Treasure Mapped

Chatham House will host the launch of a new Africa Programme Paper by Dr Anja Shortland, Senior Lecturer at Brunel University, which uses recent forms of nightlight emissions and high resolution satellite imagery to look at the effects of piracy on the Somali economy and establish which groups benefit from ransom monies.

Dr Shortland’s paper demonstrates how pirates appear to be investing money principally in the main cities of Garowe and Bosasso rather than in the coastal communities where pirate activity is located. Dr Shortland argues that the positive economic impacts of piracy are widely spread, so a military strategy to eradicate piracy could seriously undermine local development. She suggests that villages that have gained little from hosting pirates may be more open to a negotiated solution which would be to their benefit.

The event, ‘Treasure Mapped: Using Satellite Imagery to Track the Developmental Effects of Somali Piracy’, will be held at Chatham House on Thursday 12 January 2012 at 16:00

Full details can be found here.