The world is facing dire environmental change impacts. These include climate change, biodiversity loss, depletion of fisheries, and freshwater shortages. In that regard, this research project explores how small-scale fishers can utilise their indigenous and local knowledge to address the changing environmental conditions. The study involves critically reviewing the literature on systematic conservation planning principles that inform area-based conservation, deducing power asymmetries and hierarchies among stakeholders that interact with small-scale fishers in Kenya and Ghana, and conducting interviews. Also, it involves the deployment of a ‘novel’ approach that promotes the co-production of knowledge referred to as cultural animation.