Fishers’ perception on livelihood strategies, adaptation and mitigation measures to cope with changes in climate variables around Lake Wamala, Uganda

Fisheries support livelihoods but are threatened by climate variability and change which intensified since the 1970s. This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to determine the extent to which fishers around Lake Wamala in Uganda were copying with perceived changes in climate variables and the impacts on their livelihoods, to generate knowledge to enable the fishers increase resilience and sustain their livelihoods. Fishers were aware of changes in climate manifested by unpredictable seasons, floods and droughts. Fishing was the main livelihood activity. The African catfish had replaced Nile tilapia as the dominant fish species. There was damage and loss of gear, boats, landing sites and lives, and changes in fish catches and sizes, income and fish consumption during the perceived floods and droughts. The fishers adapted to the changes through increasing time on fishing grounds and changing target species and fishing gears but innovative ones diversified to high value crops and livestock which increased their income beyond what was earned from fishing thus acting as an incentive for some of them to quit fishing. Diversification to non-fishery activities as a form of adaptation was enhanced by membership to social groups, weekly fishing days, fishing experience and age of fishers but its benefits were not equally shared among men and women. Mitigation measures included planting trees, mulching gardens and protecting wetlands. Adaptation and mitigation measures were constrained by limited credit, awareness and land. The required interventions included improving access to credit, irrigation facilities and appropriate planting materials and raising awareness. The study showed that the fishers were aware of changes in climatic variables and the impacts on their livelihoods. There were also adaptation and mitigation measures practiced by the fishers which if promoted and their constraints addressed, could increase resilience of fishers to climatic change and sustain their livelihoods.

SAMUDRA Report No.73, April 2016

Samudra Report No. 73, dated April 2016, features articles from India, Costa Rica, East and North Africa, Algeria, Norway, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Southeast Asia. The articles from India focus on the construction of a port in Hazira and the livelihoods issues of women fishworkers in Kerala. The SSF Guidelines are covered by reports of workshops held in Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Algiers, Bali, Colombo, Tanzania and New Delhi. The report from Norway discusses the Norwegian Maritime Authority's mandate to raise safety-at-sea standards.

WFF-WFFP-ICSF-CIC: national workshop on capacity-building for the implementation of the voluntary guidelines for securing sustainable small-scale fisheries (SSF guidelines) - report, 21 and 22 March 2016 Multi-Purpose Hall, India International Centre, New Delhi, India

The report of the proceedings of the New Delhi workshop on the SSF Guidelines (Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication). The workshop brought together 95 participants from 13 states representing civil society organizations. governments, FAO, and fishworker organizations from both the marine and inland fisheries sectors. This report will be found useful for fishworker organizations, researchers, policy makers, members of civil society and anyone interested in small-scale fisheries, tenure rights, social development, livelihoods, post harvest and trade and disasters and climate change.

WorldFish Center report on the opportunities and constraints to improved fisheries exploitation and management in the Maringa – Lopori – Wamba landscape

The WorldFish Center was contracted by Africa Wildlife Foundation to conduct a preliminary survey of the role of fisheries in livelihoods, and opportunities and constraints to improved fisheries exploitation and management, in the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape. In May 2007, a three person WorldFish Center team, supported by AWF staff, visited the landscape to explore how the fishery operates to meet local needs and identify scope for interventions that might improve fisheries livelihood opportunities without undermining its sustainability. It is clear that although fishing is important for both income and subsistence in the areas visited, profits are nonetheless modest and somewhat unpredictable. Moreover, fisherfolk should not be considered a homogeneous group: there are different sub-groups, using different gears and skills, involving women and men in both fishing and post-harvest activities, groups who are more or less dependent on farming, and who fish, on balance, more either for cash or subsistence needs. Thus the findings here need to be set within this context of different sub-groups, fishing for generally very modest remuneration, with the latter subject to considerable variability and uncertainty.

A manual for improving fish production in Northern Zambia through integrated farming systems

This manual was written as part of the Integrated Research in Development for Improved Livelihoods Programme in Northern Province, Zambia (IRDLP) and is primarily intended for extension agents to use with smallholder farmers engaged in semi-intensive fish farming in Northern Zambia. The IRDLP is an Irish Aid-funded project implemented by WorldFish, Harvest Plus and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). The goal of the IRDLP is to help improve the livelihoods, health status, and food and nutrition security of resource-poor households in the Mbala and Luwingu districts in Northern Zambia, especially women and vulnerable groups. This is achieved through generating and providing evidence-based information, scientific technologies and livelihood solutions to trigger community and farmer innovations for positive change. This manual provides information on how smallholder fish farmers can improve fish production in Northern Zambia, particularly in the Luwingu and Mbala districts, through integrated farming practices.

Assessment of institutional contexts for collective action, and stakeholder receptiveness to integrated research-extension approaches on Lac Ntomba, Lac Maï-Ndombe and the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba watersheds

The WorldFish Center has been collaborating with its partners (AWF and WWF) in the Maringa-Lopori-Wamba (MLW) and the Lac Tele-Lac Ntomba (LTL) Landscapes to develop participatory monitoring systems for aquatic ecosystems. This requires rigorous data collection regarding fishing effort and catch, and the establishment of community partnerships; enabling WorldFish Center researchers to understand and counteract the institutional legacies of previous NGO interventions. In the MLW, fisherfolk livelihoods are severely limited due to their extreme isolation from markets and government services. However, fisherfolk have some experience dealing with natural resource conservation or extraction entities as well as humanitarian agencies. Their history has left them slightly skeptical but reasonably willing to collaborate with incoming NGOs. Around Lac Ntomba, fisherfolk have had more extensive interactions with conservation and humanitarian NGOs, but despite their proximity to the Congo River, they appear to have very limited access to distant markets. As past benefits from NGO activities have been captured by local village elites many fishers are highly skeptical and even antagonistic toward NGOs in general, and see little benefits from collaborating with each other or NGOs. Similarly to the MLW and Lac Ntomba, Lac Maï-Ndombe fisherfolk were disillusioned by past NGO activities. However, in this area levels of fish catch are greater than in the other watersheds, and many fishers make regular trips to major markets in Kinshasa, Kikwit and Tchikapa. Consequently, while there are significant divisions to be addressed in Lac Maï-Ndombe, fisherfolk in general are more interested in exploring options for improving livelihoods. In order to overcome these hurdles, the WorldFish Center has introduced an integrated research-extension approach in its interactions with these communities. The teams conducted demonstrations of technological innovations that could significantly improve on present post-harvest fish processing practices, in particular: a solar fish drying tent and a fish smoking barrel.

Preliminary assessment of the artisanal fishery sector around Lac Maï-Ndombe in the Lac Tele-Lac Tumba (LTL) CARPE Landscape

The WorldFish Center was contracted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to lead a preliminary assessment of the Lac Maï-Ndombe fishery, one of three water bodies for which such an assessment will be completed in the Lac Tele-Lac Tumba Landscape of the CARPE program. Between Aug.29-Sept.5, 2007, a joint WorldFish Center-WWF team traveled to Lac Maï-Ndombe in Bandundu Province, and conducted an analysis of the conditions surrounding the fishery and fisherfolk livelihoods in a total of 19 villages and camps. Included in this assessment were preliminary analyses of market-chain networks and stakeholders’ receptivity to NGO capacity-building to improve commercialization of fish catches and/or to introduce local fisheries management regimes. While perceptions of declining fish stocks prevail, the absence of changes in reported fish sizes bring into doubt any urgent need for fishery management interventions. However, lacking scientific fish population structure data the team would not recommend any NGO interventions to increase fishing effort. Lac Maï-Ndombe fisherfolk have highly diversified levels of dependence on fishing, and while there is evidence that some stakeholder groups are flourishing, the majority of the fishery appears to be characterized by a livelihood insecurity and a lack of capital. This limits fishers’ abilities to negotiate with transporters and with Kinshasa-based market brokers, and in combination with a heavy burden of rent-seeking behavior by civil servants, this condition forces over half of the fishers to sell their fish and buy all manufactured products through local intermediaries at disadvantageous prices.