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Boosting nutrition and livelihoods in Zambia through the chisense fishery |
For the people of Zambia, especially the poor, fish is the most important and sometimes only source of animal protein and other essential nutrients. However, the per capita supply of fish today is only half of what it was 30 years ago, due to stagnating production, growing populations and increasingly competitive trade. Projections for future supplies are that fish will become increasingly expensive also in Zambia. Currently Zambian households in most parts of the country spend more money on fish than on any other food item, including staple foods and other animal products. If this trend... |
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African aquaculture: development beyond the fish farm |
Aquaculture’s unrealised potential
Despite global hunger declining, the number of people going hungry in Africa remains high with 30% of people reported to be undernourished in 2010. Fish are an important source of food for many African people, providing around 18% of their animal protein, but with a growing population and capture fisheries largely reaching their limit, many African countries are now looking towards aquaculture to supply an increasing demand for fish.
Although the potential of aquaculture to reduce poverty and hunger has been recognised in... |
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Building Livelihood Security and Reducing Conflict in Freshwater Ecoregions |
Lake Victoria, Omena boats returning.
The freshwater ecoregions of Lake Victoria, Lake Kariba and the Tonle Sap Lake are characterized by persistent poverty, high dependence on aquatic resources to provide food security and livelihoods, and intense resource competition. Moreover, significant new pressures have the potential to lead to broader social conflict if not addressed adequately, such as a further increase in the number of local resource users (through population growth, migration and displacement); commercial exploitation of limited resources; competition over water for... |
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Coastal Planning and Management Program for Western Ghana |
Fishing village, Ghana
The six districts of Ghana's coastal zone represent less than seven percent of the land area of the country, yet they are home to 25 percent of the nation's total population. The combination of increasing food and livelihoods insecurity, population growth, and environmental degradation continues to impact negatively on the quality of human life in this coastal zone. In addition, rapidly evolving extractive industries in the region, including fisheries, plantation crops, hard minerals and petroleum, present challenges that regional... |
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Sustainable Water Usage in the Chinyanja Triangle |
In sub-Saharan Africa, the integration of pond aquaculture into rainfall-based agriculture systems, using practices such as Integrated Agriculture Aquaculture (IAA), has been largely successful. In some cases, fishponds have doubled household income, and increased household food production by 150%. Farms using IAA are proving to be 8% more productive during droughts, with women becoming more actively involved. Adoption of the approach has been growing at 25% per annum in Malawi since 2000, and is fast expanding. This is especially noted in the Chinyanja Triangle in the lower Zambezi River... |
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Climate Change Adaptation in the Lake Chilwa Basin |
Small-scale fisheries, Malawi
Malawi has experienced a number of adverse climatic events in recent years. Lake Chilwa, a major lake in the country and an important resource has dried up nine times in the 20th Century due to low rainfall in the basin. and it is predicted that events of this nature will become more common with increased climate variability. Some studies suggest that temperatures in the Lake Chilwa Basin will increase by up to five degrees Celsius by 2075.
High population density, an increasingly degraded environment and... |
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Developing fisheries livelihoods in the Congo River Basin |
River fisheries, Africa
The Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape spans 74,000 km2 in the Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is one of 12 landscapes identified by USAID’s Central African Regional Programme for the Environment (CARPE) as ‘high priority for conservation’ in Central Africa. Bounded by the Lopori and Maringa rivers, this area is dominated by forests, one quarter of which is predominantly swamps and wetlands. The area is globally significant as it comprises a sizeable portion of the Congo Basin forest ecosystem and is home to... |
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Sub-Saharan Fish Trade and Nutrition in a Changing Climate |
Ghana, West Africa
There is an increasing ‘fish gap’ in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where fish supplies have failed to keep pace with the region’s growing demand. Despite the high dependence on fish for nutrition in much of the region, consumption is currently half the global average and declining.
In SSA, as in many other regions globally, marine and inland capture fisheries resources are stagnating or decreasing, largely due to environmental or ecosystem changes and over-exploitation. Climate change is already altering... |
