Inland Fisheries, Poverty, and Rural Livelihoods in the Lake Chad Basin

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to describe the livelihoods of the rural populations of the Lake Chad Basin area (Sub-Saharan Africa), and in particular to assess the role of inland fishing activity in these livelihoods. For this purpose, a combination of activity and wealth ranking exercises was carried out in 64 villages of the Basin, completed by a series of comparative analyses of the ethnic composition, accessibility to fishing grounds and fishing gear ownership across the different socioeconomic strata of the populations. The analysis shows that for the entire area, households, irrespective of their wealth levels, still rely to a very large extent on subsistence-based economy where the three major activities (fishing, farming, and herding) are closely integrated. With respect to fishing activity the survey demonstrates the central role of this activity (in terms of income, labor, and food supply) for all wealth groups. But the analysis also reveals that there is no one-to-one relationship between the contribution of fishing activity and the wealth (or poverty) level of the households. In particular the analysis suggests that well-known adages such as “the fishermen are the poorest of the poor” or “the fishery is the activity of last resort” do not reflect the complexity of the real situation.

Power Asymmetries in Small-Scale Fisheries: a Barrier to Governance Transformability?

“…This is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it provides evidence of the asymmetrical distribution of capital noted even in small rural fishing communities (Béné 2003, Béné et al 2003. Second, work in rural economics has shown patron-client type relationships to be a common feature in many rural societies (Russel 1987, Finan andNelson 2009), particularly fishing communities (Platteau and Abraham 1987, Amarasinghe 1989, Nguinguiri 2000.…”

Fishing Farmers: Fishing, Livelihood Diversification and Poverty in Rural Laos

“…Yet in some cases wealthier groups used more efficient and productive fishing methods (such as through the use of private ponds), similar to the inland fisheries of Lake Chad as described by Béné et al (2003). Smith et al (2005) observed that accumulation diversification livelihood strategies may produce this result, suggesting that as incomes rise and households diversify into new higher return activities, fishing may be retained as a supplementary part-time activity, but the income it provides will decline as a proportion of total household income and instead it may be primarily used for own consumption and recreation.…”

Can We Be Both Resilient and Well, and What Choices Do People Have? Incorporating Agency into the Resilience Debate from a Fisheries Perspective.

“…The livelihoods literature is full of evidence of fishers doing just that, particularly to cope during lean periods (McCay 2002, Béné et al 2003, Pomeroy et al 2006. As Allison and Ellis (2001) argue, fisherfolk diversify their livelihood for very good reasons such as the high risk of the occupation, seasonal fluctuation in the resource, and to reduce the risk of livelihood failure by spreading it across more than one income source.…”