Dr Ife Okafor-Yarwood
Lecturer in Sustainable Development
Biography
Dr Ifesinachi Okafor-Yarwood is a Lecturer in Sustainable Futures and a PEW Marine Fellow. Additionally, she is one of the editors of a six-volume book project on The Law of the Sea - Contemporary Norms and Practice in Africa. Her research has generated critical insights across several key areas, including the blue economy, environmental justice, human security, maritime governance, and security. She takes a critical approach to the concept of sustainable development, particularly concerning the management of marine and other natural resources. In doing so, she challenges prevailing security, environmental justice, and maritime governance assumptions.
Dr Okafor-Yarwood's research approach is inherently multidisciplinary, blending empirical investigations, indigenous epistemologies, legal analysis, historical perspectives, and theoretical frameworks. This comprehensive approach allows her to explore the intricate factors shaping environmental justice, maritime and natural resource governance, and African security dynamics.
Dr Okafor-Yarwood continues to advance a deeper understanding of the intricacies of ocean sustainability, development, and criminal activities. These matters are intertwined with questions of resource management, environmental justice, and the disproportionate impact of resource depletion on maritime security, poverty, and inequality.
Research areas
Synergies between Indigenous practices and scientific knowledge in practicalising closed season in Ghana’s small-scale fisheries.
As part of Dr Okafor-Yarwood's PEW Marine Fellow, with the support of a PhD researcher and research team in Ghana, our ongoing research investigates the gender-specific impacts of conservation measures in West Africa. Specifically, we are scrutinising the effects of fishing closed seasons in Ghana. We aim to ascertain how integrating traditional knowledge, practices, and scientific methods can pave the way for a more equitable conservation policy in West Africa.
Rebundling Sovereignty over local Nature in global governance.
As a co-investigator for the RESOLVING project, I will be working with the principal investigator, Dr Lucas De Oliveira Paes and another co-investigator, Dr Laura Trajber Waisbich to investigate the networks of actors that translate state authority into the de facto governance of human-nature relations in globally relevant world biomes: the Amazon rainforest and the Gulf of Guinea. We will look at governance initiatives produced at the global, state, and local levels interplay and which patterns of empowerment, inclusion, and exclusion ensue from them.
PhD supervision
- Allan Majalia
- Josephine Asare
Selected publications
-
Open access
La côte de l'Afrique de l'Ouest était un paradis pour la piraterie et la pêche illégale: comment la technologie change la donne
Okafor-Yarwood, I., 8 Mar 2024, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
-
Open access
Techno-optimism versus techno-reality: an analysis of internationally funded technological solutions against illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Ghana and Guinea-Bissau
De Oliveira Paes, L. & Okafor-Yarwood, I., 17 Oct 2024, In: Environmental Politics. p. 1 28 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
Technology and maritime security in Africa: opportunities and challenges in Gulf of Guinea
Okafor-Yarwood, I., Eastwood, O., Chikowore, N. & de Oliveira Paes, L., Feb 2024, In: Marine Policy. 160, 12 p., 105976.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
The fallacy of uti possidetis juris: transboundary fishing in disputed maritime boundaries as a threat to Africa's peace and security
Okafor-Yarwood, I., Palugudi, B. & Nwarueze, E., 10 Oct 2024, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Conflict, Security & Development. Latest Articles, 27 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
-
Open access
West Africa’s coast was a haven for piracy and illegal fishing - how technology is changing the picture
Okafor-Yarwood, I., 6 Mar 2024, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
-
Open access
Africa’s oceans are being protected to serve the interests of big foreign corporates
Okafor-Yarwood, I. & Onuoha, F. C., 26 Apr 2023, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
-
Open access
Le nouveau traité sur la protection des océans du monde pourrait nuire aux pêcheries africaines vulnérables
Okafor-Yarwood, I., 17 Oct 2023, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
-
Open access
Les océans d'Afrique sont protégés pour servir les intérêts des grandes entreprises étrangères
Okafor-Yarwood, I. & Onuoha, F. V., 2 May 2023, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
-
Open access
New treaty to protect the world’s oceans may hurt vulnerable African fisheries
Okafor-Yarwood, I., 11 Oct 2023, The Conversation.Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article
-
Open access
Whose security is it? Elitism and the global approach to maritime security in Africa
Okafor-Yarwood, I. & Onuoha, F. C., 1 Jun 2023, In: Third World Quarterly. 44, 5, p. 946-966 21 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review