KATIMA MULILO – The Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources in partnership with the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) held a stakeholders workshop to sensitise fishing communities in the Kavango Zambezi Trans Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA-TFCA) about the conservation and management of fisheries resources.
There are growing concerns over illegal fishing, the pollution of rivers and the over-exploitation of riverine resources in the concerned areas.
Other stakeholders that attended the workshop were traditional leaders, representatives of conservancies and community fisheries committees and fishermen themselves. The one-day meeting was aimed at discussing the management of fish resources in the rivers of the two regions and to sensitise community leaders about the importance of preserving aquatic resources.
Ignatius Chunga, who represented the Governor of the Zambezi Region Lawrence Sampofu implored the community, particularly those living next to rivers to ensure that they exploit aquatic resources sustainably, adding that their depletion would impact negatively on people’s livelihood. “Fish plays a very important role in our lives here in the Zambezi Region. Because of the importance of fish in our daily lives, both as food and to sell to earn money, we need to look after our fish populations. We need to make sure that our children can continue to catch fish in future after our generation is gone. We are here because of widespread concern that catches are getting less and less,” Chunga informed the meeting.
Chunga further appealed to community leaders to support the efforts of fisheries officials in regulating fish resources in order to ensure their conservation. “People gathered here today include community leaders who have the responsibility to look after their communities’ livelihoods. Officers from the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources cannot be everywhere at once and they need the help and cooperation of fishing communities and their leaders to protect our fish stocks,” implored Chunga.
Recently, fish conservation efforts were boosted in the Zambezi Region when the two conservancies of Impalila and Sikunga in the Kabbe constituency established fish protection areas and this development was welcomed by Chunga who appealed to other areas to emulate the example. “We have two conservancies whose communities have cooperated and are beginning to succeed in achieving control over their fish stocks. Sikunga and Impalila have both established no-fishing areas and they have appointed guards to protect these areas. Let’s discuss here whether we can extend this idea to other areas and establish more protected areas where fish can breed in peace,” said Chunga.
Denis Tweddle, the project coordinator of the EU/NNF Community Conservation Fisheries in KAZA Project responsible for community fisheries conservation in the KAZA-TFCA, also informed the meeting that the project was interested in solving challenges faced by fishing communities in harmony with regulations governing the management of fish resources.
According to Tweddle, the aim is to find solutions in order to address challenges faced by the communities. “We are in the planning and information gathering stage. We would be able to know what goes on in our communities. Our work is to coordinate and help the ministry know what your problems are. You are the people on the ground who are fishing. We need to come together and resolve our issues. If we understand what our problems are, we would be able to solve them,” stressed Tweddle.
Senior fisheries biologist in the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Damien Nchindo, said challenges that continue to inhibit the activities of the ministry in the management of fish resources include the lack of support from the communities themselves, harbouring of foreign fishermen and pollution of water systems with old nets, abandoned canoes, bottles and cans.
Members of the local fishing communities bemoaned the fact that the system of issuing fishing licences is too centralised and contributes directly to illegal fishing, since they are required to travel long distances to Katima Mulilo to apply for licences. “Local fishermen have to travel long distances to Katima Mulilo to get the licence. Why can’t they localise this in conservancy offices or khutas. It’s expensive to travel from Ikaba, for example, just to get a licence. When these are localised it’s even easier for community leaders to manage fishing activities as we will issue them to people we know and we would be able to know how many fishermen we have in our areas,” said Steven Muyangwa, manager of the Sikunga conservancy.
Members of the affected communities further agreed that foreign fishermen continue to deplete fish resources at the expense of locals, saying more fish protection areas need to be established and that those in existence should be offered more support. “Foreigners, especially Zambians cross over and engage in illegal fishing. Our fisheries guards don’t even carry handcuffs and are not taken seriously by fishermen. We need support from either the police or the army. Our local people here are also informing their colleagues in Zambia regarding the movement of our guards, which contributes to illegal fishing activities,” Muyangwa was at pains to point out.
Lake Liambezi, some 60 kilometres east of Katima Mulilo has been a hotbed of illegal fishing in recent years with many foreign nationals, mainly from Zambia, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Angola entering Namibia under the pretext of visiting, only to engage in illegal fishing. Residents say this has placed pressure on the available fish stocks and led to depletion of fish resources, particularly in the inland lake renowned for its abundant fish resources.