Iddrisu Amadu is a PhD Candidate at the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University & Research. He seeks to apply interdisciplinary approaches to study the relations between environmental change and human mobility, focusing on the im/mobilities of the historically mobile/nomadic Fante fisherfolk in the West African borderlands, the gender dynamics, and the governance systems (mobility regimes) that shape these im/mobilities. Iddrisu obtained a BSc Environmental Science and MPhil. Integrated Coastal Zone Management degrees from the University of Cape Coast, where his research focused on the livelihood resilience of fisherfolk to decline in small-scale fisheries in Ghana. This research and master's studies were undertaken with a scholarship from the World Bank Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast.  Iddrisu served as the Hub Leader of the Sustainable Ocean Alliances' University of Cape Coast Hub during his master's studies. He is one of the recipients of the 2021 Ocean Leadership Microgrants. He has served on various research assistantship and fellowship roles with both local and international institutions including Emperiks Research, the Centre for Coastal Management and the Environmental Justice Foundation.  He is interested in research on environmental and climate change, human im/mobilities, social-ecological systems and small-scale fisheries.

This PhD project will examine the im/mobilities of nomadic fishers in the West African borderlands in their efforts to keep their mobile lifestyles in the context of a changing climate and socio-political pressures that complicate these mobilities. The focus is on the Fante fishers, who have historically moved around sea and land for fishing and market purposes to respond to the seasonal and spatial distribution of fish stocks. The project will examine the journeys of Fante fishers (often male) and traders (often female) who are pressured to move up north of the West African coast, to ensure sufficient catch per unit in the context of overfishing and rising sea temperatures leading to a northward migration of commonly targeted coastal fish stocks. A focus will be on the ways these journeys are shaped by climatic changes, climate mobility regimes of power (e.g. border patrols), and historical and indigenous cultures and knowledge of moving.

1. Bachelor of Science (Environmental Science), University of Cape Coast

2. Master of Philosophy (Integrated Coastal Zone Management), University of Cape Coast