2.5 MARINE AND COASTAL COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
Box 2.5.3: Bargaining power and sex in the context of declining fish catch
Declining catches bring pressures on women to trade sex for fish.
Photo credit: © Habil Onyango - The Star
The number of people forced to migrate from coastal regions is expected to increase dramatically due to climate change: 187 million could be displaced by 2100 (Nicholls et al. 2010). Low-lying coastal plains, deltas and small islands are especially susceptible to environmental migration (McLeman and Hunter 2010). Fishing communities may be affected by climate- induced migration caused by sea level rise, increasingly violent storms, and islands exposed to multiple climatic stresses and shocks (Islam et al. 2014). Gender and age play key roles regarding the ability to migrate, as well as influencing the outcomes of migration. Studies of coastal communities in Bangladesh have shown that older people and female heads of households are often less able to migrate because of cultural restrictions and limited income-earning opportunities both at home and in destination communities (Islam et al. 2014).
Sea level rise causes saline waters to intrude into and contaminate coastal freshwater, a particular problem for coastal communities. Saltwater intrusion will continue to move further inland, while the salinity of freshwater in coastal areas will increase with rising sea levels and increasing levels of evaporation in shallow water communities. Such contamination has far-reaching
impacts in coastal communities. Many households in fishing communities already suffer from chronic water shortages or water with high levels of contamination, with direct and indirect effects on health. Rates of preeclampsia and gestational hypertension in pregnant women living in coastal areas have been shown to be higher than those for women living inland (Khan et al. 2011; Khan et al. 2008). Drinking water salinity (Box 2.5.3) is also a significant determinant of infant mortality in coastal areas, especially for infants born to women who drink highly saline water in the late stages of pregnancy (Dasgupta et al. 2015).
Changing climate conditions trigger not only human migration but also that of animals. Distribution patterns for fish, mammals and other species change in response to changing physical and biological components of ecosystems, such as water temperatures, food availability and water salinity. This has implications for the incomes, food security and migration patterns of human populations. Arctic communities are experiencing forced diet changes with shifts in the distribution patterns of marine mammals and fish, making access to traditional foods more difficult. In tropical zones the health of inshore fisheries, where
Gendered economies with highly skewed compensation frameworks (in which men have the capacity to earn much more money than women) affect the economic realities of gender relationships and the structure of intimate relationships within communities, including the development of sexual economies (Campbell 1997). Fishing economies have a highly gendered structure, with men often fishing while women process and sell the fish. However, the ways in which fish move from male fishing activities to women’s processing and marketing vary considerably: in Sri Lanka many husbands and wives work as a team, with the man fishing and the wife selling; in Sierra Leone wives typically buy fish from their husbands according to a business-like arrangement; in coastal Kenyan communities fishermen give preferential access to women with whom they are in a sexual relationship. A study of fish workers in Zambia reported that 31% of fish traders had an institutionalized fish-for-sex relationship (Béné and Merten 2008). In some cases these sexual transactions may be voluntary, but fishermen are frequently in stronger positions than fish traders both socially and economically. In the absence of money and other resources, the female fish traders often lack the bargaining power to refuse a sexual relationship, either because of blackmail (“no sex, no fish”) or because they cannot afford to turn down a favourable offer from a fisherman (Lwenya and Yongo 2012; Béné and Merten 2008). They also have unequal ability to negotiate safe sexual practices (Halperin and Epstein 2004). These fish-for-sex dynamics drive high HIV risk and prevalence rates.
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