Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as a governability problem: a case study of Lake Victoria, Tanzania

This thesis employs interactive governance theory and governability assessment framework to examine why illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is persistent in Lake Victoria, despite efforts to combat it. IUU fishing threatens sustainable management of fish stocks and livelihoods of fisheries dependent communities. At the same time, inadequacies of the technical and regulatory measures implemented to control it have resulted in calls for alternative approaches. This thesis takes a whole system approach to examine underlying governance issues that pose challenges to tackling IUU problems. The study involved two parts. First, it evaluated the extent to which the properties of the system-to-be-governed, the governing system and the governing interactions contribute to fisheries governance challenges. Second, a survey using paired comparison questionnaires was undertaken to determine fisheries stakeholders’ judgements about the level of damages associated with different fishing-related activities. The investigation reveals that diversity, complexity, dynamics and scale issues in the system-to-be-governed, the governing system and the governing interaction challenges efforts to tackle IUU fishing. In addition, the study shows that there are some inconsistencies in the way fishers and managers judge the impact of some fishing-related activities including those that are officially considered IUU fishing. For example, managers consider IUU fishing activities such as ‘fishing without license’ and ‘landing fish in non-gazetted site’ to be least damaging while fishers consider them to have higher impact. These mismatches between the system-to-be-governed and the governing system need to be addressed, before IUU fishing can be tackled. The thesis offers alternative explanations about why IUU problem persists in Lake Victoria, broadening thus the possibility on how to combat it. The methodological approach and findings of the thesis can be applied in other fisheries to help understand and address similar governance challenges

The Creation of Social Norms under Weak Institutions

Preventing overfishing at Lake Victoria is a typical situation where policies have to rely on norm-based interventions to improve outcomes. Our lab-in-the-field experiment studies how information about high or low levels of previous cooperation affects the creation of social norms in a three-player prisoner’s dilemma game with/without a feedback mechanism. The provision of social information succeeds in creating norms of cooperation only if a feedback mechanism is available. Without feedback, social information cannot prevent the decline of cooperation rates. Exploring the role of the reference network, we find that the effect increases with social proximity among participants

A bottom-up understanding of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing in Lake Victoria

© 2016 by the authors. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a major concern in fisheries management around the world. Several measures have been taken to address the problem. In Lake Victoria, the alleviation of IUU fishing is implemented through the Regional Plan of Action (RPOA-IUU), which restricts use of certain fishing gear, as well as prohibits fishing in closed areas and during closed seasons. Despite the long-term efforts to monitor and control what goes on in the fisheries, IUU fishing has persisted in Lake Victoria. Inspired by interactive governance theory, this paper argues that the persistence of IUU fishing could be due to different images that stakeholders have about the situation, rather than the lack of management competency. Through structured interviews with 150 fisheries stakeholders on Ijinga Island in the southeastern part of Lake Victoria, Tanzania, using paired comparison questionnaires, the study elicits stakeholders' perspective about the severity of different locally-pertinent fishing-related activities. The results show that while fisheries stakeholder groups agree on their judgments about certain fishing gears, some differences are also apparent. For instance, fisheries managers and scientists do not always agree with fishing people about what activities cause the most damage to fisheries resources and ecosystem. Further, they tend to consider some IUU fishing-related activities less damaging than some non-IUU fishing. Such disparity creates governability challenges, pointing to the need to revisit relevant regulatory measures and to make them consistent with the knowledge and judgments of all stakeholders. Based on these findings, we discuss governing interventions that may contribute to addressing IUU fishing in Lake Victoria and elsewhere

Dagaa Fishery: The Unknown Wealth of Lake Victoria

The paper discusses contribution of dagaa Rastreneobola argentae fishery to Tanzanian economy. It uses data from two studies conducted in Lake Victoria as well as literature retrieved from Fisheries Division and other institutions. Results indicate that dagaa fishery generates an average monthly income over $150 to individual fisher/trader, provided employment and brought in substantial foreign exchange over$2 million annually. This has enabled government to improve road networks, health care and education systems within the dependent communities. However, the fishery is still faced with inadequate technologies for processing and value addition, poor local markets for fish and little exploitation among others. In conclusion, dagaa is an important resource among the fisheries of Lake Victoria. Improved handling and processing and promotion of economic value are likely to increase benefits to the riparian communities as well as sustaining already depleted Nile perch stock

Content and complexity of stakeholders’ mental models of socio-ecological systems

Stakeholders’ interactions with environmental resources are influenced by their mental models of the socio- ecological system of the environmental resource. Individual differences in such mental models are particularly important to identify, as diverse mental models may be associated with different behaviour or policy preferences and affect collaborative conservation efforts. In the present work, we explore stakeholders’ mental models of a socio-ecological system and assess content and complexity differences across fishing experience levels, migration status, and regions. We mapped Tanzanian fishers’ (N = 185) mental models of the drivers of the Nile perch stock fluctuation at Lake Victoria. The findings show that (1) fishers’ mental models were complex and diverse, (2) mental models focused on the causal influence of destructive fishing activities, (3) mental model complexity, but not content, varied across regions, and (4) fishing experience and migration status were not consistently related to mental model complexity or content. These results have important implications for environmental resource management at Lake Victori

Addressing climate change with behavioral science: a global intervention tournament in 63 countries

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior—several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors

Evolution and Archaeometrical Fabric Characterisation of Narosura Pastoral Neolithic Pottery from Luxmanda Site in Mbulu Plateau North-Central Tanzania

Questo studio caratterizza il fabric delle ceramiche del del Neolitico pastorale Narosura (PN) del sito di Luxmanda (ca. 3000-2900 a.C.) e lo confronta con le fonti locali di argilla grezza nell'altopiano di Mbulu nella Tanzania centro-settentrionale. I campioni di ceramica utilizzati in questo studio sono stati raccolti dalle campagne di scavo RAPT 2018 e i materiali di argilla grezza sono stati ottenuti tramite sondaggio. La caratterizzazione del fabric dei campioni di ceramica e l'analisi dell'argilla grezza sono state entrambe valutate attraverso l'analisi microscopica e macroscopica, rispettivamente. Nell'analisi macroscopica, sono state utilizzate analisi tipologiche (ceramica di Narosura), di setaccio del suolo umido (argilla grezza) e etnografiche (fabbricazione contemporanea della ceramica). Per l'analisi microscopica, la petrografia, la microscopia elettronica a scansione (SEM) e la diffrazione dei raggi X (XRD) sono state combinate per caratterizzare i componenti mineralogici e la variazione chimica sia della ceramica Narosura che delle fonti di argilla per determinare le fonti delle materie prime utilizzate nella produzione della ceramica trovata nel sito di Luxmanda. I risultati dei suddetti studi hanno mostrato che la composizione mineralogica e geochimica tra i materiali argillosi grezzi e i campioni di ceramica di Narosura PN siano simili. Questo studio può quindi ha permesso di definire che, anche se diverse fonti di argilla grezza potrebbero essere state utilizzate per la fabbricazione delle ceramiche Narosura PN, una più stretta omogeneità con la geologia locale, indica che sono state prodotte da materiale argilloso grezzo derivato da rocce madri simili, come si riflette nella geologia dell'altopiano di Mbulu. I risultati della composizione mineralogica e geochimica di questo studio sia sull'argilla grezza che sull'analisi del fabric dei campioni di ceramica Narosura PN supportano e confermano che le ceramiche del sito di Luxmanda sono state prodotte localmente e non importate da fuori della regione dell'altopiano di Mbulu in quanto riflettono la geologia locale. Anche se è stato a lungo sostenuto che la diffusione della ceramica neolitica trovata nelle parti settentrionali della Tanzania sia stata portata attraverso la migrazione dei pastori precedenti dal nucleo del Kenya meridionale, questo studio sfida questa nozione dimostrando che la ceramica di Luxmanda è stata fatta localmente con le risorse di argilla trovate nelle vicinanze dell'altopiano di Mbulu. Lo studio etnografico contemporaneo ha anche rivelato che ci sono diverse fonti locali di argilla adatte alla produzione di ceramiche all'interno dell'altopiano di Mbulu e sono ancora utilizzate dai vasai dell'altopiano di Mbulu. La variabilità del colore del tessuto del campione di ceramica Narosura PN e la comparsa di colorazioni multiple da scure a chiare (offuscamento da cottura) identificate in questo studio, hanno anche rivelato che la cottura è stata bassa e in condizioni di riduzione con un processo di cottura incontrollato. Inoltre, la mancanza di calcite (CaCO3) da decomposizione e l'esistenza di sostanze vegetali mineralizzate nei campioni di ceramica hanno ulteriormente confermatoo la cottura a basse temperature. La presenza di alcuni minerali come il quarzo fresco, la calcite primaria e la mancanza di vetrificazione nella maggior parte dei campioni di ceramica di Narosura PN hanno dimostrato che la temperatura di cottura non ha superato i 1000° C.This study characterises the Narosura pastoral Neolithic (PN) pottery fabric from Luxmanda site (ca. 3000-2900 B.P) and compare with local raw clay sources within the Mbulu plateau in the North-Central Tanzania. The pottery samples used in this study were collected from RAPT 2018 excavation campaigns and the raw clay materials were obtained through survey. The pottery samples fabric characterisation and raw clay analysis were both assessed through microscopic and macroscopic analysis, respectively. In macroscopic analysis, typological (Narosura pottery), soil wet sieve (raw clay) and ethnography (contemporary pottery manufacturing) analysis were used. For microscopic analysis, petrography, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were combined to characterize the mineralogical components and chemical variation of both Narosura pottery and clay sources to determine the sources of raw materials used in making pottery found in the Luxmanda site. The results of the studies showed that, the mineralogical and geochemical composition between the raw clay materials and the Narosura PN pottery samples paste are similar. The implication of this study can therefore be suggested that even though different raw clay sources might have been used for making Narosura PN pottery, but a closer homogeneity with local geology indicate that they were produced from the raw clay material derived from similar parent rocks as reflected in the Mbulu plateau geology. The mineralogical and geochemical composition findings from this study on both the raw clay and the Narosura PN pottery samples fabric analysis also support and confirm that pottery from Luxmanda site were locally made not imported outside the Mbulu plateau region as they reflect local geology. Even though it has been long upheld that the spread of Neolithic pottery found in northern parts of Tanzania were brought through migration of earlier pastoralists from the core in southern Kenya, this study however challenges this notion by demonstrating that the Luxmanda pottery were locally made with the clay resources found within the vicinity of Mbulu plateau. The contemporary ethnographic study also revealed that there are several local clay sources suitable for making pottery within Mbulu plateau and are still used by the Mbulu plateau potters. The Narosura PN pottery sample fabric colour variability and the appearance multiple colourations of dark to light (firing clouding) identified in this study also revealed that the firing low and in reducing condition with uncontrolled firing process state. In addition, the lack of calcite (CaCO3) to decompose and the existence of mineralised plant substances in the pottery samples also supported low firing. The presence of some minerals of some minerals like fresh quartz, primary calcite and lack of vitrification in most of Narosura PN pottery samples proved that the firing temperature did not exceed 1000° C. The macroscopic and microscopic analysis in study proved that the majority of the pottery were built by coils in bowls with thin wall and slabs in vessels with thick walls such as cooking and storage pots. The continuous use of coiling method in majority of the pottery samples indicated conservativeness and that the technology of manufacture had changed very little with time. It is also an imprint suggesting that the potter’s skills were inherited and maintained through time. The nature of aplastic inclusions such as tempering materials and voids also indicated the potter’s artistic standardisation and technological standards in the raw clay processing pottery manufacturing