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.

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.

I am keenly interested in researching ocean governance, the blue economy and maritime security. My current research interests encompass various areas:

1.  Geopolitical interests in maritime security.
2. Digital-technological divide in the maritime sector
3. Gender-specific aspects and impacts of maritime governance and security
4. Historical ecological knowledge and practices in marine conservation
5. Interactions between the blue economy and maritime security discourses
6. Oceans governance and maritime boundary disputes

These research areas collectively reflect my overarching interest in contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the blue economy, maritime security, and governance.