Browsing by Author "Njaya, Friday"

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Fisheries Co-Management Institutions in Southern Africa: A Hierarchical Analysis of Perceptions of Effectiveness
(2010) Wilson, Douglas C.; Ahmed, Mahfuzuddin; Delaney, Alyne; Donda, Steven J.; Kapasa, C.K.; Malasha, Isaac; Muyangali, K.; Njaya, Friday; Olesen, T.; Poiosse, E.; Raakjær-Nielsen, Jesper
"A random sample attitude survey concluded a ten-year research effort on fisheries co-management that was carried out in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. The survey responses were analysed using a two-level hierarchical model that allowed conclusions about village-level institutions to be based on individual-level survey responses. The present paper describes the surveys background,methodology, and conclusions. Three of these conclusions are very clear from the survey results. The first is that co-management that is more responsive to the community is more effective. The second is that co-management institutions made up mainly of fishers are more effective than ones that incorporate a broad range of stakeholders. The third is that local conservation efforts being seen as making a positive contribution to village life is unrelated to their being seen as rule enforcement mechanisms."
Governance Challenges on the Implementation of Fisheries Co- Management Arrangements in Malawi
(2006) Njaya, Friday
"This paper reviews some major challenges experienced following a shift in the management of fisheries resources in Malawi from centralised system to co-management in early 1990s. While the policy and legal frameworks governing management of the fisheries resources were established between 1997 and 2000, several key governance processes remain uncompleted. The decentralisation process has been slow while expectations among the user communities remain high. This is especially the case where the government made promises to the user community to establish a revenue sharing mechanism and gear compensation scheme and yet till now that has not yet been fulfilled. With adoption of the decentralisation policy, the institutional support from the local governments devolved functions like licensing, enforcement and extension is far from being secured. In some areas there is power struggle between the traditional institutions that form informal structures and the local level representative Beach/Village Committees. The principles of good governance that include participation and accountability of the representative committees are lacking in some areas, mainly due to how members are elected. The initiation process is another area of concern especially in cases like Lake Malombe where the government took a leading role to introduce the comanagement arrangement and made several promises as incentives for participation of the user groups. However, ongoing activities like identifying other relevant stakeholders and their specific roles in a broad-based participatory process, developing constitutions, by-laws and management plans is a positive step towards signing of management agreements."
Participatory Fisheries Management Revisited
(2008) Njaya, Friday
From p. 29: "Participatory fisheries management (PFM), as widely understood in Malawi, is a governance type that entrenches participation of the user community in fish resource management. In PFM, the Department of Fisheries (DoF) and the fishing community are key partners who, in an ideal situation, agree on shared roles and responsibilities, and formulate the goals, objectives and strategies of a particular management regime. Of paramount importance to the process is the point that the government recognizes the rights and responsibilities of the local community to the appropriation of the resource. The local community should also have the ability to make management decisions on which resource to manage, who ought to be involved in the management, and size of the area where the resource is located. The PFM partners should develop a management agreement outlining shared roles and responsibilities between the government and the community. The roles and responsibilities may include the formulation and implementation of plans and rules; imposition of sanctions on illegal fishers; capacity building; policy formulation; and building participatory monitoring and evaluation systems."
Practical Challenges of Governing Shared Commons: The Lake Chiuta Small-Scale Fisheries Resources
(2008) Njaya, Friday
"This paper seeks to identify major challenges of implementing fisheries comanagement on Lake Chiuta, a shared ecosystem between Malawi and Mozambique. Despite its remoteness, fisheries resources in the small lake of about 200 km2, contribute to food security and livelihoods of the local people. However, strategies of sustaining the catches have involved shifting from traditional management to a co-management arrangement with partnership of fishing community and Malawis Department of Fisheries while the traditional arrangement remains on the Mozambican side. The Malawian fishing community represented by Beach Village Committees claim that seining destroys habitat for fish breeding and stationery gillnet set in the water. However, the seining operations are allowed on the Mozambican side, which is a source of a serious conflict in managing the fisheries resources. Consequently, a Transboundary Fish Resource Management Programme is being recommended to address the major challenges of governing the fisheries resources. Opportunities exist in form of socio-cultural aspects, as the fishing communities share the same historical background, have traditional knowledge about the resources and both countries are party to various international conventions, agreements, treaties and protocols that deal with conservation and management of natural resources. There is need to adopt an ecosystem-based management approach."