Blue economy investments and injustices around marine protected areas: The case of Mtwara Coast, Tanzania
This thesis explores Blue Economy investments and injustices around marine protected areas. It examines whether fishing communities are gaining or losing from investments in the marine park areas; and unpacks the dilemmas that authorities face when they promote investments while protecting communities’ livelihoods at the same time. The study futher assesses the role of the state in supporting communities’ livelihoods. The thesis draws on the literature on the political ecology of natural resource governance and blue and green economies. It expands the scholarly debates around the logic behind blue economy, and its impacts on fishing communities’ livelihoods and the environment at large. It locates its discussion on Harvey’s theorisation of the accumulation by dispossession (AbD) and on Issa Shivji’s articulations of AbD and displacement. Several conceptual insights including governmentality, displacement, livelihood and vulnerability, local livelihoods (referring to Dorward’ aspirations), criminalisation of livelihood and ecological crisis are used to explain the logic behind blue economy in Mtwara, Tanzania and how investment activities impact communities’ livelihoods and the environment. It highlights the current blue injustice work and debates on blue economy which are deeply embedded in neo-liberal policies that explain pathways of resource use and communities’ livelihoods.
Blue Economy, Blue Injustices, Political ecology, Accumulation by Dispossession, Fishing Communities
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