Challenges to sustainable management of the lakes of Malawi

Jamu, Daniel; Banda, M. C.; Njaya, Friday; Hecky, Robert E.

doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2010.11.017

Cited by 51 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The challenge of insufficient resources mentioned by all key informants supports what literature also indicated (Bootsma and Jorgensen 2005;Njaya 2007;Jamu et al 2011;CEPA 2012).There is need for sustained Government commitment to provide resources necessary for the effective operation of Government institutions including parastatals. Some activities are fixed to a certain period due to their nature and require funds to be available during that particular period (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Fish significantly contribute to the nutrition of the country's population and is a critical ingredient for nutrition security in Malawi (McKaye et al 2008). Most of the fish caught is locally consumed, thus substituting for fish and animal protein imports (Jamu et al 2011). In addition, about 1.6 million people in lakeshore communities derive their livelihood from the fishing industry (GoM 2011b), representing 10.6% of the total population (2012 estimate).…”

Section: The Values Offered By the Lake Malawi Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of these concerns are common in all the three riparian countries (see Chafota et al 2005). Increasing mineral resource extraction, and industrialization are emerging threats (Jamu et al 2011). In addition, the endemic fish species in the lake are susceptible to habitat change since they are specialists with small populations and a narrow distributional range (Chafota et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of indicators for assessment of Lake Malawi Basin in an Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) framework

Chidammodzi

Muhandiki

2015

Int J Commons

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This paper sought to understand the current state of the management environment of Lake Malawi Basin, deduce a lake vision and develop indicators for assessing Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) in the lake basin. The premise of the study was that targeted indicators are necessary to effectively monitor the lake basin and manage it sustainably. The study focused on the Malawian side of the lake. Interviews, field observations and review of existing lake management and indicator development approaches around the world were the methods employed. It was found that Malawi lacks focus on lakes in its strategies and the existing management of the lake is on a sector-to-sector basis with little coordination. Furthermore, the capacity of lake-related sector institutions is hampered by inadequate resources and unstable flow of funds. It was concluded that the current management of the lake basin is unsustainable and there is need to comprehensively monitor the lake basin as well as formulate and implement management plans and strategies that are based on the knowledge obtained from targeted monitoring. A set of governance indicators was developed taking into account the characteristics of the lake, the values that it offers and the threats that it is facing.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: The Values Offered By the Lake Malawi Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development of indicators for assessment of Lake Malawi Basin in an Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) framework

Chidammodzi

Muhandiki

2015

Int J Commons

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“…Negative impacts of anthropogenic activities on lake ecosystems are on the rise owing to human population growth and increasing poverty leading into high demand for services and subsequent unsustainable use of lake ecosystems [8]. These impacts include environmental degradation resulting in siltation, eutrophication especially from agricultural, domestic and industrial sources, possible heavy metal deposition, hypoxia, loss of biodiversity, loss of fish breeding grounds and increased human and livestock disease risks, etc.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Riparian ecosystem resilience and livelihood strategies under test: lessons from Lake Chilwa in Malawi and other lakes in Africa

Kafumbata

Jamu²,

Chiotha

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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This paper reviews the importance of African lakes and their management challenges. African inland lakes contribute significantly to food security, livelihoods and national economies through direct exploitation of fisheries, water resources for irrigation and hydropower generation. Because of these key contributions, the ecosystem services provided are under significant stress mainly owing to high demand by increasing populations, negative anthropogenic impacts on lake catchments and high levels of poverty which result in unsustainable use. Climate variability exacerbates the stress on these ecosystems. Current research findings show that the lakes cannot sustain further development activities on the scale seen over the past few decades. Millions of people are at risk of losing livelihoods through impacts on livestock and wildlife. The review further shows that the problems facing these lakes are beyond the purview of current management practices. A much better understanding of the interactions and feedbacks between different components of the lake socio-ecological systems is needed to address the complex challenges of managing these ecosystem services. This review suggests that the three small wetlands of Chad, Chilwa and Naivasha provide an opportunity for testing novel ideas that integrate sustainability of natural resource management with livelihoods in order to inform policy on how future land use and climatic variability will affect both food security and the ecosystem services associated with it.

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“…High population growth and alarming levels of poverty in Malawi have caused an unprecedented overexploitation of freshwater ecosystem fisheries (Jamu, Banda, Njaya, & Hecky, 2011). Moreover, the combined effect of anthropogenic activities and urban extension have substantially reduced the natural fish habitat through siltation and water bodies' removal, resulting in a severe decrease in fisheries yield.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Growth Performance of Oreochromis Hybrids and Selectively-Bred Strain (F8) in Malawi

Kassam¹,

Sangazi²

2016

SAR

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Most fish farmers in Malawi culture unimproved fish strains whose growth is slow and mature while still small. Four strains of Oreochromis, namely; selectively-bred/improved O. shiranus (F 8 ), two reciprocal F 1 Oreochromis hybrids, and O. karongae as a control (mean weight 2.5 ± 0.7 g) were stocked at a density of 5fish/m 2 in 9m 2 hapas replicated three times, and cultured for 90 days at Bunda Fish Farm. Fish were fed twice a day with feed formulated using maize bran and soybean containing 30% crude protein throughout the experimental period. The final mean weights were significantly different (p<0.05) across the treatments whereby; hybrid O. shiranus (male) X O. karongae (female) was 12.09g, hybrid O. shiranus (female) X O. karongae (male) was 9.72g, improved O. shiranus (F 8 ) registered 9.23g, and O. karongae was the least with 9.00g. Apparent food conversion ratio was also statistically different (p<0.05) across the treatments whereby; O. karongae was 3.63, hybrid O. shiranus (female) X O. karongae (male) was 3.25, improved O. shiranus (F 8 ) was 3.16 and hybrid O. shiranus (male) X O. karongae (female) was lowest with 2.26. There were no significant differences on the water quality parameters across the treatments throughout the experimental period and were within the required ranges for growth and survival of tilapias fish species. The results suggest that Oreochromis hybrids may be suitable candidates for aquaculture in terms of production as they performed better than the improved O. shiranus and the control O. karongae.

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Challenges to sustainable management of the lakes of Malawi

Cited by 51 publications

References 46 publications

Development of indicators for assessment of Lake Malawi Basin in an Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) framework

Development of indicators for assessment of Lake Malawi Basin in an Integrated Lake Basin Management (ILBM) framework

Riparian ecosystem resilience and livelihood strategies under test: lessons from Lake Chilwa in Malawi and other lakes in Africa

Comparative Growth Performance of Oreochromis Hybrids and Selectively-Bred Strain (F8) in Malawi

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