|
Globally, freshwater fisheries are the most heavily exploited aquatic resources, producing
about a quarter of the world’s food fish (some 20 million tonnes per year) from less than
0.01% of the world’s water resources. Over 50 million people in the developing world derive
income, food, and livelihood from river fisheries, including those involved in processing and
marketing. The capture fisheries need to be sustained and more especially in sub-Saharan
Africa there is need for a 2% increase per annum if per capita consumption is to be
maintained at present levels.
In southern Africa, fisheries play a very important role as sources of food, income and
employment. For example, in the Caprivi Region, local human populations rely heavily on
subsistence fishery as an affordable protein source. In Malawi, fish contributes about 4
percent to the country’s Gross National Product (GNP), employing over 300,000 persons.
Nearly 1.6 million people derive income from fishing, fish processing, marketing and trading,
boat and gear making, and allied industries. According to the Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO), freshwater catches in 12 SADC countries steadily increased from
168,000 tonnes in 1961 to 598,000 tonnes in 1986 and have stabilized between 600,000 and
700,000 tonnes per annum. The increases over time are due partly to exploitation of new
water bodies (for example, Lakes Kariba and Cabora Bassa) and fishing previously
untouched stocks, as is the case with small pelagics. However, fishing pressure on already
exploited stocks has continued to increase during the same period (although with large
variations across water bodies).
In Southern Africa, rivers are an important resource to many rural populations and
ecosystems processes. Rivers are often critical to survival of important wetlands; provide
clean water and support fish populations. Riverine fishes are important to a large human
populace in Southern Africa. For example, in Namibia which is one of the driest countries in
the world, about 50 per cent of the population live near the perennial rivers in the North and
at least 100,000 people are said to derive most or part of their food, income, and informal
employment from fish resources. Similarly, the Zambezi River Basin is home to over 40
million people who use the region’s natural capital (including fisheries resources). In a recent
study, fish production and floodplain recession agriculture accounted for the main share of
the total use value of the Zambezi wetland, where 10 wetlands accounted for some 4.7
percent of Zambia’s GDP.
The freshwater ecosystems of southern Africa contain some world renowned fish biodiversity
hotspots. For instance, Lake Malawi harbours more than 500 endemic fish species. These
have been subjected to extensive exploitation, to the extent that stocks have generally
declined and diversity at both species and genetic levels has been affected. The situation is
worsened by the fact that the inland water bodies of the region are poorly studied, hence
existing species diversity is not well documented. Unless biodiversity is known, it remains a
challenge for the region to develop appropriate and effective management strategies. The
Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Shared Water Systems and
Protocol on Fisheries require that state parties take appropriate measures to regulate the use
of living aquatic resources and protect these resources against over-exploitation, while
creating an enabling environment and build capacity for sustainable use of fisheries
resources. Establishment of an aquatic biodiversity programme for inland water bodies of
Southern Africa should therefore provide a platform for implementing provisions of these
protocols through knowledge generation and designing measures for preventing continuous
destruction of stocks.
Unfortunately, while fish checklists exist for many rivers, the biology and ecology of these
fishes, which is important for biodiversity conservation, remain unknown. In certain
instances, the species are not yet described (for example, some undescribed species have
recently been sampled in the upper Kafue River and in the Lake Malawi catchment).
|
