Tetra Tech is working with the U.S. Agency for International Development to improve fisheries management, promote food security, advance marine conservation, and support social inclusion.
The health and sustainability of Ghana’s marine biodiversity—including small pelagic fish stocks and the estuaries and upwelling zones on which they depend—is critically threatened. Ghana’s fisheries face critical challenges from overharvesting by both industrial and small-scale fishing operations, habitat loss, pollution, and climate change. The health of Ghana’s fisheries is critical to maintain economic opportunity and food security for Ghanaian fishers and coastal communities, as well as to conserve coastal and marine biological diversity.
Benefits
- Align fishing fleet capacity with ecological carrying capacity
- Reduce illegal fishing and associated conflict
- Improve science-based decision-making
- Enhance seafood quality, value, and nutrition
- Promote fair, legal, and sustainable fishing
The Feed the Future Ghana Fisheries Recovery Activity (GFRA) works to mitigate the collapse of this sector and bolster the ecological recovery and growth of small pelagic fisheries—like sardines, mackerel, and anchovies—in small fishing villages and landing sites throughout Ghana’s coastal districts. Tetra Tech uses an ecosystem approach to fisheries management to implement relevant strategic interventions through GFRA that:
- Improve supplemental livelihoods and resilience measures for fishing communities, women, and youth
- Facilitate private sector engagement and market linkages in the fishing sector
- Strengthen government capacity in policymaking, regulation, and enforcement
- Strengthen improved science and research, including data for policy and management decisions
- Empower key stakeholders to effect lasting change
GFRA will assess and adjust Ghana’s small pelagic fishing fleet capacity so it aligns with fish stock capacity and promotes ecological well-being. Complementarily, Tetra Tech will identify and implement diversified livelihoods and support actors throughout the value chain to improve their products to reinforce socioeconomic well-being. And finally, Tetra Tech is Leading with Science® to advance good governance of the fishing sector by helping institutionalize resource laws, regulations, and programs and strengthen the ability of key constituencies—including women and youth—to manage and build a more sustainable small pelagic fisheries sector.
