Abstract
Co-management has been promoted as an alternative approach to the governance of small-scale inland fisheries resources and has been implemented in many African countries. It has, however, not proven to be a simple solution to improve their governance; hence, most African inland fisheries are still experiencing unsustainable overexploitation of their resources. As such, there is a need for reassessing the application of governance strategies for co-management that should strive to strengthen the participation of stakeholders, primarily the local fishers, as they are fundamental in the governance of fisheries resources. Therefore, this study set out to explore the prospects of a co-management governance approach at a Lake Itezhi-Tezhi small-scale fishery in Zambia. Focus group discussions with fishers and semi-structured interviews with other stakeholders were used to collect data. This study revealed that the stakeholders perceive co-management as a feasible approach to governance of the Lake Itezhi-Tezhi fishery. However, the feasibility of the co-management arrangement would be dependent mostly on the stakeholders’ ability to address most of the ‘key conditions’ criteria highlighted in the study. This study also identified the need to establish a fisheries policy to provide guidelines for the co-management, coming with decentralisation of power and authority to the local fishers.
Highlights
To advance sustainability, most Sub-Saharan African countries with small-scale inland fisheries have been instituting policy and legislative frameworks that promote some decentralisation of power, authority, and responsibilities from the central government to the local community through co-management reforms [1,2,3]
The locus of this study is within the scholarship of governance of common-pool resources (CPR), natural resources that are characterized by rivalry in consumption and by being costly to exclude other users [38]
The Lake Itezhi-Tezhi fishery of Zambia, a case of African inland CPR, has been under the governance of a centralised government system that has not been effective in preventing overexploitation of the common fisheries resources [23]
Summary
Most Sub-Saharan African countries with small-scale inland fisheries have been instituting policy and legislative frameworks that promote some decentralisation of power, authority, and responsibilities from the central government to the local community through co-management reforms [1,2,3]. These governance reforms were instituted to address the many failed top-down, central government-controlled governance systems that had been in place in several African countries [1,4,5,6]. Integration of stakeholders at multiple levels in the co-management design and implementation process
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
