Julius Barigaba
16 November 2009
Nairobi — The livelihoods of 3.5 million East Africans who depend directly on Lake Victoria are threatened by illegal fishing, overfishing, climate change and pollution.
Lake Victoria is the largest inland fishery on the continent, valued at $400 million annually.
These threats -- in addition to funding challenges and high poverty levels among the populations that live on the lake's shores -- are almost overwhelming a key institution of the EAC: The Lake Victoria Fisheries Organisation (LVFO).
The LVEO is mandated to ensure that the resource is used sustainably.
The governments of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania adopted the LVFO Convention in 1994 to implement a 15-year project for the lake's sustainable use.
The implementation started in 1999 and will run until 2015, with a strategic vision to use the lake to promote economic growth and fight poverty -- if the communities refrain from over exploiting the resource.
It is estimated that Lake Victoria has two million tonnes of fish annually, with about one million extracted every year.
The fishery is valued at $400 million locally, but has averaged $300 million in exports over the past four years -- a significant contribution to the region's economic growth.
On top of this, Lake Victoria alone meets fish consumption needs of 22 million people in East Africa, but this could change soon unless the region quickly ends all illegal fishing activities on the lake.
The LVFO Council of Ministers --Uganda's Hope Mwesigye, Kenya's Paul Nyongesa Otuoma and John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania -- met in Nairobi early this month.
They issued a joint communiqué highlighting, among other critical issues, persistent illegalities on the lake.
The ministers observed, for instance, that efforts undertaken to eliminate illegal fishing -- including prohibitive fines and maximum levy per fishing boat -- by the end of this year have not significantly changed the status quo.
"The partner states cannot meet the target of reducing illegalities to zero by December 2009. The Nile perch biomass in the lake remains seriously threatened," the communiqué reads in part, adding that Nile perch stocks have declined from a biomass of 1.2 million tonnes in 2000 to 331,000 this year.
In February this year, the Council of Ministers meeting in Dar es Salaam set a target to reduce illegalities on Lake Victoria by 50 per cent and to zero by the end of 2009 to allow Nile perch stocks to grow.
But the challenges that LVFO faces in implementing its mandate -- high poverty levels around the lake, inadequate funding, ecological damage, depletion of fish stocks, poor market access and encroachment by fishermen on waters of partner states -- pretty much mirror those of the larger EAC itself.
It is fair to argue that what goes on around the lake symbolises the larger Community, including its new members Rwanda and Burundi, as these problems are not limited to the fish sector.
On funding, the three partner states -- Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania -- foot the organisation's recurrent budget, while donors (mainly the European Union) fund its development budget.
This includes support to research institutions in the three countries through EU's European Development Fund.
However, the EU is set to exit in 2010, leaving the governments to bridge the funding gap.
For a start, the Council of Ministers has an emergency action fund of $600,000 for each partner state.
There is talk, however, of including Rwanda and Burundi to expand the mandate of LVFO beyond the current three partner states.
According to executive secretary Dick Nyeko, the Kagera River that flows into Lake Victoria is a natural link with Rwanda and Burundi.
And though the communities in those countries do not engage in fishing as an economic activity, they import fish from their EAC neighbours.
"One would like to see them involved in LVFO, and the 'political direction' probably means they will be -- something on which a section of stakeholders agree. The Council of Ministers has deferred their membership in the meantime," Mr Nyeko said in an in-house interview, circulated to the media.
Over the years, the Jinja-based LVFO has improved the infrastructure of landing sites across the three countries and established social facilities -- including mobile clinics to fight HIV/Aids, malaria and waterborne diseases, school support and sanitation.
The organisation also equips fishing communities with weighing scales and elementary processing equipment to ease on marketing.
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