Publication Abstract

Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution pose challenges to coastal communities around the world, with low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) often bearing the burden of impacts. In Ghana, such communities face a ‘triple threat’ of challenges: serious risk of fisheries collapse, high vulnerability to climate change, and high levels of plastic pollution. We used a ‘Three Horizon Futures’ approach to integrate different knowledge systems and navigate positive pathways to tackle challenges faced by coastal communities and managers in Ghana. In four workshops, diverse participating stakeholders confirmed the above ‘triple threat’ as being the core challenges at present (‘Horizon 1’) and co-created a vision for a future for Ghanaian coastal communities and the marine environment where these challenges are substantially reduced (‘Horizon 3’). Next, stakeholders defined sets of actionable, realistically achievable measures – referred to as SEEDS – to move from current challenges to the envisioned future, during a foreseeable time window (‘Horizon 2’). This study demonstrates that a Three Horizon Futures approach, combined with SEEDS, can be a useful means to bring stakeholders together and transition to transformative and equitable ocean governance.

Bernadette Snow, Nina Rivers, Emmanuel Acheampong, James B. Bell*, Olivia L. Harrod* and Georg H. Engelhard*

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