Co-managing Lake Victoria’s fisheries for sustainable development

Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest fishery resource, but ineffective management has contributed to a serious decline in the volume of catches since the early 1990s. One solution may be co-management between governments, industrial processors and the traditional institutions that represent fishing communities.

Co-management is as a management system that includes two or more groups with an interest in a resource – often the state (or government institutes) and the community using the resource. Many experts recommend using traditional groups or institutions as the basis for co-management because they are usually accepted by communities and can work with state institutions.

Recent research looks at the challenges of managing fisheries in Lake Victoria. The research was conducted by the International Water Management Institute, the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute, the Fisheries Resources Research Institute in Uganda, and the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute.

Lake Victoria covers an area of 68,800 square kilometres and covers parts of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The communities living on its shores supply up to 30 factories, which are the basis for a multi-million dollar fish export industry. Catches peaked at 787,899 metric tonnes in 1990. Since then, however, there has been a decline in the volume of fish caught and a change in the composition of fish species in the catches.

These changes have come from the absence of co-management between the state, fishing communities and industrial fish processors. The research shows:

• Fisheries regulations are not applied effectively and many people do not know what the regulations are, including state fisheries officers.
• The state is reluctant to transfer managerial power to local institutions at Lake Victoria’s fish landing sites.
• There is a conflict between livelihoods and fisheries management: as resources become scarcer, people use less sustainable fishing techniques. This makes conservation even more difficult.
• There is an overemphasis on biological science within fisheries management. This requires expensive and highly skilled data collection activities that do not always provide management officials with the right information to tackle problems.
• Policymakers underestimate the managerial abilities of fishing communities: the state tends to criminalise fishermen, rather than work with them.
• The state regulatory organisations do not have enough funding, which encourages corruption.

The researchers propose a co-management structure based on three levels of administration: Beach Committees (BCs), District Committees (DCs) and Regional Committees (RCs). Beach Committees already exist in different forms in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, although they have focused more on settling conflicts than making management decisions.

The researchers also recommend:

• BCs should act as forums for negotiating management decisions. The selection of members should be determined by communities and represent all concerned groups.
• DCs should advise BCs on district-level trends, deal with the issues that BCs feel they cannot handle, and support communication between BCs and RCs.
• RCs should include BC representatives and, with the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization, advise on national and regional issues.

Source(s):
‘The Future of Change: Roles, Dynamics and Functions for Fishing Communities in the Management of Lake Victoria’s Fisheries’, Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management 10 (4), pages 467-480, by Kim Geheb, Modesta Medard, Mercy Kyangwa and Carolyne Lwenya, 2007

id21 Research Highlight: 5 April 2008

Further Information:
Kim Geheb
International Water Management Institute
c/o ILRI-Ethiopia Campus
Wereda 17, Kebele 21
P.O.Box 5689 Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

Tel: +251 11 6463215 / 6457222-3
Fax: +251 11 6461252 / 6464645
Contact the contributor: k.geheb@cgiar.org

International Water Management Institute

Other related links:
id21 insights 65 - 'The importance of fisheries for development'

'Integrated lake management in Uganda: structures, policies and plans'

'Fisheries co-management: experiences from the Fisheries Management Science Programme'