Efficacy of rights-based management of small pelagic fish within an ecosystems approach to fisheries in South Africa

South Africa’s small pelagics fishery is moving towards a management strategy using an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF), with rights-based management (RBM) as the key rights allocation system. While EAF strives to balance between, among others, ecological and social-economic objectives, RBM is driving the sector towards economic efficiency. Within EAF itself, there are still underlying mismatches between the two top objectives, ‘human wellbeing’ and ‘ecological wellbeing’, in effect requiring a better balance between these objectives than there is currently. For example, fishers do not believe they should be competing with marine mammals and birds for allocation of the resource, yet this is one of the primary trade-offs that have to be made when setting the annual total allowable catches (TACs) under EAF. A balance between the two objectives could be achieved through acceptable trade-offs between them among all stakeholders within inclusive governance. Implementation of RBM has had both positive and negative effects on the objectives for EAF. Of concern are the negative effects of RBM on human wellbeing. For example, fishers feel that RBM has weakened their bargaining position, thereby reducing their benefits. In addition, RBM has resulted in job losses and insecurity of employment within the fisheries sector. The most affected have been the most vulnerable — the low level workers — who ought to be the key beneficiaries of RBM. Thus prioritising and protecting vulnerable groups and fishing communities need careful consideration when creating RBM, even in the context of EAF. Rights-based management has also had negative effects on ecological wellbeing through practices such as increased dumping and ‘high grading’ as part of industry’s drive for increased efficiency under RBM. Whereas scientists believe that variability is largely due to environmental conditions, fishers strongly feel that dumping, high grading and high fishing pressure are the main factors. One of the positive aspects of RBM has been improved understanding among rights-holders and fishers of the need to consider other organisms in the TAC and to protect these through establishment of marine protected areas, island perimeter closures and limiting bycatch, thereby impacting positively on ecological wellbeing.Web of Scienc

Mainstreaming of HIV and Aids into South African fisheries policy

This research investigated the drivers and the impact of HIV and Aids in fishing communities in South Africa, in order to assist the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism: Marine and Coastal Management (DEAT:MCM) with mainstreaming of HIV and Aids into policy on fisheries. The research was based on in-depth analysis of four fishing communities in the Northern Cape, Western Cape and Eastern Cape

An institutional approach for developing South African inland freshwater fisheries for improved food security and rural livelihoods

South Africa has over 4 700 storage dams, about 700 of which are owned and controlled by Government. Public dams were primarily constructed for domestic, irrigation and industrial water supply. Over time secondary uses for recreation and tourism have been established. Many of the public dams have been stocked with indigenous and alien fish species, predominantly for recreational angling. Given widespread rural unemployment, poverty and undernourishment, the development of inland fisheries on public dams and natural water bodies has much potential for improving rural livelihoods and food security. There is also potential for inclusion of communities in other value chains linked to economic activities around public dams such as recreational fishing and tourism. The public dams and natural water bodies fall under various implicit institutional arrangements depending on primary and secondary activities on a given water body. These determine the existing formal and informal power dynamics and related decision-making arrangements and controls under current use-right practices. This paper analyses the existing property rights that determine access, co-management options and governance arrangements necessary to promote sustainable development of inland fisheries in South Africa. Attention needs to be given to the various ways of explicit definition and enforcement of property and access rights if communities are to realise the potential benefits from use of public dams for fisheries and other economic activities. Achieving this will require a developmental approach based on principles of inclusive, representative, equitable, accountable and effective governance. Leadership by the line agency – Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries – will be critical for success of such an initiative.Web of Scienc

Recommendations for revisions to inland fishery access rights and property rights regimes

• Deliverable Aims: • Evaluate and analyse existing property rights and access rights currently governing inland fisheries in South Africa • Recommend reforms or changes to the existing property rights regimes and access rights • Findings will form basis for consultations with the key stakeholders for their feedback get buy-i

Community opportunities in aquaculture: what are the possibilities and limits?

Aquaculture now contributes 47% of fish available for human consumption – up from 9% in 1980. This shift to aquaculture offsets the stagnation in the production from capture fisheries (FAO 2012). By 2030, demand for fish is expected to reach 261 million tonnes, but fish production is only expected to rise to 210 million tonnes; demand will therefore exceed supply by 50 million tonnes. Africa is likely to produce 11 million tonnes by 2030, but the demand will be as high as 18 million tonnes (FAO 2013).Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisherie

Crew members in South Africa’s squid industry: Whether they have benefited from transformation and governance reforms

Although crew members form bedrock of the squid industry, they have not benefited from the transformation and governance reforms because: the harvesting technique necessitates incentivisation of individual effort; they are highly mobile; and the industry is exempted from revised labour legislation. As a result, they have been unable to organise for laying claim on benefits. As they unionise to strengthen their bargaining position, the conundrum is how to maintain incentive practices on which the catching sector is based while asserting their rights. The challenge is re-structuring the sector to improve quality of employment while maintaining individual crew member productivity incentives

Efficacy of rights based management within an ecosystems approach to fisheries - Small pelagics in South Africa

• South Africa issued long-term fishing rights (2006 to 2020) for most commercial species Long-term rights a form of Rights Based Management (RBM) approach • Has committed itself to introduce an Ecosystems Approach to Fisheries (EAF

Regional fish trade in Africa: Potential for food security, reducing poverty and fisheries management

Sub-Saharan Africa: context • One of the regions in the world suffering from high rates of hunger and poverty. • 26% of the world’s hungry people were located in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010 (FAO and WFP,2010) • Chronic hunger (malnutrition) is rising in absolute and relative terms, while access to adequate food is a challenge to large populations • While there are increasing efforts to increase production and access of staple cereals, there is limited attention to improved availability and access to fish and fish product

Establishing an economically and biologically sustainable and viable inland fisheries sector in South Africa – pitfalls of path dependence

Small-scale fisheries play a significant role in livelihoods and food and nutrition security for millions of people around the world. However, these benefits are under threat, especially in developing countries such as in Africa, as a result of poor governance. The historical developmentalist and welfarist approach to management of small-scale fisheries in developing countries, dating back from colonial era, has resulted in problems of open-access regimes that usually lead to over-capitalisation, geographic spread of landing sites that makes it difficult to organise fishers for management activities, inadequate management capacity and poor funding of the sector

If We Cannot Learn from the Past, We are Bound to Re-Invent the Wheel or Repeat the Same Mistakes: Restoring the Chambo in Southern Malawi

The Chambo is an important fish to Malawi's economy and livelihoods of local people in southern end of Lake Malawi. While worries about overexploitation of the chambo have been a source of concern since the 1930s, the biological and economic collapse of the fishery in Lake Malombe and the Upper Shire River in the early 1990s and the growing evidence of its decline in the Southeast Arm of Lake Malawi (the major productive area for the species) in recent years have galvanized the Government of Malawi towards attempts to restore the chambo to its former levels of production. This article argues that while the proposed solutions for restoring the chambo might be well intentioned, they ignore the existing knowledge and scholarship about fisheries management in African fresh water lakes gathered over the last sixty years or so. Enough knowledge and information on the biological and scientific basis for regulating the chambo exists already. What has been missing is an understanding and appreciation of the social, economic, political and institutional drivers around exploitation of the chambo by the fishers. This has been the missing link. Future management solutions have to be based on the collective concerns of all potential users. More specifically, such solutions have to take cognisance of fishers' inputs, experiences, local knowledge and the way they view and define their problems. Without such process considerations, any future solutions will be like grappling in the dark in this enormous challenge concerning restoring the chambo stocks to their former status in the southern aquatic system