Paper short abstract:

This talk discusses fears of the Gwadar fishing community where China’s billion-dollar development of strategic seaport, a flagship project of CPEC, has been threatening fishers’ indigeneity and disregarding the local consciousness while deepening the Eurocentric culture/nature division.

Paper long abstract:

The development of the strategic deep-water seaport of Gwadar, a key feature of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is a multi-billion-dollar project that has been contemplated as a game-changer in Pakistan. However, the local fishing communities of Gwadar, the gateway for China’s trade ambitions, face threats of displacement, migration, and unemployment. These threats not only target the socio-cultural fabric of these people but also their centuries-old wisdom which directs their perceptions of ecological wellbeing, sustains their livelihoods, and ensures a continued relationship with nature. This talk explores the ramifications of China’s growing interests in the fishing industry for developing broader socio-economic and ecological recommendations. It moves beyond critique, and towards a policy-oriented analysis that offers recommendations for sustaining the knots of indigeneity. Going beyond the generalized modes of reasoning that envisage development as an instrument toward the hankering of economic growth, it offers to closely recognize the astounding role of the bio-cultural continuum in the lives of local fishers.