Fisheries management on Lake Victoria at a crossroads: Assessing fishers’ perceptions on future management options in Uganda

Fishers’ perceptions on the state of fisheries and the applicable fisheries management system in Lake Victoria (LV), Uganda, were assessed. Fisheries management in the lake is currently at a crossroads. The government abolished a co-management system in November 2015 and installed the military to temporary enforce management. The objective of this study was to explore how fishers envisage future management options by assessing past management regimes and analysing perceptions of alternative regimes. A total of 273 semi-structured interviews at six selected landing sites on LV in Uganda were conducted. Fishers targeted two dominant species, Nile perch, Lates niloticus (L.), mainly on motorised vessels representing the commercial fishers and dagaa, Rastrineobola argentea (Pellegrin), using both motorised and paddled vessels. The dominance of motorised fishing vessels depicted a consequence of the army operations and represents government priority to protect rather than regulate commercial fishing operations. Fishers mainly perceived regulations they knew about as effective, strongly opposed local governments as a management entity and assigned management to fisher groups as expected. The results support a management regime of key resource users organised by common interest groups to participate in decision-making and combined government structures to regulate and enforce sustainable fisheries measures.