Challenges to Sustainable Development: Chinese Investment in Gambia

Over the past two decades, China has increased its investment across the African continent, leading to economic development. As much of this economic development is located, where fragile ecosystems intersect with weak governance, the resultant environmental costs can be high. Mustapha Manneh, West Africa Regional Editor of the China Dialogue Trust, will speak about the social, financial, and environmental impact that Chinese fishing investments are having in The Gambia. Gambia, a West African country on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, has become a place of increased Chinese business investment. Particularly, Chinese-owned and -flagged distant water fishing vessels have expanded their presence there and in neighboring countries. Chinese businesses invested in building up adjacent businesses, such as fish meal and oil factories. Simultaneously, The Gambia only recently transitioned out of dictatorship and is building a democratic regime. Chinese investment is thus occurring in a critical time in the country’s political and economic development. The Gambia lacks the financial, technical, operational, and institutional capacity to monitor the rapid expansion of the Chinese fishing activity. The resultant overfishing and environmental degradation are endangering the livelihoods of local Gambians and creating long term challenges to the sustainable development of the country.

Mustapha Manneh is a freelance investigative journalist and environment activist based in The Gambia. For the past five years, Manneh has been writing stories about fishmeal factories in The Gambia and Senegal, with a focus on the community impact of these factories and the local resistance to them. He works with China Dialogue Trust a UK-based independent nonprofit organization reporting on the Chinese environment footprint as West Africa Regional Editor. Manneh also served as a reporting fellow with a US-based investigative organization, The Outlaw Ocean Project. Previously, he won the Gambia National Human Rights Heroes Award in 2020 and the Heroes Award Green category award winner in 2022.