Title : Development of intervention policy options for sustainable fisheries management of Lake Hawassa, Ethiopia
Abstract:
Lake Hawassa is one of the most important lakes for Ethiopian fishery. It serves as a source of food and nutrition, income and livelihood for many inhabitants. However, the fishery in Lake Hawassa shows a declining trend, especially for the most valuable species such as the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.), indicating that the existing management systems are either not fully enforced or inadequate. The aim of this study was therefore to develop management policy options for the sustainable utilization and management of fishery resources in Lake Hawassa. A blend of primary and secondary data was used for the study. Primary data were collected using PRA techniques such as focus group discussions with members of fishing co-operatives, co-operative leaders and key informant discussion to understand the current state of the fisheries resources. We then reviewed the literature to obtain secondary data and develop alternative management policy options. We found that Lake Hawassa is not very species- rich in terms of fish diversity. It contains only six species belonging to four families, of which only three are commercially important, including the Nile tilapia (90 % of catches), the African catfish Clarias gariepinus B. (7 % of catches) and the African large barb Labeobarbus intermedius R. (only 3 % of catches). However, production has been declining since 2007. The top six challenges that could be responsible for this decline, identified by about twothirds of respondents and supported by literature review, are directly linked to fisheries and fisheries management, with overfishing, an irregular monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) system and the lack of a fishing licensing system ranking first, second and third respectively. It is therefore important to address these and other problems identified in the study. Of the management options analyzed, we suggest adapting the comanagement approach to sustain the fishery in Lake Hawaasa and its socio-economic benefits. We also present important conditions for the successful implementation of comanagement in this and other lakes in Ethiopia. Keywords: Comanagement, community-based management. Fisheries, overfishing, participatory approach, top-down management.
