Paper short abstract:

This article examines the effects of national, regional and international fisheries development strategies on natural resource use and re-distributional dynamics in the Lake Victoria basin (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania) in the context of rapid aquaculture growth.

Paper long abstract:

Rapid aquaculture growth on Lake Victoria since the early 2000s is promising significant exports earnings from fisheries for Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya, despite declining wild fish stocks. Worldwide, aquaculture is promoted as a pathway to improve food security and alleviate poverty, but large-scale commercial development has frequently created conflicts between corporate investors and fisherfolks over access to water, land and fishing grounds. Lake Victoria's small-scale fisheries are characterized by high inequality in access to fisheries resources and growing social-ecological pressures, which may be intensified through aquaculture. Open-access policies in the riparian states prevent the privatization of fishing grounds, but cage-aquaculture requires exclusive use rights to highly-productive lake areas. This article examines the effects of national, regional and international fisheries development strategies on natural resource use and re-distributional dynamics. Based on an analysis of the three countries' national and regional policies and the emerging global agenda for Rights-Based Fisheries (RBF), as well as first results of the author's on-going field work in the lake basin, it is argued that the current policy focus on exclusive use rights and overall productivity increases will fail to yield sustainable and inclusive results in the region's aquaculture sector. Effective regulation of FDI is needed to ensure that RBF incentivizes environmentally responsible behavior among corporate tenure rights holders, while the likely exclusion of large numbers of small-scale fishers may create poverty-driven social-ecological traps and worsen overexploitation. Research methods include a face-to-face tablet-based survey with small-scale fishers and fish-workers (1500 interviews) and policy and institutional analysis.