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The fisheries of Lake Victoria have reached a critical stage in their development: catches are declining, and there is increasing evidence of hardship amongst the fishing communities. In an effort to countermand the reduction in the flow of economic benefits the lake's riparian states are collaborating with international agencies to develop a fisheries management strategy that would be based on a partnership between stakeholders. One possible area for such collaboration is via the devolution of certain access controls to fishing communities. This paper describes findings from recent research and argues that notions of access are linked to community perceptions of the resource, control over it and their own individual and collective manoeuvrings designed to retain and improve livelihoods.

Abstract: Lake Victoria supports Africa’s largest inland fishery, and its most valuable product is the Nile perch, much of which is exported. This has given rise to arguments claiming a direct linear relationship between perch exports and disturbingly high rates of malnutrition along the lake’s shores. In this paper, we argue that this argument is seriously flawed for it is unable to explain how it is that the income from the Nile perch fishery fails to translate into a well-fed riparian population. We draw on field work carried out in 2001 that (a) set out to establish exactly how much malnutrition there was on the lake’s shores; and (b) sought to identify what happened to the income the fishery generates. We argue that because men control much of the fishery, and women are held responsible for the upkeep of their families, little of this income makes its way back into the households of the region, giving rise to the levels of malnutrition we observed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper is based on five years of research around the shores of Lake Victoria carried out by the lake's Fisheries Research Institutes in collaboration with the Lake Victoria Fisheries Research Project. Based on this experience, the authors identify a series of difficulties, which impedes the effective management of the lake's fisheries. These relate to profound weaknesses in the current state-administered management of the lake along with difficulties transferring regulatory power to fishing communities, and problems establishing an adequate 'co-managerial' framework for the development and implementation of managerial action. The authors propose a management structure based on three levels of administration which have at their core 'beach committees,' and which serve as forums for negotiated managerial outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on factors affecting the sustainable development management in Lake Victoria's fisheries in Uganda. Contributors to sustainable development; Failure of the authorities in charge to address the social, political and economic aspects of sustainable development; Development of a participatory system.