The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: February 17, 1998

Author: Christophe Breuil, FAO/FIPL Rome

Email: Christophe.Breuil@fao.org

Outline of a Case Study Related to Fisheries

The case study refers to the management of fishery resources of two man-made reservoirs in Burkina Faso, namely Bagre and Kompienga. The total production from the two fisheries is about 2,500 t/y, i.e. about a quarter of national fish production. The fishery sector contribution to the economy is minor. However, the Government has placed particular attention to the administration of this sector since the beginning of the 90’s to implement its national policy and strategies regarding the sustainable management of renewable natural resources. The strategies include notably the promotion of community-based management (‘gestion des terroirs’) and a better internalisation of environmental issues in decision-making.

The institutional innovation in the fishery sector, and in particular for the management of Lakes Bagre and Kompienga, has resulted in the recognition of a specific legal regime for the two lakes (i.e. the ‘Périmètres aquacoles d’intérêt économique’ - PAIE) which gives the possibility of establishing joint management authorities. The management authorities will be responsible in particular for the formulation and the follow-up of fisheries management plans consisting among others in developing fishing effort control mechanisms. The composition, the mandate and the rules of procedure of the joint management authorities (called ‘Comité de gestion des PAIE’) will be soon clearly defined by Ministerial decrees.

The institutional process has started in the beginning of the 90’s and has consisted in several steps. These included notably: changes in global policy orientations regarding the management of natural resources (‘Plan d’action national pour l’environnement) ; designing of a new fishery policy ; formulation and implementation of a sectoral development plan ; revision of the fishery-related law (‘Réforme agraire et foncière’, ‘Code forestier’) ; organisation of a national conference on the fisheries sector ; and preparation of participatory fisheries management plans for Lakes Bagre and Kompienga.

The FAO Fisheries Department has assisted the Government in reaching several steps of the institutional process. At present, FAO is assisting the fishery administration to formulate the participatory management plans on Lakes Bagre and Kompienga. The process by which fishermen communities have been associated to the preparation of the plans have mainly consisted in conducting surveys in the field of social sciences. The planning exercise will be terminated during the first half of 1998 and will be sanctioned by the holding of two workshops aimed at discussing and adopting the plans. The workshops, one for each lake, will group together representatives from the administration and fishery-related institutions and from the different communities concerned directly or indirectly by the fisheries.

As in other Sahelian countries Burkina Faso has suffered in the 80’s from severe droughts with dramatic human and ecological consequences. In Burkina Faso, the problem has been addressed by promoting the construction of small-dams and reservoirs, and by encouraging rational management of renewable natural resources. The construction of reservoirs such as Bagre and Kompienga, initially constructed for hydro-electric and agricultural purposes, has incidentally allowed the development of fisheries. This has had considerable impact on the whole fishery sector. However it has also generated socio-economic problems which can be summarised as follows:

- The newly-created fisheries have been mainly colonised by migrant fishermen from neighbouring countries, while marketing of products has been rapidly controlled by traders from the capital city. This has generated frustrations within the native population freshly deprived from their lands due to the construction of dams, and who could neither enter the fisheries nor capture a significant part of the added value ;

- Fishing behaviours depicted by migrant fishermen have been governed by short-term interests in the exploitation of largely open access resources. The lack of the evolution of self-management mechanisms which could have evolved over the years might be explained by the lack of integration of fishermen communities in the social environment and their very precarious living conditions.

- Gradually, both national fishermen from other parts of the country as well as young people from the local population have started to enter the fisheries. Competition among ‘foreigners’, native people and non-native but national people has consequently increased and sometimes generated conflictual situations. Problems regarding fishery resources management as well as problems of a political nature have been hence progressively aggravated leading the administration to reconsider its fisheries management strategy for the lakes.

- Since the creation of the lakes, the administration has promoted a top-down approach by imposing fishing regulations which were not forcely based on scientific and socio-economic considerations and by allowing a de facto free access. Until recently, this strategy could be considered as efficient in terms of the development and management of the lake fisheries during its colonisation period. Nowadays, the Government is aware that the strategy has to shift from a top-down to a bottom-up approach in order to internalise socio-economic considerations and to establish effective and cost-efficient effort control mechanisms in partnership.

An historical review of the change process can be further developed, if required. The main event by which institutional change came about was the adoption in January 1996 of a new fishery legislation as contained in the new ‘Code forestier’. The main innovations of the new legislation consist in the institution of regional fishing permits in place of the previous national permits and in the creation of specific legal regime on the lakes, i.e. the PAIE. The regionalisation of the permits constitutes a major change in the fisheries management strategy. Indeed, the issuance of national permits was to be considered solely as an instrument to enable the State to capture a part of the economic rent of the fisheries, but not as an effective management tool. The regional permits give now the possibility to implement management strategies based on fishing effort-control. The creation of the PAIE allows on the other hand the possibility of developing management in partnership.

The current planning exercise is oriented towards the establishment of community-based management mechanisms for the lakes. Emphasis has been given to the definition of partnership arrangements between the State and the users in which each partner would be endowed with clearly defined duties and responsibilities. The State, which is the owner of the resources, remains responsible for the enforcement of the legislation, in particular in the field of control and surveillance. But a significant part of its responsibilities regarding management are being transferred to the joint management authorities (monitoring, definition of the fishing effort level, priority actions to undertake in social affairs...).

The approach to define partnership arrangements and to formulate the fisheries management plans, apart from reviewing the institutional and legal framework, has mainly consisted in analysing: the general situation concerning the status of the fishery resources on the basis of biological and ecological considerations ; the economic and social status of the fishermen communities, and the efficiency/coherency of existing management practices (statistical systems, conflict resolution mechanisms, decision-making within local communities...). The expectations of the different partners concerning the forthcoming management plans in terms of scientific, social and/or economic satisfaction vis-à-vis the exploitation of the fisheries, were also identified.

The objective of the general review of the situation is to identify on a consensual basis the priority actions to be promoted in order to: ensure a sustainable use of fish resources ; improve the social living conditions; and identify those management practices which would need to be codified through the partnership arrangements.

The expected outcome are twofold: draft Ministerial decrees related to the functioning of the PAIE ; and draft fisheries management plans. They should be ready tentatively in March 1998.

The draft Ministerial decrees will define the composition, the mandate and the rules of procedures including financial issues. In brief, a ‘Comité de gestion du PAIE’ and a ‘Unité de gestion du PAIE’ are likely to be created. The management committee would be a joint fisheries management authority capable of adopting binding measures (definition of the number of licences, closing period, delimitation of protection zones...). The management unit would be an institution (most likely formed on the basis of the decentralised services of the fishery administration) which would perform a work of technical nature, in close collaboration with the different public (research institutes, authorities responsible for water and basin management, technical services of the future elected territorial bodies...) and private partners (producer’s organisation, women associations, NGO’s...). The management unit will provide technical inputs to support decision-making during the meetings of the joint fisheries management authority. The responsibilities regarding control and surveillance would have to be shared between the fishery administration and the relevant services of the internal security. The conflict resolutions mechanisms also will have to be clearly defined.

The draft fisheries management plan, which will be finally adopted by the ‘Comité de gestion du PAIE’ will have a duration of three years. It will provide the logical framework in which the management unit will organise its activities (monitoring systems, research, training...) and in which eventual development projects will be articulated (e.g., short-term assistance to the management unit, construction of medical premises, access road, education facilities...).

Establishing effective partnership arrangements for fisheries management can be compared to a bargaining process between administration and different stakeholders including fishermen communities. Duration of the process will mainly depend upon the political will of decision-makers, since it is believed that a prequisite to the effective establishment of community-based management mechanism is a strong central political will. Also, the institutional change will have to result in a consensual agreement among every partner endowed with duties and responsibilities.

In the case of Burkina Faso, the conditions of success are several, including notably: relatively good relationship between administration and the fishermen communities ; satisfying general situation of fisheries ; existence of joint management practices such as statistical systems ; existence of well-defined communities ; absence of intra-competition among groups of fishermen due to the monotony of fishing techniques. Therefore, another major lesson to learn is that establishing community-based management systems will be facilitated if the general fisheries environment is favourable. In other words, it is not sure whether a crisis situation would have allowed the institutional changes.

Also, the fisheries on Lakes Bagré and Kompienga are not traditional. This means that social constraints that may hamper the implementation of new management strategies are small. In other countries where community-based management systems on traditional fisheries have been promoted, it has appeared that both the political dimension and the complexity of the partnership arrangements to be identified were much higher due to the previous existence of traditional user rights (e.g., Lagoon Aby in Ivory Coast, Central Delta of Niger in Mali)

Furthermore, it is believed that in order to make the co-management mechanisms effective, it is necessary to develop in parallel concrete actions aimed at improving social cohesion within fishermen communities. For instance, the construction of basic meeting infrastructures such as shelters will considerably improve social cohesion. In general, every improvement of the living conditions of fishermen and their dependents will increase their willingness to co-operate with government representatives in managing resources. Not to mention that improvement of living conditions is likely to facilitate the development of responsible behaviour vis-à-vis the exploitation and the conservation of a natural asset.