Integrated Lake Management

Lessons

Participatory fisheries management

The ILM approach is based on effective participation of fishing communities in fisheries management. Communities have been empowered to co-manage fisheries and are developing a new sense of ownership and responsibility for taking care of these resources. This is evidenced by BMUs collecting fisheries information for planning, holding self-organised meetings, developing and agreeing fisheries and environmental by-laws, participating in decentralised fisheries research and enforcing regulations through lake wide patrols. Key lessons from the implementation of participatory fisheries management are:

1. Community-based fisheries information collection and use: A ground breaking system of fisheries information was pioneered on Lake George, where data collectors receive payment from communities, with no external financial support, and the data is used by BMUs for planning and management.
2. Participatory fisheries research: Another ground breaking initiative involved BMU fishermen and local fisheries staff undertaking basic fisheries research as a demand-driven response to meet the needs of Fisheries Management Committees of the Lake Management Organisations.
3. Decentralised control of fisheries access: Open access to shared fisheries resources is not sustainable. Resources are finite, and, faced with increasing fishing pressure, access to resources must be controlled. Issues of who controls access, who is allowed access and how, have been addressed on Lake George.
4. Influencing national laws: A key feature of co-management is that resource users must be consulted, and their views acted upon, before fisheries management decisions that affect their livelihoods are taken. Resource users are also best placed to evaluate the appropriateness of an individual regulation and inform, where necessary, policy and law makers of the need for change. BMUs and LMOs provide the institutional entry points for practice to policy linkages, through which fisheries stakeholders can inform and influence policy design and review.
5. Developing and agreeing fisheries by-laws and ordinances: Lake wide fisheries management is only possible where regulations are standardized through harmonized by-laws and ordinances developed within over-arching national legislation. LAGBIMO and LAKIMO have facilitated discussion on appropriate by-laws and ordinances, which were discussed amongst BMUs, sub-counties and districts for lake wide agreement and enforcement.
6. Community-based Monitoring, Control and Surveillance: Identifying non-compliance with fisheries regulations, agreeing control mechanisms and enforcing these regulations are essential components of fisheries management. Getting BMU members involved in these processes increases efficiency, reduces operational costs, and increases governance through greater awareness, transparency and accountability to local communities as well as local government. LAGBIMO and LAKIMO have established their own MCS Units comprising members from BMUs, local fisheries staff and police.