Local-Scale Governance: A Review of the Zambian Approach to Fisheries Management

Abstract

Despite Zambia's recent policies for optimizing sustainable management of fisheries, their success has been modest in practice. Artisanal and industrial fleets have led to decline in fish catches in the presence of currently prescribed management possibilities. Among other factors, excessive fishing and unsustainable fishing methods attributed to common property and free access to the resources are key. The country adopted co-management approach to fisheries management in the 1990s with a view to improve the fisheries stocks through community enforcement of fishery management regulations. Neither the success of co-management has been easy to measure nor its results appreciated. In view of overfishing, it is required to continue providing a range of empirical evidence of area-specific co-management interventions as basis for designing realistic and innovative solutions for the nation. This implies that new policies and institutions need to be developed by research to understand fisheries systems and better promote sustainable trajectories. The following review recommendation to central government is a coherent approach that uses and crystallizes the multiple interests and skills of co-management stakeholders. Most stakeholder groups have been involved in an ad hoc fashion through workshops, public meetings and consultative processes mainly organized by Department of Fisheries. Stakeholders should be involved from the design of the process to each step in the process, including the ongoing monitoring and evaluation. A form of memorandum of understanding is suggested. This will formally set out a process that acknowledges each stakeholder's interests and provide forums to facilitate discussion, consultation and monitoring of management activities.

Outcomes of participatory fisheries management: An example from co-management in Zambia's Mweru-Luapula fishery

“…Therefore in the African region, countries such as Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Nigeria, Benin, South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia have adopted co-management to manage fisheries ( Sverdrup-Jensen and Nielsen, 1998 ; Kosamu, 2015 ). Its adoption is attributed to the desire to improve fisher compliance to fisheries regulations by involving fishers in decision-making ( Kosamu, 2015 ; Nunan et al, 2018 ); the need to resolve conflicts among artisanal fishers; reverse the depletion of fish stock; lack of monetary resources to finance centralized command and control regimes; inadequate government personnel, and pressure from international organizations and international treaties ( Haambiya et al, 2015a ; d’ Armengol et al, 2018 ; Vlachopoulou, 2014 ).…”

“…Local-based organizations which often operate on voluntary basis are incentivized to receive bribes from fishers at the expense of imposing sanctions, thereby sustaining illegal and destructive fishing activities ( Banda et al, 2015 ; Nunan et al, 2018 ). Weakly supported local organizations are unable to represent the views of resource-users and also prevent the state from delegating authority and responsibilities to resource users ( Haambiya et al 2015a ). The absence of resource users in management tasks such as design of fisheries regulations, installation of local leadership and conducting monitoring activities hinders co-management success ( Chabwela and Haller, 2010 ).…”

“…The new conservation and management tools included closed seasons, gear limitations, and licensing. The displacement of traditional management systems by the new politically imposed regulations contributed to conflicts among local and immigrant fishers and increased fishing pressure, among other issues ( Haller and Merten, 2008 ; Annear 2006 ; Haambiya et al 2015a ).…”

“…A study conducted on Lake Tanganyika portrays a limping co-management system characterized by rampant use of illegal and unsustainable gear; low penalty system for offenders; prevalence of conflicts among fishers operating in different parts of the fishery and low compliance to regulations attributed to low financing of enforcement teams ( Banda et al 2015 ; Haambiya et al 2015a , 2015b ). This study, therefore, aimed to assess participatory fisheries management in Mweru- Luapula fishery.…”

Is Co-Management Still Feasible to Advance the Sustainability of Small-Scale African Inland Fisheries? Assessing Stakeholders’ Perspectives in Zambia

“…Some of these challenges encountered included lack of legislation to support the execution of co-management reforms, poorly equipped extension services to design locally accountable devolved institutions, the prevalence of conflicts of interest among different stakeholders, and reluctance by the central government to relinquish certain responsibilities and pass them on to local resource users [13,31]. As such, with fisheries being commonpool in nature and government-owned by law, the resources in these lakes continued to be overexploited [17,32,33].…”