Okavango Delta gets code of conduct for responsible fishing

RYDER GABATHUSE
Staff Writer | Friday April 23, 2010 00:00

The Okavango Fisheries Management Committee (OFMC), in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Fisheries division and the BIOKAVANGO project, will launch a code of conduct for responsible fishing in the Okavango Delta Panhandle

The initiative is part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) support to biodiversity conservation in Botswana through the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The event will be held at the delta village of Samochima where about 400 commercial fishermen ply their trade in the waters of the Okavango Delta, one of Botswana's premier tourist attractions.

In a press statement issued by the UNDP Botswana office, public affairs and communications officer, Marx Garekwe said the code of conduct aims to improve fisheries management in the Okavango Delta through the development of local participatory governance structures that guide the use, access of fish resources and conflict resolution by different user groups.

'The code maps a common future towards management of a resource that the different fisher user groups value highly,' Garekwe says.

Local user groups have also established fishing-free zones in the upper Panhandle, for fish regeneration and research purposes covering aspects of fish ecology and population dynamics in relation to seasonal flooding. The fishing free zones, Garekwe indicated, provide useful information and knowledge for input into the piloted improved fisheries management system.

The Okavango Panhandle is an open access fishery system characterised by different fisher groups with different use value systems. As a result conflicts over the fish use sometimes emerge between the groups and this it is feared may ultimately affect fish utilisation.

Literature on the project shows that through the facilitation by the Biokavango, an UNDP-government of Botswana funded project based at the Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Research Centre, an Okavango Fisheries Management Committee was founded, with the main aim of spearheading co-management of the Okavango Panhandle fisheries by the users.

'While adherence to this code is voluntary, it is a historic step in the Delta's fishery where hitherto antagonistic groups have mapped a common future towards management of a resource that they both value highly,' further reads the literature.

Even though the code is being piloted in the  Panhandle area, it is envisaged that this will be rolled out to the entire delta in future.