Ahmad Husein – March 2025
SFACT’s newly signed-up scholar based in South Africa, Sethabile Mkhize, started her master’s in early 2025, titled “The Relationship Between and Impacts of Small-Scale Fisheries on Endangered Marine Species in the uThukela Marine Protected Area.”
Studying at the University of KwaZulu Natal under the guidance of Professor Catherine Sutherland, Sethabile was inspired by the Zulu proverb “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”—meaning a person is a person because of or through others—to address the economics and conservation aspects of communities that live around the marine protected areas (MPAs).
She is exploring the recent implementation of MPAs in the KwaZulu-Natal area and the change in legislation, policies, and practices that now govern small-scale fisheries. This study seeks to understand the emergence of new state-citizen relationships with regard to these activities within and adjacent to an MPA, the perceptions and responses of small-scale fishers to new conservation spaces in the region, and the need for greater participation, learning, and knowledge production by all stakeholders around the governance of small-scale fisheries.
