You can also change it: Who owns the Shore?

The Case of Lake Victoria

Paul OnyangoDepartment of Aquatic Sciences and

FisheriesUniversity of Dar es Salaam

Lecture Time Plan

• Lecture 1.5 hrs• Film 30 mins• Discussion• Wrap-up

Outline of Lecture

• Introduction– Tanzania– Lake Victoria

• Challenges • Concept of ownership – of the shore

• Traditional society (Customary or communal)• Post colonial period Management rights, co-

management)

• Values inherent in ownership of the shore– Film

Key message

• Social justice is embedded in a communicty social system– It is part of what communities tries to

achieve as they relate and undertake their daily activities.

Tanzania

Some statistics

Size (land area) 945,087 sq kmPopulation 39,384,223Age structure 0-14 -44%

15-64 53.3%> 65 yrs 2.8%

Ethnic groups Over 120 tribesReligion Christian, Muslims,

IndigenousLiteracy 70%

Economic activities• Service sector – Hotel– Printing– Education– Health– Storage and communication– Banking and insurance– Real estate– Business services:- software development, dta

and processing,architectural, engineering and other technical consultancy, advertisement

– Public administartion and defence

Agriculture

Fishing

11

River Nile Lake Tanganyika

Mt Kilimanjaro

Tourism

Industry and construction

Summary of other facts

• Population is predominantly rural• Over 80% of population depend on

agriculture• Poverty is widespread• Has substantial minearls such as Gold

and Tanzanite

Lake Victoria

Map of Lake Victoria

Some Lake Victoria statistics

ITEM Quantity (2010)Ethnic communities

Over 10

Main activities Agriculture and FishingNumber of fishermen

Appr. 200,000

Crafts About 68,000Fishing gears Gillnets, hooks, long linesLanding sites Over 1000

Issues affecting Lake Victoria fishing communities

• Inequitable distribution of earnings

• Access to some basic facitlities i.e.

health, schools

• conflicts

• Poverty

• Malnutrition

• Lack of regulatory rights

CONCEPT OF OWNERSHIP

Possession of or holding of a resource with the associated full rights to use

Tracing ownership through history

Migrations and settlement

Some ethnic communities riaprian to Lake Victoria•Wakiseru•Wakerewe•Wasukuma•Wahaya•Waluo•Wazinza

Wakiseru

Wakerewe

• Migration• Wars• Activities• Fishing trips

What is valuable?• Land: The value on land led them to migrate

from several places to where they are presently settled

• Cultural and social values: distinctive experiences that gave a unique status or reputation– These were considered valuable in as much as they

were used to advance in social relations– These valuables were therefore institutionalised

and became central issues in rules and regulations of these communities

– These valuables could be observed in their definition of land and ownership rules and regulations

Customary or communal ownership system

• Title to land (other resources) based on traditions and customs of respective tribes. – Ownership was communal i.e. family, clan or

tribe. Chiefs, headmen and elders had the powers of land administration in trust for the community.

– Access to fish and fishing grounds open to allGuaranteed Access rights

Ownership system: post colonial period

• Management rights

–Territorial use right:- national, regional, district territories were established (Migingo and Ugingo Island dispute)

Map of Lake Victoria showing National and District Territories

Source: LVFO

Property regimes

• state property: If resource users have the duty to observe rules and norms of use/access determined by a government institution that has the right of its management

• private property: If the fishers who have the right to decide on socially acceptable uses of the resource, even though they have the duty to abstain from destructive uses

•In open access (res nullius) conditions, the resource as property does not exist, and thus any member of society could harvest the resource

Ownership system: post colonial period

• Co-management– Community ownership of management

process:- community given Fisheries Laws and regulations

– Government ownership of fish resources

YES % NO1) Ownership of Lake Victoria by Community and Government

95 5

Perception on ownership of fish resources after a BMU training in 2007

Source: IFMP Fisheries Management National Coordination Office, Tanzania

Short break

Values inherent in ownership

• Equity:- perceptions of fairness in distributions of resources among various

actors in the fishing communities i.e during fishing trip among the Wakerewe

• Legitimacy:- the capacity of ownership arrangement to bring about and maintain the

belief that tenure institutions are the most appropriate

and proper ones for the community

Values cont’d

• Order: At individual level, it is the ability to avoid violence and cherish peace, and harmony and being able

to reach agreement with others. – At the community level, it is considered

as a state in which community regularized pattern of behaviour is

perceived as a moral obligation for all members.

• Ownership arrangement which enables behaviour of fishers to respect one another

– a very simple value but pivotal to the healthy continuation of any relationship,

whether it is between two people, different races and/or religions, different species– It underlies fishers’ relationship, group

interests, language and behaviour

Values inherent in ownership

Respect shown through dressing

Respect

Fishers pooling a boat from the water

Cooperation

Source: http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Radio%20Pages/WBAIShows.html

• Ownership which enhances cooperation between and among fishers

– part of the accepted fabric of fishing society which is take into account when formulating

behaviour and getting involved in the community life.

• When institutionalised, respect and cooperation among other values becomes

the real world of the fishers and their social system – tenure system

Film

Wrap-up – Community social system

• A social system is where everyday life is routinely enacted (See also Parsons 1951)– Expectations and patterns– Grounded on community values

• Social justice is also grounded on a community social system

• Social justice is a prerequisite for development