Maritime security and the securitisation of fisheries in the Gulf of Guinea: experiences from Cameroon

Abstract

Since the 2000s, maritime security threats in the Gulf of Guinea region have been of growing international concern. In many countries, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one such problem with negative impacts on environmental, food and national security and links with wider maritime crime. Focussing on Cameroon, this article argues that there has been a securitisation of the fisheries sector within the broader context of changes in maritime security governance in the Gulf of Guinea. The article examines the process and implications of the securitisation of Cameroon’s fisheries sector. Using documents, direct observations, and in-depth interviews with state agents and actors of civil society organisations (CSOs), the article illustrates how the fisheries sector was securitised through a range of linguistic, institutional, and structural mechanisms. The institutional and structural mechanisms were highly militarised with the increased deployment of military forces in monitoring, control and surveillance of fishery activities. These changes, the article concludes, subsequently diminished the agency and capacity of non-military state and civil society actors in fisheries governance and undermines their role in cooperative efforts within the broader maritime security architecture that now operates in Cameroon.