EAC Launch Lake Victoria Fisheries Plan

The East African Community (EAC) launched the Lake Victoria Fisheries Management Plan III (FMP III) 2016–2020 on June 28th 2016.

The Plan aims to recover the biomass of the Nile Perch (NP) through sustainable utilization of fisheries resources of the Lake Victoria basin.

The Plan focuses on: introduction of user rights and a domesticated Fishing Craft Management System (FCMS) for Lake Victoria waters, introduction of fisheries and aquaculture incubation enterprises.

The FMP III is expected to guide the sustainable management of the fisheries resources and thus contribute to poverty alleviation and improvement of livelihoods.

The Plan also includes a demand driven research and regular economic evaluation of fisheries resources.

Yohana Budeba, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development of Tanzania, noted that the value of fisheries provides various opportunities as a source of income and employment in both industrial and artisanal processing.

Lake Victoria Fishery

Lake Victoria is Africa’s largest freshwater fishery. It is shared between Uganda (43%), Kenya (6%) and Tanzania (51%).

The Lake Victoria NP fishery is a significant contributor to the social and economic development of the above-mentioned, the FMP indicates.

The catch of NP in Lake Victoria has averaged 250,000t per annum in the last 20 years.

During the last 5 years, the value of the exports of NP products from Lake Victoria varied between USD250m and USD310m per annum.

In 2008 the main market was the EU (taking about 60 to 80% of the total product). Other markets include Japan, Israel and the Middle East

According to the latest available data, in 2012 Tanzania had the largest number of fishery units targeting NP.

The total number of Tanzania’s units amounted to 16,638 (44%), followed by Uganda with 15,270 (41%) and Kenya with 5,676 (15%).