F1
• 关键词: British; Colonialism; Marine; Sciences; Fisheries

European colonisation played a fundamental role in entrenching unequal and state-dominated marine governance regimes across diverse bodies of water, e.g. recent conflicts over Mi'kmaq lobster fishing in Nova Scotia, Maori marine jurisdiction in New Zealand, and pollution of rivers central to Indigenous livelihoods in Peru. The development of environmental marine sciences was intrinsically tied to this process, facilitating the extension of imperial governance into marine spaces. Yet, colonial powers were also forced to recognise the rights of traditional authorities over waterside spaces and fishing grounds. This led to pluralistic fisheries governance, where both colonial governments and traditional authorities exercised rights to control marine spaces. These regimes were underpinned by distinctive ways of knowing and led to different impacts on marine environments. Ongoing recognition of the widespread impact of colonialism and colonial sciences on environments, however, has been predominantly associated with land to the neglect of marine space despite the continuing impact of colonial-originated regimes on marine governance.Addressing this largely hidden history, this project explores the development of two distinctive fisheries management regimes in Lake Malawi in the mid-twentieth century; one imposed by the British colonial government and the other by Chief Msosa, who implemented a new chief-regulated fishery in Mbenje Island. This provides a unique opportunity to explore the principles and ideologies underpinning these regimes, considering how colonial fisheries management embedded specific values based on dominant 'scientific' principles that neglected and subjugated local knowledge and socio-economic realities in comparison to a chief-regulated fishery grounded in community norms and practices. Today, Mbenje Island is celebrated as a sustainable fishery whereas most fisheries in Lake Malawi, which fall under a national fisheries governance regime with colonial origins, are overexploited.To engage fishing communities in Malawi and the wider public, the project utilises methods drawn from digital humanities to create a digital storytelling platform that will be hosted on an open access project website. Charting the development of fisheries management regimes in Lake Malawi and Mbenje Island, the platform will provide a visual narrative of these two regimes, contextualising archival documentation, oral history excerpts, environmental sampling data, and laws to compare their practices, principles, and impacts. This includes interactive maps, where data can be explored (e.g. colonial legislation, interview excerpts, species data) at the click of a button. Transcriptions of archival records will be downloadable, providing open and democratised access.This is an interdisciplinary and collaborative project, combining expertise from academia and the policy / advocacy sector, and from history, marine environmental science, public health, sustainable development, and natural resource management. This is deployed to conduct archival research of colonial records from the mid-twentieth century, oral histories of community members in Chikombe, and environmental sampling of sediment cores in Lake Malawi. The project will be led by researchers from Mzuzu University (Malawi) and the University of Strathclyde (U.K.) in collaboration with the Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (Malawi). The project will make a significant contribution to ongoing debates surrounding colonialism, natural resources governance, and climate change, creating an innovative platform that will raise public and policymaker awareness of the impact of colonialism and environmental marine science on community-led fisheries governance over the long-term. These findings will be distilled into practical recommendations to address the legacies of colonial narratives of 'dominant' science in support of sustainable and just use of marine resources.

欧洲殖民化在巩固各种水域的不平等和国家主导的海洋治理制度方面发挥了基本作用，例如最近在新斯科舍省的Mi'kmaq龙虾捕鱼，新西兰的毛利海洋管辖区以及秘鲁土著居民中心的河流污染的冲突。环境海洋科学的发展与这一过程内在息息相关，从而促进了帝国治理的扩展到海洋空间。然而，殖民权力也被迫认识到传统当局对水上空间和渔场的权利。这导致了多元化的渔业治理，殖民政府和传统当局都行使控制海上空间的权利。这些制度的基础是独特的认识方式，并导致对海洋环境的不同影响。然而，尽管殖民主义和殖民科学对环境对环境的广泛影响一直与土地有关，尽管尽管殖民殖民组织对海洋治理的持续影响，但仍与土地相关。一个由英国殖民政府强加于MSOSA酋长，他在Mbenje岛实施了新的首席监管渔业。这为探索这些制度的原则和意识形态提供了独特的机会，考虑了殖民地渔业管理如何根据主要的“科学”原则嵌入了特定价值，这些原则与与社区规范和实践中的主要渔业相比，忽略了当地知识和社会经济现实，并征服了当地知识和社会经济现实。如今，Mbenje Island被庆祝为可持续的渔业，而马拉维湖的大多数渔业都属于具有殖民地起源的国家渔业治理制度。该平台绘制了马拉维湖和Mbenje岛的渔业管理制度的发展，将提供这两个制度的视觉叙述，即情境档案文档，口述历史记录摘录，环境抽样数据以及法律，以比较其实践，原则和影响。这包括交互式图，可以单击按钮，可以在其中探索数据（例如殖民法规，采访摘录，物种数据）。档案记录的抄录将是可下载的，提供开放和民主的访问。这是一个跨学科和协作项目，将学术界和政策 /倡导部门的专业知识结合在一起，以及历史，海洋环境科学，公共卫生，可持续发展，可持续发展和自然资源管理。该部署是为了对二十世纪中叶的殖民记录进行档案研究，Chikombe社区成员的口述历史以及马拉维湖泥沙核心的环境采样。该项目将由Mzuzu大学（马拉维）的研究人员和Strathclyde大学（英国）与环境政策与倡导中心（马拉维）合作。该项目将为围绕殖民主义，自然资源治理和气候变化的持续辩论做出重大贡献，创建一个创新的平台，该平台将提高公共和决策者对殖民主义和环境海洋科学对社区领导的渔业治理的影响。这些发现将被提炼成实用建议，以解决“统治”科学的殖民叙事的遗产，以支持可持续性和仅使用海洋资源。