Paper short abstract:

On the Rufiji floodplain, fishers call on traditions of access and sharing to challenge management measures, not always to villagers' liking. This paper draws on a year's fieldwork among three lakeside communities to explore these contests, within the context of forced relocation.

Paper long abstract:

In Tanzania's Rufiji District, in years of high flood, fish migrate from the river to feed and spawn on the floodplain, with many juveniles and adults becoming trapped in ponds and lakes as waters recede. Fish numbers in any one location are thus unpredictable and beyond local control: variations in climate and upstream environments matter too. However, the state, via district fisheries officials, continues to (unevenly) enforce national legislation developed for more stable systems, and leans on village councils to do the same. Fishers, in contrast, engage with uncertainty by shifting fishing activity between waterbodies within and across years. A tradition of welcoming others to fish at local waterbodies facilitates mobility: prior to fishery modernisation and the disruption of their society by forced relocation in the 1960s, Rufiji men built large, communal fishing weirs, co-ordinating their activity across space and time. Catches were landed when food was scarce, with fish exchanged for grain. Concepts of reciprocity and survival remain integral to local understandings of the fishery and are called upon when fishers are confronted with any management measures, be these seasonal closures, gear restrictions, or limits on catch size. At the same time, many villagers yearn for the moderating influence clan elders once held, receiving instructions from pond spirits on when and where to fish. This paper draws on a year's fieldwork among three lakeside villages to explore how locals' ideas of abundance, welfare, and justice, together with the consequences of relocation, frustrate formal fisheries management and conservation measures.