Harnessing Fishers’ Knowledge for Sustainable Fishery on Lake Victoria: The case of Wakiso District Kigungu Fishing ground Uganda

Abstract

This study will explore fishers’ ways of learning through participatory action research; fostering lifelong learning and reflections informally/ non-formally enabling participation in the conservation of the fishery resource contrary to the top-down approach. 

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is a key driver of global overfishing (World wild Life,n.d). Illegal fishing has caused losses estimated at $23 billion per year according to FAO (Wikipedia, n.d). However, global efforts are optimistic that addressing illegal fishing will positively contribute to equitable growth and empowerment of people who rely on oceans for food and income (ibid). Similarly, the Illegal fishing of immature fish on Lake Victoria is one of the biggest problems for the economy of Uganda that Government loses over 716 billion in revenue that would have been earned from fish export annually (Tajuba & Lubulwa, 2018). The Government through the Department of Fisheries has condemned illegal fishing and instituted several mechanisms to mitigate it (Tajuba & Lubulwa, 2018). Despite these educational undertakings, illegal fishing is persisting ibid).

However, the Master’s study by Namubiru in 2014 assessed the fisheries extension education methods adapted and revealed that the training methods adopted do not utilize fishers’ experiences as research institutions and the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry (MAAIF) still adopts a top-down approach, which is mainly punitive and may not lead to sustainable development. This study is proactively using a social constructivist perspective to learning.