FAO: Integrated governance of inland fisheries at basin level

Inland fisheries produce around 12 million tons of fish per year. Integrating inland fisheries into basin governance is crucial for the nutrition, food security, and livelihoods of millions of people around the world.

To address this issue, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in cooperation with the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization (LFVO) and the Lake Victoria Basin Commission (LVBC), organized the First global workshop between Regional Fishery Bodies (RFBs) and Basin Management Organizations (BMOs) for scaling up cooperation towards sustainable inland fisheries in the context of food security and nutrition (6-8 December 2023, Entebbe, Uganda).

INBO and the African Network of Basin Organizations (ANBO) participated in the event, alongside representatives from the Lake Tanganyika Authority, the Nile Basin Initiative, the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization and FAO Regional Fisheries Bodies.

Three divisions of FAO were represented (Fisheries and Aquaculture, Forestry, Land and Water). This institutional effort to break silos is inspired by the adoption of “Integrated Water Resources Management” as the topic for General Debate of the 43rd Session of the FAO Conference and as the biennial theme for the FAO Governing Body sessions in 2024-2025.

The primary threat to inland fisheries is a combination of environmental changes, deforestation, agricultural expansion and poorly designed hydraulic infrastructure development. For example, in the Komadugu Yobe Basin in the North-East of Nigeria, a combination of dam development in the 1970s, extensive water extraction for irrigation and the impacts of regional climate change altered seasonal river flows. This affected fishing, farming, and pastoralist livelihoods, and led to conflicts. A management plan was used to address degraded ecosystems, restore river flow patterns, and reduce tensions among basin users. There is a need for a more holistic approach at basin level to meet such
challenges.

At the end, the workshop participants requested FAO to lead the continuation of joint activities including setting up common governing mechanisms and identification of regional pilot basins, with the objective to produce a stronger coordination framework between RFBs and BMOs .

This collaborative approach signifies a commitment to coordinated efforts for
the effective integration of inland fisheries into broader basin management
initiatives.