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International Journal of Marine Science 2015, Vol.5, No.6, 1-7
http://ijms.biopublisher.ca
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Research Report Open Access
Fishers’ attitude towards performance of Beach Management Units (BMUs) in
regulating fishery and reducing poverty: case study of two BMUs Lake Victoria,
Tanzania
Luomba Joseph Onyango
Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute P.O Box 475 Mwanza, Tanzania
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science, 2015, Vol.5, No.6 doi: 10.5376/ijms.2015.05.0006
Received: 09 Sep., 2014
Accepted: 28 Dec., 2014
Published: 30 Jan., 2015
Copyright
©
2015
Onyango, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Luomba, 2015, Fishers’ attitude towards performance of Beach Management Units (BMUs) in regulating fishery and reducing poverty: case study of two
BMUs Lake Victoria, Tanzania, International Journal of Marine Science, Vol.5, No.6 1
-
7 (doi
Abstract
Fishers’ attitudes and perception are critical towards assessing the achievement of BMUs in implementing its activities.
This study, examined fishers’ perception to wide range of activities that the BMUs are supposed to undertake within their areas of
jurisdiction and to investigate if the perceptions depend on specific activity, and fishers’ demographic, social characteristics and
fishing activity of the fisher. These activities are those specifically designed to regulate fisheries and focus on reducing poverty
among fishers. A structured questionnaire and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) as well as participant observation were used to collect
data. A chi-square and multiple regression analysis and content analysis were used to analyse the generated data. A total of 62
respondents from survey questionnaire and eight informants from the KIIs were interviewed. It was conducted on two BMUs in Lake
Victoria, Tanzania between January and February 2014. The survey respondents were drawn from fisheries stakeholder group while
key informants comprised BMU executive committee and village leadership. The results of this study suggests that there is difference
in fishers’ perception between BMUs on how activities like patrolling fishing grounds, collecting revenues, conducting meetings and
initiating development projects have been conducted. The length of time one has been in the fishery, level of education and
occupation in the fishery influences how fishers perceive BMUs performance. These findings reveal that the performance of BMUs
could possibly be different across all activities. It is therefore recommended that a survey covering many BMUs and activities be
conducted to get a better understanding of areas where support is required to strengthen the performance of BMUs in managing
fisheries of Lake Victoria, Tanzania.
Keywords
Regulating fisheries; Poverty reduction; BMUs; Fishers’ attitude; Lake Victoria; Tanzania
Introduction
The management of the fisheries resources in
Tanzania in the past has been the role of government
vested in the Fisheries Division with no input from the
fisher folk. However, challenges of centralized
fisheries management system led to efforts to reform
management hence establishment of fisheries
co-management where the government and the
fisheries communities through Beach Management
Units (BMUs) share authorities and responsibilities in
the management (Medard and Geheb, 2000; Ogwang'
et al., 2009).
In Tanzania co-management began in the late 1990s
under the Lake Victoria Environmental Management
Project (LVEMP) where a committee of five fishers
from each landing site, named Beach Management
Units (BMUs), were formed around the Mwanza
Gulf. This was then extended to other landing sites
and by the year 2000 there were about 511 BMUs in
all riparian districts of Lake Victoria, Tanzania
(Hoza and Mahatane,2001). However, these BMUs
lacked a clear operational guidelines and
institutional framework. This led to the reformation
of the BMUs in 2006 during the Implementation of
a Fisheries Management Plan (IFMP) project
carried out from 2004-2010 (Ogwang' et al., 2009).
This saw a reduction in the number of BMUs to 433
in the Tanzanian part of the lake. The reformed
BMUs are supported by the Fisheries Act No. 22 of
2003 and the Principal Fisheries Regulation of 2009
and have clear operational guidelines and
institutional framework in the