By ADAM IHUCHA
Lake Victoria’s three riparian states seek to introduce uniform annual
fees for boats, fishermen
and exporters to support recovery initiatives of a multi-million-dollar Nile
perch stock.
Nile perch population on
the world’s second largest
fresh water body has depleted from nearly 1,000,000 metric tonnes worth $640 million
in 2000s to a mere 331,000 tonnes.
Overfishing has
been cited as the factor behind the Nile perch depletion, which earns Tanzania annually between $200 million and $270 million,
Uganda between $55 and $75 million, and Kenya $45 and $60 million.
Now, the three
partner states plan to impose a standard annual boat and an individual
fisherman license fee of $60 and $10 respectively to generate funds required to
support Nile perch specie recovery initiatives.
The partner
states would also enforce a two percent levy on Nile perch exports, currently
valued at about $300 million combined to generate funds towards that end.
Lake Victoria
Fisheries Organization (LVFO) data shows that Lake Victoria with 70,000 Nile
perch fishing crafts, 200,000 fishers across the region and annual export value
of $300 million, would translate into $12.2million annually, sufficient to fund
Nile perch recovery plans.
As it stands
now, thousands of fishermen, boats owners and Nile perch fillets exporters in
Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania would start paying the uniform fee in June 2014,
LVFO document shows.
Fishers Union
Organization chairman in Mwanza, Mr Juvenali Matagili says that it defeats the
common sense of any right thinking members of the society for the technocrats
and politicians to impose fee without consulting key industry players.
“How are they
going to enforce the fee while we are not involved? Definitely we will not
cooperate with them. Any idea whatever good, should be inclusive for smooth
execution” Mr Matagili said.
The Council of
Ministers in charge of fisheries who met in Arusha last month also demands the
partner states to expedite the process to set up and operationalization of the
proposed Fish Levy Trust Fund (FLTF) by June 2014.
Ideally, the
FLTF would be facilitating implementation of Nile Perch fisheries Management
Plan (NPFMP), which entails lake monitoring and surveillance in a bid to
eliminate the overfishing and trading of immature fish.
LVFO Executive
Secretary, Godfrey Monor says that the
Nile perch fish that can grow to two metres long and weigh up to 200kg; the
average size of landed Nile perch in Lake Victoria has fallen from over 50kg
twenty years ago to less than 10kg at the moment.
The NPFMP is
expected to rebuild the stock biomass of Nile perch specie in two years period
of its execution.
Regional
activities on monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) in the Lake Victoria,
particularly in the wake of the dwindling donor support, have been seriously
crippled.
As a consequence,
illegal trade in undersized fish are reported to have continued at alarming
proportion since there was a little law enforcement to control illegal fishing
on the lake.
The August 2010
Frame survey conducted by LVFO around Lake Victoria’s beaches under Lake
Victoria Environmental Management Programme (LVEMP II) sponsorship revealed
that fish-breeding grounds have been greatly destroyed.
This has
negatively affected fish species with the Nile Perch being the hardest hit. Use
of illegal fishing gear like gillnets, monofilaments and beach seines were on
the rise.
There was a
total of 169,747 gillnets, 2,116 monofilaments and 991 beach seines at various
fish landing sites, which must be destroyed immediately to save Lake Victoria’s
resources from extinction.
The EAC’s
Council of Ministers in 2009 launched a $1.8 million drive—dubbed--Operation
Save the Nile Perch (OSNP) to recover the specie population, but the initiative
fails to take off due to lack of commitment.
Under the OSNP, the three partner States — Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania —
sharing the lake -- had agreed to contribute $600,000 each annually for the
campaign, targeting illegal fishing gears blamed for harvesting of under-age
Nile Perch and destruction of breeding sites.
Information indicates
that Uganda and Tanzania have been dragging their feet to disburse their annual
fees, seriously crippling the OSNP undertakings.
Kenya
with a clean record had remitted $570,907
equivalent to 95 percent in the 2010/11, Uganda paid $440,160 whereas Tanzania
remitted just $185,013.
The Nile perch
is of great commercial significance as evidenced by inland fisheries
contribution of 2-12percent of the GDP in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the
majority of which derived from Lake Victoria.
In 2000s, the value of
the catches from Lake Victoria was around $350million at landing sites, while a
$250million were generated from export of Nile perch, LVFO data
indicates.
Some time in
the 1960's, in the heart of Africa, a new animal was introduced into Lake
Victoria as a little scientific experiment.
The Nile Perch,
a voracious predator, extinguished almost the entire stock of the native fish
species.
However, the
new fish multiplied so fast, that its white fillets are today exported all
around the world.
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