Addis Ababa University School of Graduate Studies Institute of Development Research

Challenges of Sustainable Livelihood: the Case of Fishing Communities Around Lake Chamo

Tarekegn Shado

July 2006 Addis Ababa

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD: THE CASE OF FISHING COMMUNITIES AROUND LAKE CHAMO

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF ARTS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

BY: TAREKEGN SHADO SHANO

JUNE 2006

Declaration

I, the undersigned, declare that the thesis is my original work, has not been presented for a degree in any other university and that all sources of material used for the thesis have been duly acknowledged.

Declared by Name TAREKEGN SHADO __________________ Candidate

Confirmed by Name Dr. DEGEFA TOLOSSA ___________________ Advisor

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

INSTITUTE OF DEVELOPMENT RESEARCH (IDR)

Challenges of sustainable Livelihood: the Case of Fishing Communities around Lake Chamo

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

APPROVED BY THE BOARD OF EXAMINERS:

SIGNATURE

______________________________ FACULTY CHAIRMAN ______________________________ ADVISOR ______________________________ EXTERNAL EXAMINER ______________________________ INTERNAL EXAMINAR

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________________________

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I remain indebted to a number of individuals and institutions who gave me moral, financial and material support during my study and in the course of the research work. First of all my heartfelt thanks and appreciations go to my research advisor Dr. Degefa Tolossa Whose ideas, professional comments were quite instrumental in shaping the study. His respectfulness, encouragement, close follow up and constructive comments helped me complete the research on due time. I am deeply grateful also to Dr. Workneh Nigatu for his relentless support and advice given to me while I was trying to identify crystallized research problem. I would like to extend my thanks to Gamo Gofa Zone Capacity Building Department for sponsoring my study and to the Institute of Development Research of Addis Ababa University for funding part of the research expenses. I am also indebted to Gamo Gofa Zone and Woreda Agricultural and Rural Development Departments for the facilitation they made by providing car and boat transport service to access the camping and fishing sites of Lake Chamo. I acknowledge gratefully the fishermen who shared their experience and knowledge. My special thanks go to fishermen Dagnachew Duma, Terefe Girma, Addisu Asha, Engedayehu Zeleke, Degefa Kaftimer, Gulelat Fanta, Samuel Sata, and to those people working in Chamo and Arbaminch Fishers Co-operative Associations. I express my respect to Bimerew Tadesse, senior expert in fishery in Gamo Gofa zone Agriculture and Rural Development Department, for his professional comments and provision of important materials. Abebe Banjaw and his family also deserve special thanks for the assistance they gave me in recording of audio and video. He made the field work more enjoyable. I would also like to thank my friends: Abera Ogato, Abera Uncha, and Wondimu Gaga for technical support they provided me in application of SPSS, producing map of the study area and language editing respectively. I express my sincerely gratitude to my family especially to my aunt Ean'kko Shano and to my sisters Gete Tsegaye and Erbe Eltto who have been taking care of me in the course of my study and the research work. Finally, I would like to thank data collectors who spent their vacation time sharing some challenges with me during field work in the hot weather of the study area.

Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgement---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i Table of Contents----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii List of Tables---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v List of Figures--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi List of Acronyms ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- vii Abstract --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- viii CHAPTER ONE Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.1. Background -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1.2. Statement of the Problem---------------------------------------------------------------- 2 1.3. Objectives of the Study ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3 1.4. Research Questions----------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1.5. Significance of the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------- 4 1.6. Scope of the Study------------------------------------------------------------------------5 1.7. Limitation of the Study-------------------------------------------------------------------5 1.8. The Structure of the Thesis--------------------------------------------------------------5 CHAPTER TWO Methodology of the Study---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 2.1. The Study Area --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 2.2. Sample Selection ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 2.3. Data Source, Collection Methods & Tools ------------------------------------------- 8 2.4. Data Analysis------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 10 CHAPTR THREE Review of Basic Concepts and Literature ------------------------------------------------------ 11 3.1. Concepts and Framework for Analyzing Livelihood of Fishing Communities ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 11 3.1.1. Definition of Terms ------------------------------------------------------------- 11 3.1.2. The Concept of Livelihood, Sustainability and Sustainable Livelihoods ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 3.1.3. Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches and Framework Origin of SLA and the Concept of Poverty --------------------------------------------- 14 3.1.4. Major Components of SLF----------------------------------------------------- 16 3.1.5. Principles of SLA---------------------------------------------------------------- 24 3.1.6. Importance of SLA as Applied to Fisheries --------------------------------- 26 3.1.7. Some Challenges of SLA------------------------------------------------------- 27 3.2. Resource Degradation, Access and livelihoods -------------------------------------- 28 3.2.1. Resource Degradation and Livelihoods -------------------------------------- 28 3.2.2. The Role of Common Pool Resources (CPRs) to Livelihoods ----------- 29 3.2.3. Thoughts on CPRs Management to Sustainable Livelihoods ------------- 30 3.2.4. Contribution &Constraints of Small scale Fisheries to Food 5

Security and Poverty Alleviation --------------------------------------------- 32 3.2.5. Poverty and Vulnerability in Small Scale Fishing Communities --------- 33 3.2.6. Experience of Some Countries in Fisheries Management to Sustainable Livelihoods -------------------------------------------------------- 34 3.2.7. Fisheries Sector in the Rural Livelihoods and Economy of Ethiopia --- 36 CHAPTER FOUR Overview of Lake Chamo Basin ----------------------------------------------------------------- 38 4.1. Lake Chamo and its Basin--------------------------------------------------------------- 38 4.1.1. Location of Lake Chamo ------------------------------------------------------- 38 4.2. Physical Properties of Lake Chamo --------------------------------------------------- 38 4.3. Geology, Topography and Drainage --------------------------------------------------- 38 4.4. Major Soil Types ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 4.5. Climate ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 40 4.6. Major Land Uses and Land Cover ----------------------------------------------------- 40 4.7. Population Trends and Settlement ----------------------------------------------------- 41 4.8. Historical Development of Lake Fisheries ------------------------------------------- 41 CHAPTER FIVE Socio-Economic Profile of the Fishing Communities----------------------------------------- 44 5.1. Demographic and Social Characteristics --------------------------------------------- 44 5.1.1. Sex, Age, Marital Status --------------------------------------------------------- 44 5.1.2. Ethnicity and Religious Composition ------------------------------------------ 44 5.1.3. Educational Status of the Household Head ------------------------------------ 45 5.1.4. Family Size ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 45 5.1.5. Housing and House Condition -------------------------------------------------- 46 5.1.6. Major Health Problems ----------------------------------------------------------- 46 5.1.7. Organized/ Unorganized Fishers ------------------------------------------------ 46 5.1.8. Social Capital of the Fishermen ------------------------------------------------- 47 5.2. Economic Characteristics---------------------------------------------------------------- 47 5.2.1. Natural Capita Base ------------------------------------------------------ 47 5.2.2. Physical Capital Base ---------------------------------------------------- 48 5.2.3. Financial Capital Base --------------------------------------------------- 49 5.2.4. Major Livelihood Activities and Diversification -------------------- 50 5.3. Spatial Distribution of the Fishermen ------------------------------------------------- 50 CHAPTER SIX Major Livelihood Challenges of the Fishing Communities----------------------------------52 6.1. Stress of Natural Capital Base and Livelihoods-------------------------------------- 52 6.2. Major Causes of fishery Resource Depletion----------------------------------------- 59 6.2.1. Increasing Fishermen and Fishing Efforts ------------------------------------- 59 6.2.2. Policy and Institutional Failures with Regard to Fishery Resource Management ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 61 6.2.3. Environmental Degradation ----------------------------------------------------- 65 6.3. Resource Access and Livelihoods------------------------------------------------------ 67 6.4. Conflict over Resource and Livelihoods --------------------------------------------- 70

6.5. Low Level of Choice Diversification ------------------------------------------------- 74 6.6. Lack of Adequate Government Support----------------------------------------------- 77 6.6.1. Adequate Policy and Livelihoods ----------------------------------------------- 77 6.6.2. Technical Backup and Service Provision -------------------------------------- 78 6.6.3. Property and Life Insecurity of Fishermen ------------------------------------ 81 6.7. Lack of Voice ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 82 6.8. Lack of Alternative Employment Opportunities ------------------------------------ 83 6.9. Poor Saving-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 84 6.10. Natural Shocks -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 86 CHAPTER SEVEN Household Coping and Adaptive Strategies in the Context of Food and Livelihood Insecurity-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 87 7.1. Household Food Insecurity and Coping Strategies ---------------------------------- 87 7.2. Social Capital and Food Security ------------------------------------------------------ 91 7.3. Livelihood Insecurity and Adaptive Strategies -------------------------------------- 94 7.3.1. Survival Diversification ---------------------------------------------------------- 94 7.3.2. Distress Migration ---------------------------------------------------------------- 96 CHAPTER EIGHT Conclusion and Recommendation--------------------------------------------------------------- 101 8.1. Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 101 8.2. Recommendation ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 104 References ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 107 Annexes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 112

List of Tables Page

Table 2.1: Sampling Strata and Sample Size Taken from each Strata --------------------- 8 Table 4.1: Fish Production from varies Lakes in Ethiopia for the Period 1994 up to 2003, Fresh weight in Tons --------------------------------------------------------- 43 Table 5.1: Age structure of sampled Households -------------------------------------------- 44 Table 5.2: Fisherman of Lake Chamo by Ethnic Category --------------------------------- 45 Table 5.3: Educational Level of the Sampled Respondents -------------------------------- 45 Table 5.4: Sampled HHs by Family Size Category-------------------------------------------- 46 Table5.5: Survey Households by Place of Residence--------------------------------------- 51

Table 6.1: Fishermen Responses Regarding Some Indicators of Fish Stock (N = 85) -- 52 Table 6.2: Yearly total Potential Yield estimates of Lake Chamo ------------------------- 54 Table 6.3: Trends of CPUE, for Major Species ---------------------------------------------- 56 Table 6.4: Response of Fishermen on Species of Fish Usually Targeted ----------------- 58 Table 6.5: Fishermen Perceptions on Trends of Fishing Efforts -------------------------- 60 Table 6.6: Fishermen Perception towards the Application of Fishery Management Tools on Lake Chamo --------------------------------------------------------------- 64 Table 6.7: Access Options of Fishermen in Lake Chamo ----------------------------------- 68 Table 6.8: The current Saving Condition ------------------------------------------------------- 89 Table 7.1: Fishermen Perception of Household income Sufficiency to cover food Demand -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 90 Table 7.2: Coping Strategies of HHs to Food Insecurity by Community ----------------- 90 Table 7.3: Reception of Help/Assistance from Relatives or Friends by Community----- 91 Table 7.4: Sources of fishermen household income in 2002, and 2006 -------------------- 95

LIST OF FIGURES

Page Figure 2.1: Location of Lake Chamo ----------------------------------------------------------- 6 Figure 2.2: Location of Fishing Communities and their Camping Sites ------------------ 7 Figure 3.1: A Framework for Analyzing Livelihood of the Fishing Communities ----- 23 Figure 6.1: Trends of Total Fish Landing from Lake Chamo, 1987-2004 --------------- 54 Figure 6.2: Trend of Total Fishing Nets Over Lake Chamo -------------------------------- 60 Figure 6. 3: Focus Group Discussion Two----------------------------------------------------- 71 Figure 6.4: Case Study One --------------------------------------------------------------------- 76 Figure 6.5: Focus Group Discussion One------------------------------------------------------ 79 Figure 7.1: Fishermen Moving to Resettlement Area --------------------------------------- 99

LIST OF ACRONYMS
AFCA ARDD CCRF CFCA COMESA CPRs CPUE CRIDA DFID EMA EPA EPRDF FAO FOCA GDP GOs HDI HH IBCR IDS IFAD LFDP MARD MSY NGOs PA SFCA SL SLAs SLF SNNPR SNNPRS UNDP Arbaminch Fishers Co-operative Association Agriculture and Rural Development Department Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries Chamo Fishers Co-operative Association Common Market for East and South Africa Common Pool resources Catch per Unit Effort Central Research Institute for Dry Land Agriculture, India Department for International Development of UK Ethiopia Mapping Agency Environmental Protection Authority Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front Food and Agricultural Organization Fishermen Outside Co-operative Association Gross Domestic Product Governmental Organizations Human Development Index Household Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research Institute of Development Studies International Fund for Agricultural Development Lake Fisheries Development Project Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Maximum Sustainable Yield Non Governmental Organizations Peasant Association Sego Fishers Co-operative Association Sustainable livelihoods Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches Sustainable livelihood Frame Works Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Region State United Nations Development Program

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Abstract
Sustainable livelihood of a given community can be enhanced or constrained by a number of multifaceted factors. International, National, Local context, the asset base available to the community, different policies and institutions, and organization meant for the improvement of the well-being of the community, the livelihood strategies and the portfolio of activities pursued by the community at household level are the major ones among others. In line with this premises, the research is undertaken with the main objective of investigating the major challenges of the fishing communities around Lake Chamo, Arbaminch Zuria Woreda, South Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State of Ethiopia. To meet the research objectives both qualitative and quantitative methods are applied equally. Moreover, the research is underpinned by the Sustainable Livelihood Approaches and the framework which is recently championed in the livelihood analysis by different International Institutions. It is found that the fishing communities in study area have been facing specific challenges in addition to those faced by rural and urban communities engaged in other livelihood activities. Generally, ever depleting fishery resource, lack of adequate government support, unequal resource access, conflict over resource, lack of participation, little alternative employment opportunities, and poor saving behavior are the challenges on the sustainable livelihood of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo. Due to these adverse effects, fishermen have taken various coping and adaptive strategies at household level. In spite of these, most fishermen in the study area have ended in undesirable livelihood outcomes like poverty, food insecurity, distressful migration, and unsustainable livelihoods. To alleviate the problem and to maintain sustainable livelihoods adequate government support, sound fishery resource management system are recommended to be put in place by correcting policy and institutional failures and protecting the environmental degradation in the Basin.

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background
Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the World. As it is an agrarian society, agriculture dominates the overall national economy in terms of food supply, employment, and export. Agriculture comprises of about 50% of the countrys GDP, 85% of the employment, 90% of the total export earnings, and supplies about 70% of the raw materials for the countrys medium and large-scale industries (Zerihun et al. 2004: 212). The UNDP Human Development Report of 2005, ranked the country 170 out of 177 countries with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.367 for the year 2003 (UNDP, 2005, 222). The figure is much below as compared to Sub-Saharan African average for the same year. The countrys economy is the weakest in its performance; poverty, food and livelihood insecurity and famine are the usual phenomena in the country. Different researches have indicated that 45-50% of the populations of the country live below absolute poverty (Aklilu and Dessalegn, 2000: 6, Senait, 2001: 62, Degefa, 2005: 2). Domestic food production on average covered only about 90% of the aggregate food demand. The remaining 10% of the food demand on average is often covered by foreign aid in the form of emergency or relief aid for the years 1985-2000 (FDRE, 2002).

The poor who depend much on food aid in the country are not an aggregated whole. The sedentary subsistence farmers, the landless, the traditional craftsmen, the causal workers, pastoralists, and the small-scale fisher are among them. In Ethiopian context, it is too difficult to differentiate who is the most vulnerable group. In spite of this, the small-scale fishermen are relatively one of those groups who are neglected and bypassed from policy and technical support in the rural development endeavourers of the country.

Though Ethiopia as a landlocked country has little potential to sea fishing, it has various inland water bodies with suitable agro-ecology for fishing. Among these the lakes, rivers, major dams and small water bodies are mentioned.

According to report of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) from the total fish catch the share from the lakes is 85%, rivers 6% and from dams and small water bodies is about 9% for the year 2001. Thus, the contribution of the lakes is very much significant. 1

Moreover, it is the small-scale fishery sub-sector that provides the bulk of fish production and consumption (MARD, 2004).

Nevertheless, the fishing sector of the economy has various problems. Among others, mismanagement of the resource, inappropriate policies and institution, inadequate technical and material backup to the sector and market are the major ones. Moreover, the Ethiopian lakes, on which the inland fishing is mainly practiced, are threatened by catchments deforestation, shore damage, water pollution, siltation, eutrophication and over fishing (MARD, 2004).

The root causes of these phenomena are lack of integrated participatory wetland management of the area around the lake, population pressure and shortage of farmland in the nearby highlands, absence of other alternative livelihood diversification strategies to rural-urban migrants, and rampant rural poverty and unemployment. Moreover, the policy and institutional gap in the management of common pool resources like fishery resource is a major factor in aggravating the resource depletion and exposing the small-scale fishing communities for food insecurity and unsustainable livelihood.

The contribution of fishing in the overall agriculture is not relatively given due attention in general and its contribution to food security in particular. A Poor country like Ethiopia, if it aspires to achieve food security and sustainable livelihood needs to manage and utilize every resource base in a sustainable way.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

Though fishing contributes very less to the national economy of Ethiopia, in some areas like Lake Chamo its contribution is very high in terms of employment, supplying cheap source of protein, covering household food security to the fishermen. Moreover, there are high numbers of people who are engaged and earn their living from fishing related activities like local boat making, fish products transporting, and marketing. Recently, however, as the fishery resource get depleted from Lake Chamo due to different reasons the well being of specially the fishermen worsened.

According to FAO (2001) in fisheries management and development usually there has been a misplaced emphasis both in theory and practice. The social aspect is neglected and only the biological and economic aspect is given prime focus. The writer argues that the biologist, economists, administrators, and politicians usually concerned first with marine biological species, and next concerned with the allocation of fishery resource and maximizing the economic benefits from them. The author further notes that fisheries management science, practice and policy, needs more emphasis to human or social aspect (FAO, 2001:1). It is evident from this that any fisheries development endeavor be it fisheries management tools, practices, policies, institutions, technologies to be employed should be evaluated from improving the livelihood of the poor fishermen.

The Rift Valley Lakes System of Ethiopia is a home of large number of human population engaged in various activities, which are directly or indirectly related to the well being of the lake ecosystem in general, and the fish resource in particular on which the livelihood of the fishermen mainly depends. Demographic, economic and socio-political changes threaten the existence and long-term sustainability of the common pool fishery resource of Lake Chamo. The increase in population, high demand of fish products, lack of livelihood diversification strategies, and high unemployment rate have put serious stress on the common pool fishery resource of Lake Chamo. The situation is worsened by inappropriate policy, institution and enforcement mechanisms to the common pool fishery resource management in the area of Lake Chamo. Due to these and other related factors combined the fishing communities household income decreased in real terms and they are becoming vulnerable to seasonal and chronic food insecurity. Moreover, their sustainable livelihood is at stake. Fishery resource degradation and associated impacts on the livelihood of the fishing communities is among the least researched areas in Ethiopia. Clear insight of the challenges, the coping and adaptive strategies undertaken by the fishermen will help to integrate the small-scale fishing sub-sector in the over all development endeavors of the country.

1.3. Objectives of the Study

The General objective of the study is to investigate the major livelihood challenges of the fishing communities and draw lessons and indicate implications.

Specific Objectives
The study has also the following specific objectives: 1. To asses the livelihood situation of the fishing communities and identify the major challenges that the communities are facing. 2. To examine the policy and institutional environment with regard to small scale fishing sub-sector in general and the fishing communities around Lake Chamo in particular. 3. To identify the determinants of intra household vulnerability to food and livelihood insecurity among the fishing communities. 4. To assess the coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies of the fishing communities.

1.4. Research Questions

The study will also try to answer the following research questions listed below: 1. What are the major livelihood challenges of the fishing communities around Lake Chamo? 2. Are there policy and institutional gaps to the management and sustainable use of the fish resource from the lake? 3. What are the determinants of intra household vulnerability to food or livelihood insecurity among the fishing communities? 4. What are their coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies?

1.5. Significance of the Study

It is the biological and ecological aspects of the Inland fisheries, which often get research attention. The social aspect of the small-scale fishing sector is usually neglected. Moreover, the majority of studies and scholarly works done in relation to natural resource management in Ethiopia focused mainly on sustainable use of privately hold farm lands, and common property resources like common grazing lands, communal forest management, and soil and water conservation on communal lands and privately hold farm lands. Little has been done on the appropriate use of common pool open access resources like fishery to the sustainable livelihoods of the small-scale fishing communities. In line with this, it is hoped that this research will fill some of the knowledge gaps in the area under study.

Basically, the research work will have contribution in revealing the major livelihood challenges of the fishing communities in the study area and draw some policy lessons and indicate implication. Thus, it is believed that the research findings will contribute some lessons to the policy makers, resource planners and managers, development practitioners and some implementing Government Organizations (GOs) and Non Governmental Organization (NGOs).

1.6. Scope of the Study

The study mainly focuses on the major challenges of sustainable livelihood, and the coping and adaptive strategies undertaken by the fishing communities of Lake Chamo. The study is limited to urban and rural fishing communities of Lake Chamo in Arbaminch Zuria Woreda, South Nation Nationalities and peoples Regional State (SNNPRS).

1.7. Limitation of the Study

Any research, undertaking faces certain limitations. Similarly, this research is not free from such limitations mainly caused by budget and time constraint. Among these, the rural non-cooperative members who undertake fishing in part time basis are not included in the study. Moreover, lack of sufficient literature on livelihood of inland fishing communities is another limitation of this research.

1.8. The Structure of the Thesis

The thesis is organized in to two parts with eight chapters. The first part includes chapter one up to chapter four, whereas the second part includes chapter five up to chapter eight.

Chapter one is the introductory part, which deals with the background, statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, the significance of the study, etc. Chapter two describes the research methodologies employed in the research. Basic concepts, the research framework, and literatures are reviewed in chapter three. The fourth chapter shows the general background of the Lake Chamo Basin. In chapter five of the second part, socio-economic profiles of the fishing communities who are included in the survey are described in general terms. The major livelihood challenges of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo are discussed in detail in chapter six. The seventh chapter deals with the household coping and adaptive strategies of the fishing communities in the context of food and livelihood insecurity. In the last chapter conclusion and recommendations are made for sustainable livelihood of the fishing communities in the study area.

CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

To address the research questions and the objectives, mixed methods mainly comprising qualitative and quantitative research are employed. Despite the fact that there are two competing schools of thoughts and perspectives on the importance and possibility of combining qualitative and quantitative research methods in a single research, scholarly works of White (2002), Creswell et al. (2003), Barrette (2004), Howe and McKay (2004), Degefa (2005), and others have revealed the appropriateness of the mixed method to analyze issues like livelihood, poverty, and food insecurity as cited in Degefa (Degefa, 2005:5-11).

2.1. The Study Area

The study is conducted in and around the town of Arbaminch, which is some 505 km away from Addis Ababa. Lake Chamo is located at 14 km distance from Arbaminch town, which is the capital town of Gamo Gofa Zone Administration, SNNPR. Lake Chamo is selected because of the exposure and experience of the researcher. Moreover, in the area the fishing communities livelihood mainly depends on it. Figure 2.1: Location of Lake Chamo.

Source: Ethio-GIS 6

Source: From Ethio-GIS and Field Data. Figure 2.2: Location of Fishing Communities and their Camping Sites

2.2. Sample Selection

Eighty five households are selected by non-probability sampling technique; especially stratified non-probability sampling is employed. This is mainly because; the study population seems to be found in a certain strata. For example urban and rural organized fishing co-operatives members, and non-members of rural and urban fishermen who operate privately. Moreover, there are fulltime fishermen whose livelihood is mainly depending on fishing and there are also part time fishermen who practice fishing as additional activity to farming and petty trade. So, care is taken to make the sample size representative from each stratum. Samples are also taken from the fishermen living in nearby peasant associations like Shelemela. Sampled households are selected purposively from each stratum.

Table2.1: Sampling Strata and Sample Size Taken from each Strata
Fishing communities Arbaminch Fishers co-operative association (AFCA) Chamo Fishers Co-operative Association (CFCA) Sego Fishers Co-operative Association (SFCA) Fishermen Outside Co-operative Association (FOCA) Total Total population 125 34 50 * * Sample size 26(20.8%) 10(29.4%) 12(24%) 37(*) 85 % 30.6 11.8 14.1 43.5 100

Note: * Exact number is not known

2.3. Data Source, Collection Methods & Tools

In order to achieve the objectives of the study primary data is generated from household survey, focus group discussion, case studies and key informant interview. Moreover, secondary data is used as supplementary.

Survey Survey employing pre-tested structured questionnaire on the samples selected households is the main method to generate primary data on household demography, source of livelihood, access to resource, food security /insecurity situation, household assets, the coping mechanisms and adaptive strategies, their social ties and networks, the level of communities' participation in

resource use and management, their perception towards the common pool resource use, and their income trend (see Annex-I).

Case Studies Case studies on ten households are conducted. It included eight male and two female household heads. Moreover, care is taken to include cases from different social status and both from organized and unorganized fishermen. Here, in-depth investigation is conducted to generate data regarding demographic profile, experience in fishing, contribution of fishing to the livelihood of the family, other livelihood strategies if any, household expenditure, its social, financial capital base. Moreover, the major challenges of the household and the coping and adaptive strategies are raised. Checklist was used to facilitate the data collection process.

Key Informant Interview Key informant interview is another method employed to collect first hand data. Here, eleven persons who have expertise knowledge, or who have life experience in the topic under study were interviewed in depth. People who have been working in the Woreda and Zonal Administration who have deep knowledge about fishery and fishing communities under the study were selected carefully (see Annex -II).

Focus Group Discussion Focus group discussions are conducted with the major stakeholders, which use the lake resource for different purposes. The first focus group is composed of 23 household heads most of whom are non-member of co-operative and currently shifting their livelihood strategies from fishing to farming being involved in the government resettlement program. The second focus group is consists of eight household heads who are non-member of fishers co-operative but full time fishermen. The third group is mixed of both member and non-member of co-operatives and they are eleven household heads. The fourth focus group contains fishermen and heads of the Chamo Fishers Co-operative Association. Checklist is used to facilitate the discussion and to guide the focus of the research (see Annex-II).

Field Observation Field observation is conducted to record the real events happening in the field and understand the fishing communities closely .It enabled to experience the remoteness, the wilderness of the shore where they conduct fishing. Moreover, it enabled to feel some of the challenges the fishermen face working on water bodies and realize the absence of basic social services. Secondary Source
The secondary data collected from the Woreda, Zonal Agricultural and Rural Development Department (ARDD) and from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), and other related offices and Departments. Secondary data on the trend of fish catch, Mesh size, and the fishing effort, the number of fishing firms, and fishermen engaged in full time and part time fishing, the urban population and the population of the Woreda and Zonal Administration, the technologies employed for fishing and transporting the products which directly or indirectly contribute to the resource depletion is collected.

Moreover, documented information related to the study is reviewed. Efforts have been made to review the existing literature and documents. Books, Journals, statistical abstracts, from different libraries are assessed. Internet websites is explored so as to collect up-date information about the subject area of the study.

2.4. Data Analysis

Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis techniques are employed. All the data obtained from the primary sources is tabulated in a various forms of data presentation, and then data is analyzed and interpreted. Similarly, the information obtained from focus group discussion and field observation is described in a qualitative manner. The trend and temporal variation of fishermen, fish catch, fishing effort, Mesh size, fishing technology, and fish price are analyzed using quantitative methods. Attempts have been made to use Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) for survey data entry and analysis. Moreover, perception of the income and livelihood situation and their views regarding government policies and support to fishing sub- sector and fishermen is analyzed using qualitative techniques. Triangulation, systematic content analysis and description are among the quantitative data analysis techniques applied. The level of data analysis is both household and community

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CHAPTR THREE: REVIEW OF BASIC CONCEPTS AND LITERATURE

3.1. Concepts and Framework for Analyzing Livelihood of Fishing Communities
3.1.1. Definition of Terms
Fishing communities: are both rural and urban who fish full time and part time to sustain their livelihood from the Lake Chamo fishery.

Common pool resources: are open access resources that are not owned by any body but constitutionally owned by the government and to which every body can have access. Common pool resource has two main characteristics. First, it is difficult to exclusion. Second, it is subtractable i.e. each user is capable of subtracting from the benefits that others drive from a common pool resource.

Property right: According to Fouroboth and Pejorich (1972), property right is a set of rules specifying the use of scarce resource and goods (Fouroboth and Pejorich cited in Yohannes, 1996).

Feeny et al. (1992) distinguish four regimes of property rights: private property, state property, communal property and open access property rights (Feeny et al cited in Yohannes, 1996). 1. Private property ownership: the right to exclusively use a resource and to regulate its use is vested in an individual or a group of individuals like a corporation. Resource management for sustainable use under private property regime is not relatively problematic. 2. State property right regime: rights are vested exclusively in government, which in turn makes decision concerning access to the resource and the level and nature of exploitation. Here, the general public has equal access and use right. According to Feeny et al. (1992), unlike others, the state has coercive power of enforcement (Feeny et al cited in Yohannes)

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3. Communal property ownership- Here, unlike open access resource, it is not free to all. An identifiable community with communal arrangements for exclusion of non-community member and regulation for use of the resource among the users is its characteristics. 4. Open access Property Right- represents de-facto no ownership for it grants the right to every body to use a given property without charge, permission, or hindrance for any purpose at any time. Feeny et al. (1992) in Yohannes (1996) define open access as the absence of well defined property right (yohannes, 1996:180). Dales (1992) defined as unowned except in a purely formal, constitutional sense and available to all (Dales cited in Yohannes, 1996:80). Resource management for sustainable development is most difficult under open access property right.

3.1.2. The Concept of Livelihood, Sustainability and Sustainable Livelihoods

The livelihood concept is relatively recent in the discourse of poverty, food security, natural resource management and development mainly associated with rural development. It is Chambers and Conway who are usually cited as the first scholars to define the concept of livelihoods (Scoones, 1998:2, Ellis, 2000:7, Degefa, 2005:72). According to Chamber and Conway (1992) in Ellis (2000) livelihood comprise the capabilities, assets (stores, resources, claims and access) and activities required for a means of living (cited in Ellis, 2000:7). Based on this definition, different scholars have tried to adopt and define the concept. Among others, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) team is one, which defined livelihood as follows: A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living (Scoones, 1998:2).

In both of these definitions the three building blocks of livelihood are capabilities, assets, and activities. However, in IDS definition, the assets are divided into material and social while in Chamber and Conway definition claims and access are also taken as assets. In the above definitions the capability is taken as a component of livelihood. The capability concept is derived from Sen (1993, 1997) and refers to the ability of individuals to realize their potential as human beings in the sense of being (i.e. to be adequately nourished, free of illness and so on) and doing

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(i.e. exercise choices, develop skills and experience, participate socially and so on) (cited in Ellis, 2000:7).

Similarly, Frank Ellis adopted the concept and modified the definition given by Chamber and Conway. According to him: A livelihood comprises the assets (natural, physical, human, financial, and social capital), the activities, and the access to these (modified by institutions and social relations) that together determine the living gained by the individual or household. (Ellis, 2000:9) In Ellis definition, the issue of capability is not explicitly put as in the others. However, it seems to be included in what he calls human capital. Moreover, in Ellis definition the assets of livelihood are clarified more and the issue of access is given much weight.

In the evolution of the concept of livelihood, different terminologies and concepts were borrowed and used from alternative structures of ideas. A good example as mentioned earlier is the use of the Amartya Sens concept of capability in the definition of livelihoods by Chambers and Conway (1992) and in the modified version of Scoones (1998) as cited by Ellis (2000:17). Because of this and different definitions being given the meaning of livelihood is elusive. According to Ellis the use of capabilities as a component in the definition of livelihood is potentially confusing since its meaning overlaps assets and activities (Ellis, 2000:17). According to Scoones, on the contrary, the use of the capability concept (Sen 1984, 1987) provided a wider definitional scope for the livelihoods concept (Scoones, 1998:3).

Similarly, the concept of sustainability is vague in spite of its wide use in issues associated with environment, livelihood, and development. Sustainability shows the capacity of a system to replenish itself or expand over time. In an ecosystem context, it refers to biomass and species diversity, but in its application to human needs, it means sustaining outputs available for human consumption, and therefore the capacity of a resource or system to keep up the same or increase its contribution to human welfare and well-being (Ellis, 2000:125).

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Thus, livelihood is said to be sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural capital (Scoones, 1998:3, Swift and Hamilton, 2001:87, Chambers & Conway, 1992:7 Cited in Ellis, 2000:7). In relation to sustainability of a system the terms like stresses and shocks are frequently used. According to Scoones, a stress is small, regular, predictable disturbance with cumulative effect on the system whereas a shock is a large, infrequent, unpredictable disturbance with immediate impacts (Scoones, 1998:4).

3.1.3. Sustainable Livelihoods Approaches, Its Framework,

Origin of SLAs and the Concept of Poverty

The sustainable livelihood approach is a new approach to poverty alleviation. The analysis of poverty conventionally takes into account mainly income and consumption as criteria. On the basis of this criteria, a person is poor only if his/her income level is below a certain poverty line, or if consumption falls below a stipulated minimum (Farrington et al. 1999:2). According to Chambers (1987), however, income is only one of a range of aspects, which the poor themselves highlight when they are asked what poverty means to them. Others include, a sense of insecurity or vulnerability, lack of a sense of voice, level of health, literacy, education, access to assets, etc. (Farrington et al. 1999:2).

As income /consumption model was found to be ineffective in the analysis of poverty, the basic needs perspective was developed as alternative approach as it views poverty beyond income and include the need for basic health and education, clean water and other services which assumed to prevent people from falling into poverty (Farrington et al. 1992:2). More recently, poverty has been defined in terms of the absence of basic capabilities to meet these physical needs, but also to achieve goals of participating in the life of the community and influencing decision-making. Sustainable livelihoods (SL) approaches draw on this improved understanding of poverty, but also on other streams of analysis, relating for instance to households, gender, governance, and farming systems, bringing together relevant concepts to allow poverty to be understood more holistically (Farrington et al. 1992:2).

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Sustainable Livelihoods Framework /SLF/ As a measure to reduce the number of poor people living in extreme poverty by half by 2015, Department for International Development (DFID) of UK consulted widely in order to increase its understanding of the nature of poverty and how it might be addressed. One of the outcomes of this consultation was the sustainable livelihoods (SL) framework. The framework is an analytical device for improved understanding of livelihood and poverty. (Farrington, et al. 1992:2)

Similarly, according to Swift and Hamilton, the sustainable livelihood framework is analytical framework, which attempts to widen our insight of how people use the resource at their disposal to construct their livelihood (Swift and Hamilton, 2001:82). The sustainable livelihood framework is first designed to analyze and improve rural livelihoods. However, it is also being used in urban areas with certain modification (Dessalegn, 2001, Swift and Hamilton, 2001:82, Degefa, 2005:85).

As livelihoods itself, the sustainable livelihood framework is dynamic that different scholars based on Scoones have modified and attempted to put it in basically similar but with a slight different form to suit their analysis. In most of the presentations of the framework, the major five components are usually recognized with different terminology and sequence. These are the context, livelihood resources, institutions, livelihood strategies, and livelihood outcomes (Scoones, 1998:2, Ellis, 2000:31,Swift and Hamilton, 2001:82, Degefa, 2005:89). However, some scholars like Scoones (1998:2), Ellis (2000:30), and Degefa (2005:89) differentiated and disaggregated the livelihood activities and the adaptive and coping strategies and made the major components of the sustainable livelihood framework into six as context, resources, access modifiers, productive activities, coping and adaptive strategies and outcomes. In most of the works of the scholars the sustainable livelihood framework is presented in sequential twodimensional view (Scoones, 1998:2, DFID, 1999, Ellis, 2000:31, Swift and Hamilton, 2001:82, Degefa, 2005:89).

However, recently International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) developed an alternative livelihood framework. The IFAD team criticized the original sustainable livelihood

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framework developed by DFID and others for not actually placing the poor in the center of the framework. Moreover, the horizontal arrangement of the sustainable livelihood framework of DFID and others is criticized for it encourages a left to right reading. According to IFAD team the poor themselves tend to be easily lost within the livelihood framework previously designed by DFID and modified by others (Hamilton J, 2002:2). IFADs SL Framework is less sequential and it is circular and puts the poor at the center and rearranged all important linkages among different elements in the framework. The rearrangement has given greater salience and the relations among different elements have become more immediately apparent (Hamilton, 2002:3). Moreover, the IFAD, alternative SL Framework incorporated additional group of livelihood assets-personal assets to the five contained in the original SL Framework.

3.1.4. Major Components of SLF

Contexts/Settings The contexts or the settings are the most important aspects of the sustainable livelihood framework in the analysis of rural poverty. According to Scoones (1998) the contexts are the conditions and the trends which include history, politics, economic trends, climate, agro-ecology, demography, and social differentiation. Similarly, Carney (1998) named it as vulnerability context, which comprises many of the same factors listed under context by Scoones (Carney cited in Ellis, 2000:37).

Ellis similarly based on Scoones (1998) and Carney (1998) adopted the framework and acknowledged the importance of context in livelihood analysis. According to Ellis, livelihood is constructed in a context of trends and shocks. In his adopted SL Framework, the trends include population migration, technological change, relative price, macro-policy, national economic trends, and world economic trends. The shocks include natural and man made catastrophes like drought, floods, pests, diseases, and civil wars.

Degefa (2005:89) in his part adopted the SL Framework from Scoones (1998) Carney (1998), Ellis (2000) and Devereux (2003) and categorized the context in to three namely shocks, trends, and broader contexts (which include government changes, ideological shifts, inappropriate rural

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policies, land reallocation, and marketing situation) while analyzing rural poverty and food insecurity in Ethiopia.

The emphasis given to context in almost all analysis of sustainable livelihood is with the belief that development and change are path dependant that present livelihood options are affected to certain degree by the previous events (Swift and Hamilton, 2001:84). Moreover, development efforts at community or micro level could be affected by socio-economic, political, and policy environments at national or global level.

In sustainable livelihood analysis of the small scale fishing communities in the study area, the contexts could be the overall national economic development trends, especially rural development trends, the overall political and socio-economic condition of the country, ineffective and exclusive rural development policies which give less attention to fishery sub-sector and fishermen, trends of population pressure, trends of rural to urban migration, market, up-stream deforestation and siltation.

Assets
The other basic components of the SL Framework are the assets. The assets could be those which are owned, controlled, claimed or in some other means accessed. They are the capital base upon which households are able to undertake production, engage in labor markets, and participate in reciprocal exchanges with other households.

According to Scoones assets are the basic material and social, tangibles and intangibles upon which the ability of a household depends to pursue different livelihood strategies (Scoones, 1998:5). Similarly, Ellis describes assets as stocks of capital that can be utilized directly, or indirectly, to generate the means of survival of the household or to sustain its material well-being at different levels above survival (Ellis, 2000:31).

In the analysis of SL, different researchers have identified and grouped assets into various categories. Among others, Swift (1989) grouped assets into three broad categories namely investments, stores and claims. According to the same writer investments include human,

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individual and collective assets; stores include food stores, items of value such as gold, and money in the bank; and claims include reciprocal claims on other households, and claims on patrons (chiefs, etc), government, and even on the international community. On the other hand, Maxwell and Smith (1992) in a food security context, grouped assets into productive capital, nonproductive capital, human capital, income and claims(Maxwell and Smith cited in Ellis, 2000:32).

Similarly, Reardon and Vosti (1998) classified assets into natural resource assets, human resource assets, on-farm physical and financial resources, off-farm physical and financial resources (Reardon and Vosti cited in Ellis, 2000:32). Moser (1998) on his part categorized assets of a household into labor, human capital, productive assets, household relations, and social capital (Moser cited in Ellis, 2000:32).

Recent literatures on the analysis of SL by DFID, Scoones (1998:5), Swift and Hamilton (2001:83), Ellis (2000:32) categorized the assets into five groups namely natural capital, physical capital, human capital, financial capital, and social capital. However, very recently, the IFAD team came up with a new alternative sustainable livelihood framework as indicated earlier and it incorporated a new asset. The IFAD team calls it personal assets. According to the IFAD team the personal assets are those factors which may affect the choices of individuals and households regarding their livelihoods. The personal assets include peoples internal motivations, their will to act and promote change, their drive to assert their right, and their spiritual side of their lives (Hamilton et al. 2002:4).

From this it is evident that as sustainable livelihood itself is dynamic, the framework used to analyze it is also changing with new concepts and ideas. Thus, it is too difficult to list exhaustively all the assets of sustainable livelihood and categorize them into distinct groups. The categorizations used in most of the scholarly works by (Scoones; 1998, Ellis: 2000, Swift and Hamilton, 2001) have been reviewed in brief in the following section. Natural Capital: include the land, water, and biological resources which people use to generate means of survival. Sometimes natural capitals are termed as environmental resources and are thought of jointly as comprising the environment (Ellis, 2000:32). In fishing livelihoods the most important natural capital is the fisheries resource with its ecosystem. 18

Physical Capital: are physical assets that are created by economic production process. In economic terms, it is defined as producer goods as it is purchased in order to create a flow of output in the future (Ellis, 2000: 33). It includes buildings, irrigation canals, roads, tools, machines, and soon. Infrastructural assets like roads, power lines, and water supplies are also important physical assets that facilitate livelihood diversification. (Ellis, 2000:33) Human Capital: According to Carney (1998), human capital refers to the labor available to the household: its education, skills, and health (Carney cited in Ellis, 2000:33). Investment in education and training and the skills acquired through pursuing one or more occupations improve the human capital of a household. Similarly, better health condition of a household improves the efficiency and effectiveness of labor as an asset (Ellis, 2000:34). Financial Capital: refers to stock of money to which the household has access. It comprises savings, access to credit in the form of loans. According to Frank Ellis, the absence of financial markets or distrust of such financial institutions in many societies, result in savings being held in other forms. In rural Sub-Saharan Africa, the keeping of livestock often plays an important role as store of wealth and as security to bad times (Ellis, 2000:34). Similarly, according to Swift (1989) gold, jewelry, and food stocks are put as alternative means of holding for varying periods (Swift cited in Ellis, 2000:34). Social Capital: Moser (1998) defined social capital as reciprocity within communities and between households based on trust deriving from social ties (Moser cited in Ellis, 2000:36). According to Frank Ellis, however, the definition given by Moser puts the emphasis on localized reciprocity. Ellis in his part broadens the definition of social capital as community and wider level social claims in which individuals and households can draw by virtue of their belonging to social groups of varying degrees of inclusiveness in society at large (Ellis, 2000:36).

Mediating Processes
In the analysis of sustainable livelihood mediating processes are the basic components of the framework. Mediating processes are those elements, which can promote or influence the access of various assets by a household or by a group of people in pursuing different portfolios of livelihood strategies (Ellis, 2000:31). 19

Different scholars in analyzing SL used the concept of mediating processes with slightly different term and scales. For example, in DFIDs SL Framework it is termed as transforming structures (levels of government, private sector) and processes (laws, policies, culture, institutions) (Farrington et al, 1999:3). Swift and Hamilton, on their part, consider mediating processes as institutions and organization (Swift and Hamilton, 2001:83). Similarly, in Degefas adapted livelihood framework, the mediating processes include institutions, organization and social relations (Degefa, 2005:89). Social relations Refer to social position of individuals and households within a society. It comprises such factors as gender, caste, class, age, ethnicity and religion (Ellis, 2000:38). In rural areas such factors are very influential in determining access to resources. Institutions According to North (1990) institutions are the formal rules, conventions and informal codes of behavior that comprises constraints on human interaction. Example of institution, include laws, land or water tenure arrangements, the ways market work in practice (North cited in Ellis, 2000:38). Why institutions are important in the analysis of the SL? According to Scoones, understanding institutional process allows the identification of restrictions/barriers and opportunities (or gate ways) to sustainable livelihoods. The writer further argues that understanding of institutions and organization is the basis to designing interventions which improve sustainable livelihoods (Scoones, 1998:11).

According to Johnson (1997) institutional sustainability is important. The author argues that institutional sustainability may be put into question when significant change occurs in contextual setting. The writer further argues that common property regimes may work successfully under condition of abundance and equality, but rapidly fail if demand for the resource out strips supply, or if distribution power in the community become imbalance (Cited in Swift and Hamilton, 2001:86). Institutional sustainability doesnt negate their dynamic nature. According to Scoones,

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institutions are dynamic, continually being shaped and reshaped over time. They are part of a process of social negotiations, rather than fixed objects or bounded social systems (Scoones, 1998:10).

As power relations are embedded within institutional forms, individuals and groups to construct their own strategies of resource access can manipulate institutions and organization. Different institutional arrangements frame access to and use of resources differently for different groups (Swift and Hamilton, 2001:85). Organization According to North (1990) organization are groups of individuals bound by some common purpose to achieve objectives (North cited in Ellis, 2000:38). Government Agencies, Administrative bodies, NGOs, Associations and Private companies are examples of organization. Activities and Livelihood Strategies Livelihood strategies are composed of activities that generate the means of household survival. According to Barrett and Reardon (2000) cited in Tesfaye (2003) activities are the particular uses to which productive assets are put (Tesfaye, 2003:119). The activities carried out by rural households can be categorized in different ways. Ashley and Carney (1999) grouped activities on the basis of whether activities use natural resources as input or not. natural resource based activities include, collections of item such as fuel wood and fruit, fishing, pastoralism, food cultivation, non-food cultivation, livestock keeping, weaving, thatching, so on. Non-natural resource based activities include: trade, services, manufacturing, remittance, and other transfers (Ellis, 2001:41, Ashley and Carney cited in Tesfaye, 2003:119). On the other hand, Barrett and Reardon (2000) as cited in Tesfaye (2003) classified livelihood activities by sector as farm versus non-farm, by function, wage versus self employment and by space, local versus migratory (Tesfaye, 2003:119).

According to Scoones there are three strategy types, with respect to which different configurations of assets mediating process activities apply. These are: Agricultural intensification or extensification 21

Livelihood diversification and Migration

Agricultural intensification: refers to the increase of output per hectare of land or animal by application of more labor, capital or technology. In the case of fishing it could be increase of fish catch per hectare of water body by applying more labor or improved fishing technologies without actually passing the maximum sustainable yield. The key assets here are land and water body for agricultural intensification, attention is directed towards the institutions and organizations that facilitate technical change in agriculture (Ellis, 2000:41, Swift and Hamilton, 2001:86).

Extensive Agriculture: refers to a strategy of livelihood where more land, or animal, or water body (in the case of fishing) is brought into production process at the same levels of labor, capital, or technology (Swift and Hamilton, 2001:86).

Livelihood diversification: refers to a livelihood strategy of a household where their economic activities are diversified from reliance on farming (livestock or cropping) to seeking a wider range of on- and off-farm sources of income (Ellis, 2000:41, Swift and Hamilton, 2001:86)

Diversification as a livelihood strategy is either carried out by necessity or choice. Davies (1996) considers diversification either survival or choice whereas Hart (1994) looks diversification as survival or accumulation (Davies, 1996; Hart 1994; cited in Ellis, 2000:55). Necessity or survival diversification is a strategy of livelihood which aims at coping with temporary adversity or more permanent adaptation of livelihood activities, when other options failing to provide a livelihood. On the contrary, choice diversification is voluntary action for the purpose of accumulation (Scoones, 1998:7).

Migration is another livelihoods strategy adopted by households. People move from their initial source of livelihood, and seek a living in another livelihood system. The causes of migration could be voluntary or involuntary.

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Figure 3.1: A Framework for Analyzing Livelihood of the Fishing Communities

Context/settin g Assets/ Capitals Mediating process Activities and Livelihood adaptive Social relations Membership of a community Membership to Ider Membership to Iqub Kinship Desired Outcome Resilient Food secured

Livelihood Outcomes

Fishing Farming Petty trade Choice diversification social transfer reduce consumption family splitting sale of assets distress migration

International Context Structural adjustment program National Context National development trends Rural development policies Population pressure

Natural capital Physical capital

Human capital Financial capital

Local Context Reduced land holding size Rural-urban migration Little job opportunity Poor wet land management Ever depleting fishery resource Natural disasters

Social capital

Institutions Fisheries development and utilization proclamation Poorly managed CPRs regime Assistant' to a cooperative member

Undesired outcome Fragile Food insecure Poverty Unsustainable resource utilization Unsustainable livelihood

Organization Regional, zonal Woreda Administration Regional, Zonal Woreda ARDD Cooperative Desk Fishers cooperative association

Source: Adapted from Scoones (1998), Ellis (2000), Swift and Hamilton (2001), Degefa (2005)

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3.1.5. Principles of SLA

SL approaches are strategies for alleviation of rural poverty and bringing sustainable rural development. They have strengths over other conventional rural development approaches, like sector (project) approach, basic needs approach, and integrated development approach, and so on. This is mainly because of the fundamental principles on which they are based: The core principles of SL approaches are as follows: A Focus on People Sustainable livelihood approaches (SLAs) put people at the center of development. This means, practical application of SL concepts: Start with an analysis of peoples livelihoods and how these have been changing over time. Fully involve people and support them in achieving their own livelihoods. Focus on the impacts of different policy and institutional arrangements on peoples livelihoods. Show how informal institutions often fit situations better than formal ones and hence are preferred by the main actors. Seek to influence institutional and policy arrangements so as to promote the agenda of the poor. (Farrington et al., 1997:4) Holism SL approaches allow the identification of livelihood related opportunities and constraints regardless of where these occur. SL approaches are: Non-sectoral and applicable across social groups.

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Recognize multiple influences on people, and seek to understand the relationships between these influences.

Recognize multiple actors (private sector, NGOs, Government bodies, Community Based Organizations, Communities, so on).

Provide complex picture, they give a truer impression of rural life and poverty; for instance, by showing that strategies such as diversification and migration are rational livelihood strategies, rather than new and disparate phenomena.

Seek to achieve multiple livelihood outcomes, to be determined and negotiated by people themselves. (Farrington et al., 1997:4) Macro-Micro Links

SL approaches attempt to link the micro, meso, and macro levels, and ensure learning and information sharing at all levels (Toner and Franks, 2005:5). Dynamism and Optimism SL Approaches:Place current events in their dynamic context, rather than looking at a snapshot of a situation at a single moment in time. View current situation as outcomes of past changes (Swift et al., 2000:91). Are optimistic. As indicated by Moser (1998) SL Approaches seek to identify what the poor have rather than what they do not have and to strengthen peoples own incentive solutions, rather than substitute for block or undermine them (Ellis, 2000:23). Sustainability SL approaches final target is ensuring sustainable livelihoods. SL approaches seek sustainability in four levels:

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Financial sustainability where the system is sustainable without outside funding. Institutional sustainability to what extent the newly introduced institutions to alleviate poverty fit or integrate with the existing institutions. Environmental sustainability to maximize the sustainable use of natural resources with minimized waste and pollution. Social sustainability minimizes social exclusion, and complements the local cultural context (Toner and Frank, 2005:5).

3.1.6. Importance of SLA as Applied to Fisheries

The SLA as applied to fisheries can assist to understand the nature of poverty and entry points to alleviate it. This is because the approach: looks at more than just catch or production levels. helps with recognition that fisheries support more people than if only consider production. can help to identify opportunities for diversification to help with overexploitation of inland water bodies and marine fisheries. can help administrators understand that fishing communities have needs problems, and opportunities outside the sector. helps to understand the synergy between stakeholders at all level. supplements money-metric assessments of poverty, and helps to explain the causality of poverty. enhance policy makers understanding of human and social capital for developing antipoverty strategies. focuses on vulnerability to make analysis dynamic and flexible(FAO,2002:5).

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3.1.7. Some Challenges of SLA

In spite of the strengths mentioned earlier, the SLAs are not free of weakness in analyzing rural poverty. Ellis has identified some: Livelihood security, which is in large part about perceptions, but which derive behaviors and practice, are difficult to measure. SL approaches, though they are good at finding problems, they are less good at finding solutions. SL approaches give little attention to distributional issues, despite an implicit concern for the poorest. (Ellis, 2000:91) The relative importance of the various asset types in the asset Pentagon of SL approaches is known little (FAO, 2002:5) Similarly, according to Bryceson (1999), the SL approaches narrow the focus on household welfare and agriculture. According to the same author, the SLA doesnt consider a bigger development perspective outside agriculture. The writer argues that African agriculture is no longer viable and there is a need for policy shift outside agriculture, which is not incorporated in the SLAs (Ellis, 2000:92). On the contrary to this view, Carney asserts that as over 850 million people in the world are undernourished, the SLAs should give due focus to agricultural productivity and that they help increase the poor peoples access to food (Carney, 2006:1).

In the foregoing section of this chapter the basic concepts and the framework for analyzing the livelihood of fishing communities is discussed. In the next section, attempts are made to review related literatures and some research findings.

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3.2. Resource Degradation, Access and livelihoods

3.2.1. Resource Degradation and Livelihoods
Various researches at macro level have indicated that natural resource degradation and depletion has the most immediate impact on rural poverty. Rural poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, and under-nutrition are closely linked to the degradation of environment, as poverty depletes natural resource, which in turn aggravates the suffering of the rural poor. When people's survival is at stake they are forced to farm marginal lands, to reduce fallow periods, to cut vital forests in their search for arable land or fuel, to overstock fragile rangelands and to over fish rivers, lakes, and costal waters (Indriss, et al., 1992: 305).

The interplay of natural resource degradation, poverty, food insecurity is so complex that one reinforces the other. The nexus could be looked both at national level and at household level. At the national level studies indicate that there are different patterns of relationship between economic growth (per capita income) and resource degradation (World Bank: 1992, 2002 cited in Alemu 2003: 10). According to Alemu, for some resource degradation problems, as incomes (per capita) rise resource quality worsens until a certain level of income, after which the resource quality improves. This has led to what is known as grow now and clean up later approach. However, studies also indicate that the extent of relationship is different for different countries depending on the level of knowledge, environmental policies pursued, and environmental awareness and institution by countries at the same level of per capita income (World Bank, 2002, cited in Alemu, 2003: 10).

At the household level there are various views concerning the link between resource degradation and poverty. The mainstream view is that poverty is a major cause of resource degradation (WCED, 1987; World Bank, 1992 cited in Alemu Mekonen (2003: 10). Alemu
further stated that even if poverty is not the direct 'cause' of resource degradation, it could have indirect role in affecting the designing of appropriate policies (Alemu, 2003: 10).However, while poverty and resource degradation may be positively correlated, correlation does not imply causation (Barbier, 1999 cited in Alemu ,2003: 11). He argues that a more complex set of variables comes into play when looking at the links between poverty, food insecurity and resource change. Demographic, cultural, and institutional factors and market failure are considered as important

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variables in the poverty resource degradation nexus (Alemu 2003: 11). However, most of the researchers agree that the poor are victims of resource degradation.

The resource depletion and degradation becomes worse when it is an open access common pool resource with high demand. Moreover, inefficient management due to inappropriate policies and institution aggravates the situation. It is exacerbated when there are external factors that degrade ecological balance of the resource and where there are diverse users of the resource.

3.2.2. The Role of Common Pool Resources (CPRs) to Livelihoods

Accesses to common pool resources (CPRs) have substantial contribution to livelihoods of the rural poor, especially to small and marginal farmers, fishermen and landless laborers. As indicated by Central Research Institute for Dry Land Agriculture (CRIDA) India, the CPRs have widened the range of income generating activities available to people in rural areas, provide input to agriculture, and served as a safety net for people in drought years, in terms of income generation and food supply. CRIDA further asserted that CPRs have played a major role in peoples coping strategies in drought years and the events of other contingencies in most of semi arid India (www.nri.org).

Similarly, conducting a field study on common pool resources and poverty in India, Beck and Nesmith have estimated that CPRs contribute significant portion to the income of poor rural
households (Nesmith cited in Johnson, 2004: 416).

Judha, in his part measured the resource and incomes provided by various types of commons and have made a convincing case that the rural poor are disproportionately dependant on the low pay off options offered by common pool resources (Judha cited in Johonson, 2004: 417).

In line with this, Bernus (1988) suggests that in Sahel region where annual rainfall is low and its distribution erratic, the products obtained from CPRs have been critical elements in the livelihood and survival of many rural communities, particularly in times of drought (Bernus cited in Williams, 1988). The writer further continues that in Nigeria, in dry years when the millet crop fails, fruits of trees from CPRs are collected and pounded into flour that is used to prepare different kinds of food.

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Similarly, the sales of products like stimulant leaves, fruits, fodder, and firewood collected from CPRs provide an important contribution to household income.

According to research conducted by FAO, the access to CPRs, such as fishery is especially important to maintain household well being in the face of shocks and crises as livelihood strategies and coping mechanisms. Fishing can play an important role as a safety valve when agricultural production or livelihood strategies in non-fishing communities are under threat due to vulnerability to land degradation adjacent to inland water bodies (FAO, 2006:6). Nevertheless, common pool resources, like inland fisheries on which the livelihoods of the poor fishermen depend might be depleted and degraded due to poor management practices and inappropriate policies and institution. The resource base of open access fisheries might be ruined due to other factors like rural poverty and ecological degradation due to lack of integrated wet land management practices. Where pressure on a common pool resource is very high due to different factors, the resource will become degraded and its productivity will suffer and hence the peoples who depended on CPRs would be vulnerable to temporal or chronic food insecurity and poverty (Williams, 1998).

3.2.3. Thoughts on CPRs Management to Sustainable Livelihoods

There are schools of thoughts, which compete in the literature of common pool resource management for sustainable livelihoods. One is responding to Hardian's tragedy of the unmanaged commons, which is primarily concerned with the problem of achieving collective action to conserve natural resources that are both depleted and unregulated. The second one is influenced by notions of moral economy such as Scott (1976), Thompson (1971), and entitlement
Sen (1981) deals with the problem of creating and sustaining resource access for poor and vulnerable groups in society (Beck, 1994; Jodha, 2001; Mosse, 1997 cited in Craig Johonson ,2004: 408).

As a consequence, scholars have long questioned the incentive for efficient and sustainable use of common pool resources (Gordon, 1954; Scotl, 1955; Hardin, 1968) and solutions have been proposed, such as state control and management or privatization of the commons (Demsetz, 1964 as cited in Adhikari, 2001: 1).

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The property rights school argues that private property is the most efficient way to internalize the externalities that arise from CPRs use. It also makes the contention that private property right will spontaneously emerge in reality to increase efficiency (Demsetz, 1967, cited in Adhikari, 2001). However, Adger argues that allocating property right has not always led to successful management of common pool resources. According to him other institutional arrangements such as comanagement or collective action may lead to more supportive management. He argued that there are many cases where private property rights have been allocated but management has not been supported because local stakeholders' interests have not been considered. He further noted that the top-down allocation of property rights alone is not adequate to prevent resource degradation of common pool resources (Adger, 2003). An increasing number of scholars, however, advocate that decentralized collective management of CPRs by their users could be an appropriate system for overrating the tragedy of the unmanaged commons (Berkes, 1989; Ostrom, 1990, 1994) as cited in Adhikari (2001). Similarly Adger agrees on the importance of collective management of resources but poses conditions under which it is successful. He argues that success has been the result of a comply interaction of the resource, the technology of enforcement, the relationship between resources and user groups, the features of the user groups, and the relationship between users and the state and legal system(Adeger,2003)

Under this formulation according to Wade (1988),Ostrom (1990) and others, the likelihood of successful management is affected by a number of factors. First, the boundaries of the physical resource should be defined. The more clearly defined the greater the chance of successful common pool resource management. Second, if the users are residents in the location of the resource then this increase chance of success through reducing enforcement cost. Enforcement and other transaction costs are weighted against the benefits from the resource. Third, the greater the demand for the output and high reliance on the resource within a livelihood system, the greater the chance of successful commons property management. Fourth, the better defined the user group, the greater chance of success. He further stated that congruence between appropriation and provision rules and local conditions is a critical prerequisite for successful management. Taylor (1988) Supporting this idea argues that community is the most important (Taylor cited in Adger, 2003: 198).

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3.2.4. Contribution &Constraints of Small scale Fisheries to Food Security and Poverty Alleviation
Fish has historically played an important role in food security in many countries and contributes to do so in globally, providing 15-16 percent of animal protein intake. The importance of fish products in many coastal, lake and floodplain areas is very much grater than this global average (FAO, 2006:5). Small-scale marine and inland fisheries play great role in food security through the preservation and processing of fish for trade to inland markets. Inland fisheries may contribute more to national and local food security because of the subsistence nature of much of the fishing activity. Moreover, small scale fishing, marketing and processing provide an important means of income generation for many of the poor and food insecure and who are not officially categorized as small scale fisheries .In Ethiopian context, this is especially true to those who are engaged in fish filleting at landing beach, fish transporting by human labor, fish retailing and those who are preparing fish food for local consumption

According to FAO, the ability of small-scale fisheries to contribute to food security and poverty alleviation can be constrained due to stock depletion, lack of access to capital, limited alternative employment opportunities, and lack of appropriate technology. However, constraints in the form of governance and policy issues over access to and control over aquatic environments and the distribution of benefits accruing from these resources is probably the most important (FAO, 2006:6)

Understanding the major constraints of the small-scale fisheries, FAO has come up with Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) to achieve food security and alleviate poverty. The FAO, CCRF is coherent set of principles, rules, ethics, and standards that should be considered by nations, and regional fishery organizations and arrangements, NGOs, and industries as well as other stakeholders of the fishery sector in relation to the conservation, management, and development of fisheries on sustainable basis (FAO, 2002).

Although, FAO members as of October 1995 adopted the CCRF, it has faced constraints to implement. The major constraints identified by FAO, include inadequate institutional and

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technical Capacity, inadequate funding, lack of information, inappropriate legislative framework, and socio-economic implication of reducing fishing efforts (FAO, 2002:8)

3.2.5. Poverty and Vulnerability in Small Scale Fishing Communities

Unlike farming, livestock rearing, and urban poverty there are limited studies of the nature, extent and causes of poverty in fishing communities.

A study carried out in the Hobyo fishing village in Somalia revealed that nearly all the households were found to be living below the poverty line established for the study. Studies also indicated that fishing communities in Ghana, Mauritania and Sierra Leone are also unable
to attain minimum level of subsistence. In Mauritania they are considered a lower social caste. The same study warned that the suffering endured by the poor fishing communities would increase as their fishing grounds are increasingly exploited by modern fishing fleets (FAO, 1994).

Bene et al. (2000) conducting a research on livelihood strategies of fishermen in northern Cameroon and have identified that the level of livelihoods diversification is the most important factor in determining the well-being categories in fishing communities. The writers mentioned that the poorest rely in a larger proportion on fishing (Bene et al., 2000: 1). Adger et al. on their part conducting a research on socio-economic condition of inland fisheries have identified that the richest fishers are those with ownership and access rights (Adger et al. cited in Bene et al., 2000: 5).

According DFID sustainable Fisheries livelihoods program (2001) in a study conducted in Ghana, the constraints and vulnerability of fisheries communities are mainly due to resource depletion, increasing competition on open access resources, inequitable use of resources, natural disasters like storms, and over-reliance on one type of asset and lack of options. Moreover, lack of government support, remote locations and poor services, low literacy and innumeracy, and weak organization capacity are other factors that expose fishing communities to poverty (DFID, 2001, 23-25).

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According to FAO report (2002), poverty in small-scale fishing communities is multidimensional phenomena and cannot be exclusively attributed to endogenous factors within the fisheries sector such as over fishing or excess fishing capacity (FAO, 2002: 5). The same report shows that for reducing poverty in small-scale fisheries control of over access by a certain group or individual, reduce power of the middle men, sustainable exploitation, protecting from industrial vessels, and alternative employment opportunities perhaps are important and widely supported (FAO, 2002: 5).

Another similar study conducted by FAO on strategies for sustainable contribution of small scale fisheries to food security and poverty alleviation states that many small scale fishing communities are isolated from land based society, not only geographically, but also socioeconomically, culturally and politically. According to the study, this is demonstrated by the often disproportional low investment in management, research and support for the sector relative to the many people involved. As a result, the small scale fishing communities are vulnerable, leading to poverty and reduced food security due to climatic and other events like seasonal or yearly fluctuations in stock abundance, poor catches, bad weather, economic factors such as market price fluctuations and variable access to market, policy factors affecting the right of small-scale fishers, and occupational factors such as the dangers of working at sea or lake. Moreover, environmental degradation from natural or human-induced causes further increases vulnerability (FAO, 2003: 4).

3.2.6. Experience of Some Countries in Fisheries Management to Sustainable Livelihoods

In fisheries management, according to Adger, some countries have implemented private property rights, while others have seen the necessary evolution of the local management in the absence of the state (Adger, 2003: 195).

Ruddle (1998) and others have demonstrated the historical persistence of the Van Chai village fisheries system in Vietnam, whereby each local ancestral shrine in villages laid down the rules for fishing, including acceptable technologies, profit sharing and dispute conciliation (Ruddle cited in Adger, 2003: 197). White (1994) on his part demonstrates a range of co-management

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solutions to coral reef management where the state has been ineffective in preventing overuse, the sharing of rights with local user can, in particular circumstances, lead to more sustainable management outcomes (White cited in Adger 2003: 197).
Similarly, Maarten asserts that the state is not the only party involved in regulation of resource use and management. He argues users of the natural resources also have strong ideas about rights and duties, and create organizational structures to put them in to practices (Maarten, 2003: 634).

In countries like Chile, New Zealand an individual transferable quota system has replaced state regulation of fisheries to promote sustainable harvesting (Hughey et.al. 2000; Pena, Jorres, 1999, cited in Adger, and 2003: 197). According to Ben-Yami and Anderson (1985), in many areas small-scale fishermen compete with each other for limited and declining resources, or are forced to compete with larger, commercial or industrial scale operators. In such situation management on regulation of fisheries, however, is often highly political issue which can be solved for the benefit of the small-scale fishermen only if the government is prepared to take the legal, political and enforcement steps necessary to redistribute the resource (Ben-Yami and Anderson, 1985: 2).
Finally, Adger argues that neither co-management nor the emergence of collective action is ever simply spontaneous phenomena. Governments, agencies of governments, or private resource owners do not easily give up their vested interests and power bases (Adger, 2003: 198).

Most of them, however, agree on the importance of appropriate institution for management of common pool resources, in this case fisher resource. Why fishery management and sustainable use of the resource? The answer recalls among others an address speech made in 1984 by Saouma on FAO world conference on fisheries management. Behind the abstract terminology of fisheries management and development, lies the real world of the fisherman. It is a world in which he leads an often difficult and frustrating existence, facing dangers greater than those that attend upon the farmer, and sometimes for less reward above all his courage and tenacity of purpose deserve our full respect. Let us remember, too, that fishermen families in many parts of the developing world live in remote areas, and are among the poorest of the poor (FAO, 1984).

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3.2.7. Fisheries Sector in the Rural Livelihoods and Economy of Ethiopia

Lake fisheries have in the past played a very negligible role in the household income of the rural people and the national economy. The main reason is people neither fished for sale, neither barter nor even use for home consumption as most of the lakes are located in areas where malarial mosquitoes are widely spread. Moreover, land-based resources including forests, arable land for settled agriculture and pastureland for cattle rearing were abundant (Bossche et al., 1991:14).

However, the drastic growth of population during the last four decades has led to land degradation, shortage of agricultural land and depletion of natural forests from the rain fed highlands. This has caused occupational migration of highland people to the low lands, including certain lake-sides with basic infrastructure e.g. roads, and medical facilities which are gradually eradicating malaria (Bossech et al.,1991:14) Hence, recently fishing is playing the most important role in the rural economy in terms of employment, income generation, and nutrition especially in areas near Rift Valley Lakes.

Fishing from inland water bodies in the country is carried out as a main source of livelihoods for people who are engaged in full time and as a coping mechanism to seasonal and part time fishers. A recent report by Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has estimated that the number of people engaged in fishing to be about 15,000 (MARD, Unpublished document). Similarly research conducted by COMESA has revealed that fishery sub sector in Ethiopia contributes about US$10 million to the economy (COMESA,
2004:29).Though this amount is small proportion almost less than 1 percent of the GDP, the local level and household level importance of the sub-sector is very great. In fishing related activities like fish gutting, flitting, transporting, marketing, and net and local boat making the number of people who are engaged as source of livelihoods is much higher around those major fishing lakes and rivers of Ethiopia. The major factors causing increased engagement in fisheries are the free access to the resource, high rate of unemployment, increased cost of meeting basic needs, privatization of fish trade and increased producers price, and higher earnings than certain other agricultural sectors (Bossche et al., 1991:12)

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In spite of the contribution of small-scale fisheries to the livelihood of considerable number of poor people in Ethiopia, the resource base of the lakes on which the lion share of fish production of the country depends is recently under threat. Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research (IBCR) of Ethiopia have identified that weak institution for fish management and proper use, low awareness, discontinuity of research on wet land, poverty and lack of alternative means of livelihoods, dependence of local communities on natural forest as source of energy, human and livestock pressure, and Erratic rain fall as threats common to all lakes in Ethiopia (IBCR, 2000:36) To alleviate the problem, the Federal Government of Ethiopia came up with a fisheries

development and utilization proclamation in 2003, mainly covering utilization, access, and environmental aspects (Proclamationno.315/2003). Following this some Regional States like Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS) have issued their respective fishery resources management and development proclamation (Proclamation number 78/2004).

The fisheries management and development proclamation of the Federal and Regional States is not yet supplemented by specific rules and regulation. Hence, it is quite difficult to put in place the

specific fish resource management tools for sustainable livelihoods of the fishermen. In this chapter we have discussed the SlAs, SLF and its components in relation with smallscale fishing communities and related literatures on livelihoods of small-scale fishers. In the coming chapter efforts are made to highlight the study area.

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CHAPTER FOUR: OVERVIEW OF LAKE CHAMO BASIN

4.1. Lake Chamo and its Basin
4.1.1. Location of Lake Chamo
Lake Chamo is one of the southern Rift Valley lakes wholly situated in Ethiopia. Though its most part is found in Gamo Gofa Zone, in Arbaminch Zuria Woreda, the lake is also bounded by different Woredas like Amaro, Dheresh, and Konso Special Woredas of South Nations Nationalities and Peoples' Regional State (SNNPRS) (EMA, 1988). Astronomically Lake Chamo

is located between 50 41' 40" North up to 50 58' North latitude and 370 27' East up to37040' East longitude (EMA, 1988) (see page 6 and 7).

4.2. Physical Properties of Lake Chamo

Lake Chamo has an average altitude of 1108 m. a. s. l. It has a surface area of 350 km2, a mean and maximum depth of 6 and 13 meter respectively (EPA, Unpublished Document). However, due to different reasons, the surface area of Lake Chamo has shown significant decline since 1960s. An empirical study conducted by Seleshi (2001) has shown that the surface area of Lake Chamo is about 328. 63km2 (Seleshi, 2001: 20).

According to Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) the drainage area of Lake Chamo is 18,573km2 (EPA, Unpublished Document). Arbaminch Zuria Woreda, Bonke Woreda, parts of Dita Woreda, Chencha Woreda from Gamo Gofa Zone and Dherashe, Konso, and Amaro Special Woredas of SNNPR fall within Lake Chamo Basin.

4.3. Geology, Topography and Drainage

Geology The Tertiary uplift and formation of the rift was followed by the extrusion of large masses of basaltic magma through fishers. As a result, in the Rift Valley Lakes basin, including that of Lake Chamo, basalts, ignimbrites, percolates, and lacustrine sediments overlie the ancient basement rocks. Quaternary basalt flows are found near Arbaminch town and the hill that separates the two lakes called the Bridge of Heven. The Rift Valley floor near Lake Chamo is filled with alluvial sediments (EPA, 2005: 50). 38

Topography As Lake Chamo is found within the lakes sub-region, in the Ethiopian Rift Valley system, the two escarpments, known as eastern and the western escarpments rim it in both sides. On the Western and Southern side Lake Chamo is surrounded by the Gamo-Konso massifs and in the eastern side by the Amaro Mountains, which is part of the eastern escarpment.

Topographically, Chamo basin varies from 1108 m.a.s.l. near the lake shore to as high as 4200 m.a.s.l. in the Chains of mount Gughe (EMA, 1988, EPA, Unpublished document).

Drainage Lake Chamo basin falls mainly in the Inland drainage basin, especially, in the lakes basin (NAE, 1988: 9). River Kulfo is the only perennial river that flows from the Gamo Highlands to Lake Chamo. There are small intermittent streams like Sile and Elgo that drain in to Lake Chamo from west direction. Recently there is no out flow from Lake Chamo. However, there was out flow to Segen River through what is commonly known as Segen Metenfesha (EMA, 1988).

4.4. Major Soil Types

Soil types of Lake Chamo basin is directly related to parent materials: basalt, ignimbrite, lava, genesis, volcanic ash, and pumice, riverine and lacustrine alluvium (Markin et.al., 1975 cited in EPA ,Unpublished Document). Fluvisols In the shore lines of southern and western part of the lake is mainly covered by fluvisols, which are very fertile and developed from river and lacustrine deposits (NAE, 1988: 7). These soils are intensively used soils for agricultural practices. However, water logging in some place is a major problem. Orthic Acrisols Orthic Acrisols are mainly found on sloppy terrain. These soils are chemically poor, the contents of weatherable minerals are generally low, and the PH is less than 5.5. As a result,

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they have limited potential for agriculture. These types of soils covered the mountainous areas to the west of Lake Chamo (NAE, 1988:7). These parts of the Chamo Basin are densely settled and the soils are highly eroded. Luvisols The Eastern side of Lake Chamo is mainly covered by luvisols. These soils have good agricultural potential (NAE, 1988: 8). Dystric Nitosols Dystric Nitosols are deep, clayey red soils with an argillic B horizon. They are found on almost flat to sloping terrain in high rainfall areas. As they have good physical properties like uniform profile, stable strictures, deep rooting volume, and moisture storage capacity, they have good potentials for agriculture. Some areas in the North Western part and southern part of Lake Chamo are covered by Dystric Nitosols in the basin (NAE, 1988: 8).

4.5. Climate
In the Chamo basin the type of climate varies farm semi-arid to Afro-Alpine. In the basin, rainfall

varies form average annual rainfall of 400mm in the southern part of the Lake up to 2400mm in the North Western highlands of mount Gughe Chain in the basin (NAE, 1988: 12).
The mean annual temperature of the highest part of the North Western mountains in Bonke and Chencha Woredas is below 150c where as it is up to 250c in the southern part of the Lake within the basin (NAE, 1988: 12).

4.6. Major Land Uses and Land Cover

Chamo basin is covered by different natural vegetation, and different land uses are practiced. Savannah The shoreline in the western and southern part of the lake under the escarpment is covered by grasses, sedges, and scattered trees. This strip of plain land is densely populated and intensive agriculture is practiced. Cotton, maize, and currently banana is planted. State farms like Elgo and Sile are examples of intensive farming in the plain land adjacent to the lake (EMA, 1988; NAE, 1988). 40

Bushland and Shrub Land In the Lake Chamo Basin the intermediate zone between the humid highlands and semi arid low lands are covered by Bushland and Scrublands. This type of vegetation covered the Southern and Northern part of the lake.

In the humid transitional zone warm crops like maize, Teff, and Sorgum are widely grown. Moreover, in some areas coffee and chat are also grown as cash crops.

Deciduous Vegetation In the Chamo basin, scattered forests and deciduous woodlands cover the highlands. Bambo is a common forest in the western highlands. In the highlands of the basin, mixed peasant agriculture is widely practiced. The common crops grown are barely, and wheat among the cereals and potato from the root crops. Enset is also commonly grown.

Ground Water Forest Very dense ground water forest of its kind covered the shoreline in the northern part of the Lake. It was a source of wood for Arbaminch town. Recently, however, this forest is strictly controlled by the park administration.

4.7. Population Trends and Settlement

Chamo basin is one of the densely populated wetlands of the country. The population of Lake Chamo Basin is estimated to be around a million taking in to account the estimated population of those Woredas which fall within the basin (SNNPRS, Population Bureau report, 2004). The highlands of the basin have been settled for long times in history. It is the lowlands adjacent to the lake that is densely settled in recent times mainly by the people who came from highlands due to population pressure and people who settled by the government resettlement program during the Imperial Regime.

4.8. Historical Development of Lake Fisheries

Lake fishing in the Rift Valley Lakes began in the mid 1950s and early 1960s when demand for fish developed in the capital among the foreign community and some upper class urban41

based Ethiopians. Fishing was first started in Lake Ziway, Awassa, and Koka by providing fishing concessions to a single entrepreneur for an entire lake (MOA, Unpublished document,).

According to elderly fishermen, fishing in Lake Chamo began in 1960s using traditional hook and lines mainly for home consumption and local market in Arbaminch town. At that time there were about 20 to 30 fishermen engaged in fishing individually. In 1975, later on, these people were organized and set up the first fishers cooperative known as Arbaminch Fishers Co-operative Association (AFCA) with technical assistance of the government.

In the 1960s and 1970s the people residing near Lake Chamo were not much accustomed to fishing and consuming fish products. Land based activities like cattle rearing and food production for subsistence was their source of livelihoods. At that time, fishing had a very negligible role to play in the household economy of the people around Lake Chamo in terms of employment, income generation and nutrition. However, this situation has been changed over time (Bossche et al., 1991:15).

The Major Fish Species of Lake Chamo

The fish fauna in Lake Chamo and Abaya is much richer than that of other Rift Valley lakes. As both lakes are situated in the same closed basin, they have the same fish fauna and were connected intermittently via the Kulfo River. Accordingly, there are about 2o species of fish in Lake Chamo. Among these species, which have major economic importance, are the Nile Perch, Tilapia, Labeo, Catfish, Barbus, and, Bagrus. However, Nile Perch, Tilapia and Labeo species are more demanded and are accustomed by the local people and the far distant market (MOA, Unpublished document).

Relative Productivity of Lake Chamo

Fish productivity of a Lake depends on a number of factors. Algal biomass, fish stock, favorable coastal lines, area of the water body etc are mentioned among others (IBCR, Unpublished document).

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Lake Chamo, in spite of its area, was relatively much more productive than any other lake in the country. Available data for the years 1994 up to 2003 indicate that on average fish catch from Chamo is about 33.6% of the total fish catch from all major lakes (seeTable 4.1.).

Year 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Average

Table 4. 1: Fish Production from various Lakes in Ethiopia for the Period 1994 up to 2003,Fresh weight in Tons Abaya Awassa Koka Langano Tana Ziway 477 890 347 333 339 477 655 583 358 538 499.7 936 466 500 575 696 794 790 489 326 660 623.2 417 411 686 739 725 596 867 710 791 625 656.7 280 200 248 491 558 355 301 356 931 1100 482 789 976 1103 1470 1252 1183 935 702 853 1454 1072 2183 2070 2234 3180 3011 2536 2450 2151 2454 2236 2451

Chamo 1039 1528 3465 5258 7055 3884 3893 3353 3446 2712 2928

Grand Total 6121 6541 8583 12046 13636 9825 9891 8344 9159 9325 8712.6

% Chamo 17 23 40 43.6 51.7 39.5 39.3 43 37.6 29 33.6

Source: COMESA, 2004:24, Gamo Gofa Zone ARDD, Unpublished document

In the preceding discussions, efforts are made to introduce the study area in particular and the Lake Chamo Basin in general. The next chapter gives an overview of the socio-economic profile of the respondent households of the survey.

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CHAPTER FIVE: SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROFILE OF THE FISHING COMMUNITIES 5.1. Demographic and Social Characteristics
The fishing communities of Lake Chamo fisheries can be grouped into different demographic and social features.

5.1.1. Sex, Age, Marital Status

The survey result reveals that all of the household heads included in the survey are males. This is because fishing in the study area is practiced by males. In terms of age structure, 49% of the respondents are in the age category of 21-30. The maximum and minimum age of the respondents is 52 and 20 years, respectively.

Table 5.1: Age structure of sampled Households (HHs)

Age category Less than or equal to 20 21-30 31-40 41-50 Above 50 total No. of HHs 6 42 24 11 2 85 Percent 7.1 49.4 28.2 12.9 2.4 100

Source: Own survey result (2006)

Regarding marital status, 89% of all the respondents are married while 8% of them are single and the remaining 3% are widowed and divorced.

5.1.2. Ethnicity and Religious Composition

The survey result shows that the fishing activity from Lake Chamo is Carried out by different ethnic groups mainly living around the lake. However, the Gamo ethnic group comprises about 75% and followed by Gofa ethnic group which is about 10.6% of all the respondents.

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Table 5.2: Fisherman of Lake Chamo by Ethnic Category

Ethnic group Gamo Gofa Zayse Amhara Konso Others Total No. Fishermen 64 9 2 2 2 6 85 % 75.2 10.6 2.4 2.4 2.4 7.0 100

Source: Own survey result (2006)

In terms of religious composition, 64% of the survey households are followers of Orthodox Christianity, and the proportion of Protestants and Muslims is 35% and 1% respectively.

5.1.3. Educational Status of the Household Head

The majority of the sampled household heads are within primary education level whereas 20% are in the secondary level of education. Of the remaining, 10.6% are illiterate whereas 7% are only able to read and write.

Table 5.3: Educational Level of the Sampled Respondents

Educational level Illiterate Read and write Primary Secondary Total No. of fishermen 9 6 53 17 85 % 10.6 7 62.4 20 100

Source: Own survey result (2006)

5.1.4. Family Size

The average household size of the respondents is 5.31 (sd. 2.00), which is slightly greater than the regional average, which is 4.7 (CSA, 1994). Household size of the respondents ranges between one and ten members.

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Table 5.4: Sampled HHs by Family Size Category

Family size category 1-4 5-7 8-10 No. HHs 30 44 11 % 35.3 51.7 13.

Source: Own survey result (2006)

5.1.5. Housing and House Condition

From the sample respondents about 73% have their own private house of different status. The remaining 27% of the households, largely urban fishermen live in rented houses. The type of house in which families live could imply the status of the household in a certain community. Accordingly, from the total respondents, 21% live in grass thatched houses. The majority (79%) live in corrugated iron sheet houses. However, living in a corrugated iron sheet house doesn't necessarily imply better standard of living. What is more important is the overall material from which the house is constructed. As learnt from the field observation, most of the houses either owned or rented by the fishermen are not even plastered by mud and are simply covered by locally made low cost materials such as qartha (wall cover made of bamboo).

5.1.6. Major Health Problems

Most of the respondents reported that Malaria, typhoid/ typhus, and malnutrition are the major health problems of the households. At community level too, Malaria is one of the first health hazards of the fishing communities. Similarly, 93% of the respondents replied that waterborn diseases like Jardia are the common health problems of the fishermen, as they don't get clean water for consumption while their long stay in the lakeshore.

5.1.7. Organized/ Unorganized Fishers

Fishermen whose livelihoods mainly depend from Lake Chamo differed from one another in terms of either organized or not in fishers co-operative.

The majority of the fishermen are not members of fishers co-operative. Of all the respondent fishermen 44% are not a member of any fishers cooperative.

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Among the organized fishers co-operatives two are urban based and one is rural based. Arbaminch fishers cooperative and Chamo fisher co-operative are urban-based fishers cooperatives that are set-up in 1976 and 2001, respectively. Sego is rural based fishers' cooperative which is found in Shelemela Peasant Association. It is also recently set up (2001) fishers' co-operative.

5.1.8. Social Capital of the Fishermen

In Rural livelihood security, mutual social supports are critical components. It is social claim among households, or at community, or wider level in which individuals and households can drow by virtue of their belonging to social groups (Ellis, 2000: 36). According to Yared, the reciprocity among the members of a community helps the members of that community livelihood to meet resource deficits, enhance their capacity of assets accumulation (Yared, 2002: 33).

To secure their livelihoods in one way or the other, most of the respondent fishermen (96%) participate in local social gatherings like Ider, church and neighboring coffee ceremonies. They emphasize the importance of participating in such social gatherings to their livelihoods, especially during bad times. However, the social cohesion of the fishing communities with other counterparts is not as such strong as most of them pass their time in remote areas, which force them not to be engaged in every day life of the society.

As found from focus group discussion and the case studies, the reciprocity with relatives is very important in the livelihoods of the fishermen of Lake Chamo in time of livelihood stress and shocks.

5.2. Economic Characteristics

5.2.1. Natural Capita Base
The fishery resource base with its ecosystem is the most important natural capital of the fishing livelihoods. The security of fishermen's livelihoods depends on the sustainable use of resource base which in turn depends on a number of factors. Among others, the trend of fish catch with respect to fish stock, and the overall land use management of the wetland ecosystem in the basin.

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The survey result and information from the focus groups indicated that the fishery resource base of Lake Chamo has been under stress causing an adverse effect on the livelihoods of the fishing communities. All of the survey respondents replied that the fish stock condition of Lake Chamo has decreased significantly over time.

All of the respondents, irrespective of organization status, urban or rural residing replied that the fishery resource depletion has adverse effect on household income. About 29% of the survey respondents have felt the resource depletion effect since 2002. Forty percent of the survey respondent fishermen have felt the effect since 2004.

5.2.2. Physical Capital Base

In fishing livelihoods physical capitals are those that are owned by individual fishermen to carryout fishing and other producer goods owned by a group as being a member of fishing cooperative. Moreover, those infrastructures or services which could enhance fishing like well prepared landing sites, small work shops for gutting/flitting of fish, fish transporting, boot making and services like clean water, and basic health are considered as physical capital.

The survey respondents replied that all of them have basic fishing equipments like local boat made of 'Sokke' tree, different types of fishing gillnets, hook lines and loglines, and different locally made fish gutting and flitting equipments e.g. Knife of different kinds.

The number of fishing efforts that a fisherman owns and employs for fishing determines the level of income of the fisherman. It was found difficult from the survey to get the number of fishing efforts (like gillnets, hook lines, local boat) that a fisherman owns and employs. However, from focus group discussions held with different groups, it is found that some relatively rich fishermen belonging to co-operatives have more than 50 fishing nets of different kinds. These fishermen usually employ assistant fishers who are not a member of fishers cooperative.

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Regarding fisheries infrastructure of lake Chamo, it is found from the survey result that there is not as such prepared fish landing site, shade or services for fish gutting and flitting, and workshop for boat making. Moreover, it is found that there is no service of clean water, and basic health to the fisherman along the lakeshore or nearby. Finally, most of the fisherman camping sites are not accessible by land routes. Thus, fish and fish products transporting services from the landing sites are very poor, especially to unorganized groups. However, Arbaminch fishers co-operative have about eight motorized boats of different capacity to be used for transporting of fish and fish products from landing sites to common terminal and necessary fishing equipments and consumer goods back to fishermen. This co-operative has also its own fish-transporting car for transporting fish and fish products from the common terminal to market sites in Arbaminch. Moreover, this organization has its own freezer plant to store fish.

5.2.3. Financial Capital Base

Financial capital refers the financial resources that people use to achieve their livelihood objectives. It includes flows as well as stocks namely the availability of cash or equivalent. Of all the survey respondents, 86% of the households derive livelihoods mainly from fishing, and the rest 14% of the household earn additional income from farming and livestock ownership. Thus, land holding and livestock are the most important financial capital for 14% of the fishermen who are included in the survey. The rural fishermen have landholding and livestock of different size. Urban fishermen put their financial assets in the form of household goods.

Regarding the income trend of the households, the survey result shows that the income fishermen get from fishing has seriously been reduced as explained by the resource depletion and access denial to some fishermen. The survey result reveals that in 2002 about 49% of the households got a monthly income of more than 1000 Birr. However, in 2006 only 6% of all respondents got a monthly income between 300-500 birr, the rest get a monthly income less than this amount.

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Of all the respondents, 27% currently save some amount of money in local saving institutions like Iqub. The great majority of the respondents (73%) replied that currently they are not saving for future.

Concerning credit reception and credit source of the fishermen, 44% of the respondents replied that they borrow money. The major sources of credit to these fishermen are fishers cooperative associations, non-relatives, relatives and local institutions like Ider and Iqubes. According to the survey result, 49% of the households get credit from fishers'cooperative, 27% receive from non-relatives, 19% from relatives and the rest 5% from Idirs and Iqubes.

5.2.4. Major Livelihood Activities and Diversification

About 86% of the households included in the survey replied that they are mainly engaged in fishing. The rest 14% of the respondents are engaged in fishing and mixed farming. Almost all of the respondents who are engaged in fishing and mixed farming are the rural fishermen from Shelemela Peasant Association.

Recently, however, fishermen tend to be engaged in petty trade and wage labor at household level. This seems to be carried out as coping strategy to the adverse effects of resource trend condition of Lake Chamo.

5.3. Spatial Distribution of the Fishermen

The fishermen of Lake Chamo are both urban and rural based. The urban residing fishermen are mainly living in different Kebeles of Secha and Sikela sub-cities of Arbaminch town. However, the rural fishermen are those practicing fishing in addition to farming in different peasant Associations like Shelemele, Ganta Kanchame, Zaysse, Elgo, Ludda, etc.

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The urban fishermen of Lake Chamo are mainly residing in kebele 09, 08, and 01 of Arbaminch Town. Of all the respondents about 22, 19% and 17% of the fishermen live in kebeles 09, 08 of Sikela sub-city and 01 kebele of Shecha sub city of Arbaminch, respectively.

Table5.5: Surveyed Households by Place of Residence

Kebele/PA 01 02 03 04 06 08 09 10 11 12 Shelemela Total No. HHs 14 2 3 7 3 16 19 5 1 3 12 85 % 16.5 2.4 3.5 8.2 3.5 18.8 22.4 5.9 1.2 3.5 14.1 100

Source: Own survey result (2006)

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CHAPTER SIX: MAJOR CHALLENGES OF THE FISHING COMMUNITIES

6.1. Stress of Natural Capital Base and Livelihoods
In the foregoing chapter, attempts have been made to describe the personal and household characteristics of the survey respondents. Moreover, an overview of the assets of the fishing communities has been made. This chapter tries to show the major challenges and determinants to vulnerability of the fishing communities, both at household level and community level. Fishing communities of Lake Chamo are vulnerable to different challenges in their livelihood processes. The stress of natural capital base i.e. fishery resource depletion is one among others.

Although it is difficult to measure which asset would be more important in one's livelihoods of the asset categories, the natural capital base tends to be more crucial for poor people as whose livelihood overwhelmingly depends on land, forest and water resources. Similarly, the fishing communities of Lake Chamo derive their livelihoods from natural capital and its sustainability is by far important in their livelihoods. As the survey result indicates, 86% of the respondent fishermen livelihood is based on fishing with no access to farmland and other source of livelihood options. Thus, considerable resource degradation could have impact on household income, food security, and overall sustainability of the fishermen livelihood. The result of survey, focus group discussions, case studies and secondary sources reveal that there has been serious fishery resource degradation from Lake Chamo. All of the fishermen included in the survey complained and reported the depletion of the fish resource from the lake over time. They reported that fish weight and height, their catch per unit effort and condition of fish stock has declined seriously over time (Table 6.1.). Table 6.1: Fishermen Responses Regarding Some Indicators of Fish Stock
Some Indicators of fish stock Fish weight and height Catch per unit effort (CUPE) Condition of fish stock Changes of Fish Stock Indicators Over Time

(N=85)
Decreased 16 (18.8) 6(7.1) 10(11.8) Much decreased 69 (81.2) 79(92.9) 75(88.2)

Source: Own survey result, 2006, Note :( figures in brackets are percentages)

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The survey result is in line with the report of the Zonal and Woreda Rural and Agricultural Development Offices of Gamo Gofa Zone. A recent study conducted by Mekonnen, expert of Animal and Fishery Development of Gamo Gofa Zone Agricultural and Rural Development Department (ARDD) explains the resource status of Lake Chamo as one which is on the verge of collapse due to a long time intense fishing pressure (Mekonnen, 2005: 55).
Studies have indicated the over fishing of Lake Chamo and the threat of some species like Nile perch. The Nile perch species was over fished before 1998 by applying a new fishing net locally called Gancho net, which is not a recommended net (EPA, 2005: 57, COMESA, 2004: 31, IBCR, 2000: 37). Similarly, a final report of Lake Fisheries Development Project (LFDP), phase II (1998), has revealed that the then rate of exploitation for major species like Nile perch, Tilapia, Labeo were not sustainable and that catches would soon drop significantly from the lake. The report further warned that the fish stock would be at risk as early as 1998 (LFDP, 1998: 40).

In spite of such early warnings of the stress on the resource base of Lake Chamo, the issue has not been given due attention by respective government bodies. Fishermen of Lake Chamo, however, have felt the adverse effects of the resource stress and are disparate of the sustainability of the natural resource base on which their livelihoods depend.

Indicators of Stress on Resource Base

According to Scoones, measuring natural resources sustainability is too difficult (Scoones, 1998). In spite of this, it is possible to evaluate the condition of natural resource base of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo using both objective and subjective indicators.

In analysis of the resource condition of a given fishery over time, it requires comparing the actual status of fishery with the 'optimal' level. In fishery, the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) is probably the most widely used concept to define this 'optimal' level. It is the highest yield (in terms of biomass or weight) that may be taken from a fishery without endangering its sustainability (LFDP, 1994: 2). The same report warns that stock productivity could also vary from year to year due to external factors like climate. Thus, the estimates of MSY should be understood as long term average (LFDP, 1994: 2).

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Based on the above premises, lakes fisheries development project in phase II, made some efforts to estimate the MSY of various lakes of Ethiopia. Accordingly, applying seven different empirical models, it was found that the MSY for Lake Chamo ranges from 600 up to 5600 tones per year and the average being 2400 tones (see Table 6:2). The basic data used for the estimation were area of the lake, mean depth, shore length, mean temperature, conductivity, stock biomass, mortality rate, etc. (LFDP, 1994: 2). The empirical models are mathematical formulas derived by fishery economists.

Table 6.2: Yearly total Potential Yield Estimates of Lake Chamo

Model Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Average Estimated potential yield in tone per year 3000 1800 1000 1100 600 5600 3500 2400 Estimated productivity per hectare per year (in tones) 87 52 29 32 18 159 101

Source: LFDP, Phase II, Working Paper No 10, p- 2

Figure 6.1: Trends of Total Fish Landing from Lake Chamo in Tones (From 1987-2004)
Trend of Yearly Total Fish Landing
8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 Yearly Total Fish Landing

Source: For the years 1987- 1998 LFDP, Phase II, final Report. For the Years 1999 -2004 Gamo Gofa Zone ARDD, Unpublished document

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From the Figure 6.1 of total yearly fish catch trend of Lake Chamo, three distinct periods of fish resource exploitation could be identified.

In the first period, i.e. between 1987 up to 1995, it is found that the total yearly estimated catch was gently increasing from year to year. However, the yearly catches were below the MSY potential of the lake. During this period the demand for fish was relatively low, the fishing technologies and efforts applied were very low, land based natural resources were relatively abundant and the opportunity cost for fishing was lower than other sectors (Bossche et al.,1991:14). As a result of this, during this period fishery resource was not a constraint in fishermen's livelihoods.

However, if we look the second period i.e. the period between 1996 up to 1998, the total estimated yearly catch from the lake was beyond its safe level production. During this period, different trainings were given to the fishermen, especially to those who are organized under fishers co-operative. Moreover, new fishing technologies like gillnets of different kinds were introduced, fish processing, preserving and transporting technologies were introduced to Arbaminch fishers Co-Operative Association (AFCA) mainly by Lakes Fisheries Development Project, phase II (Since 1992), South Lakes Fishery Development Project, which is funded by Dutch NGO, and similar projects by GTZ and World Vision Ethiopia (IBCR, 2000: 19). Moreover, the demand of fish and fish products increased locally and far distant towns and cities. This has increased the market territory of fish and fish products from Arbaminch up to Jimma, Moyale and Addis Ababa. As a result, businessmen and fishermen earning from fish was very high. Thus, more people were attracted to the fishing activities from Lake Chamo. In the second period, the total catch trend increased very fast, reached peak in 1998 with total catch of 7055 tons, and then after the total catch has been declining (see Figure 6.1). Based on the MSY concept it is possible to say that the fish resource base of Lake Chamo has been over fished during this period.

The third period is the period, which begins from 1999 up to now. During this period, in spite of high demand for fish products, high number of fishermen and fishing efforts, the total estimated catch of fish tends to be resource constrained and production has declined over time.

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More recently, starting 2003/04, the total estimated catch from the lake is even below the MSY, which indicates that biological over fishing or significant resource depletion has happened in the previous period.

Another indicator of stress of fishery resource is the trend of catch of fish species in a given time period usually within 24 hours in a standard fishing net. As total catch is the function of catch per unit effort (CPUE), the CPUE has also been seriously declined from Lake Chamo for major species (see Table 6.3 and Figure 6.1).

Table 6.3: Trends of CPUE, for Major Species in Kg

Year 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Tilepa Net (TN) 47 24.8 22.1 13.5 10.2 4.6 Labeo Net (LN) 51.9 26.4 20.5 12.8 10.4 0.0 Nile Perch Net (NPN) 1.4 0 0 0 0 2.3

Source: Gamo Gofa Zone ARDD

From the Table 6.3 it is evident that catch on average for a standard net of Tilapia, Nile perch and Labeo were 47, 1.4, and 51.9 Kg respectively per standard net per day in 1998. However, in 2002 it was reduced to a level of 10.2 kg, 10.4Kg and nil per net per day for the same species (see Table 6.3). In 2003 for Tilapia and Labeo species the CPUE is reduced to 4.6Kg and nil, respectively. After four consecutive years of little catches the Nile Perch seems to recover on the Lake and the CPUE reached 2.3Kg in 2003.However, recently the CPUE for nile perch also has declined significantly. From these secondary sources, it is possible to infer that the natural resource base of Lake Chamo has been in continuous stress over time, which would have adverse effect on the livelihood of fishermen.

In addition to secondary sources, the primary source obtained from the fishermen during the fieldwork has also revealed clearly the level of stress on natural resource base and its adverse effect on sustainable livelihoods of the fishing communities.

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Voice of the Poor Fishermen Regarding Natural Capital Base We are in a problem due to the resource depletion. Even if we are a member of fishers co-operative, and have fishing assets we are unable to catch sufficient fish. No one would believe me if I leave fishing after 32 years of experience and start daily labor. A fisherman from AFCA Focus Group 3, (2006)
The above response implies that the sustainable natural capital is the most important in fishermen livelihood of Lake Chamo. Having fishing assets, and being a member of co-operative doesnt necessarily guarantee for sustainable resource exploitation in a degraded natural resource scenario. If we buy Wogollo (local boat) by 130 birr and start fishing, the return we get from fishing

these days does not cover the cost of Wogollo and other expenses Focus Group- 3, 2006.

The response suggests that the fishermens income recently is getting so low that it doesnt cover even expenses they incur to fishing due to the reduction of catches which is in turn the function of resource status.

Even if the catches are so low and income of fishing is not in a position to cover the household food needs, some of the fishermen still prefer to stay near the lake.

I am here in the shore of the lake not hoping to feed my families as catches are reduced significantly due to resource depletion. Rather, I came simply to cover my own stomach, and hide here in the desert than staying in the town and being teethed by others who were jealous while our income was better. Informal talk with a fisherman, Feb- 2006 The response suggests that the reasons some fishermen stay along the lake shore in depleted resource condition is to reduce household food expenditure by covering self food demand from the low catch of fish. Moreover, the fishing ground is taken as a place to be away from some provoking actions of others who know that some of the fishermen were not good while their income was better.

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Some fishermen are in distress condition and even leaving their fishing work mainly due to the stress on the resource base. Sharmo Georges, 43 years old, with 25 years experience in fishing, breadwinner for his six family members is a good example: Since 1980, I have been engaged in fishing. I used to get 1000 to 1500 birr per month from fishing while the stock condition was good. Currently, however, I become hopeless and I dont expect to feed and educate my children from fishing income. Even if I stay for a month or two on the water, sometimes I came back home empty handed. We are now living by selling livestock like goat, sheep, and other assets like Jewelry. Very recently, due to very low income from fishing, I abandoned fishing and went to farm the land that I inherited from my father. I came after two months stay there. I came to have clearance and collect the money given to a member when she/he leaves the co-operative association according to the by-law of the association. I prepared to engage in farming rather than dying of starvation. It will not be problem for more than one year till I adapt farming; thereafter I can feed my families. Sharfo Shanka , Case study 2, (2006) In the literature it is repeatedly warned the overexploitation of the Nile perch species and they are not well informed about the tragedy of the natural resource base and the recent threat of some more species of fish from the lake (see Table 6.4).

Table: 6.4: Response of Fishermen on Species of Fish usually targeted

Se. No 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nile perch Tilapia Labeo Barbus Cat fish Bagrus Type of fish Yes 70(82.4) 82(96.5) 0 0 19(22.4) 35 (41%) 15(17.6) 3(3.5) 85(100) 85(100) 66(77.6) 50 (59%) Usually target No

Source: Own survey result, 2006 As can be seen from the Table 6.4 the two species currently targeted from Lake Chamo are Tilapia and Nile perch. From the total respondents 82% and 70% target Tilapia and Nile perch, respectively. The main reasons as reported by the survey respondents were the relative abundance of the two species and the market value of the two species. Bagrus, currently, is the third most important fish species targeted by fishermen. The species of Labeo and Barbus are currently not targeted as their number is seriously depleted. A young fisherman, Terefe Girma,

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expressed the situation as follows: If a handful gift is promised for fishermen to catch the Labeo species from Lake Chamo, no one can do so as the species is near extinction. Similarly, another fisherman expressed his view regarding the same species depletion as follows: If the whole population of Arbaminch town were sent to Lake Chamo for catching Labeo, none of them would catch the given species.

The same fishermen said that some seven years before, this species was abundant in the Lake. The near extinction of some fish species like Labeo and Barbus calls immediate action to reverse the tragedy.

6.2. Major Causes of fishery Resource Depletion

We have seen in the previous section the trend of resource exploitation, the current status of the natural resource base of Lake Chamo, and some of the adverse effects of the resource stress on the livelihood of the fishermen. In the next section, I will try to show the major causes of the stress of the natural resource base of Lake Chamo.

6.2.1. Increasing Fishermen and Fishing Efforts

As indicated earlier, in Chamo Basin the trend of population number and density has increased rapidly in the last four decades and it has its own effect on the resource exploitation of the wetland, including fishery resource. The overall population pressure and the resultant reduction of per-head land hold size in the surrounding highlands forced high rate of rural-urban migration. The situation accompanied by low employment opportunity in Arbaminch town has resulted in high unemployment rate and forced many people to engage in fishing as a means of livelihoods. It is found from the survey result that 61.2% of the respondent fishermen are originally migrants who have come from the nearby highlands in search of job.

As the number of fishermen increase, the numbers of fishing gears also have increased on average over time.

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Figure 6.2: Trend of Total Fishing Nets Over Lake Chamo

Trend of Total Fishing Effort

2500 Yearly Fishing Efforts 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 Year Trend of total fishing effort Estimated standared

Source: Gamo Gofa Zone ARDD, Unpublished document. As can be seen from the Figure 6.2, the total fishing net employed on Lake Chamo has increased from the period between 1988 up to 2003. Similarly, all of the survey respondents replied that over time the number of fisherman and fishing gears have increased (Table 6.5). Table 6.5: Fishermen Perceptions on Trends of Fishing Efforts
Se. No 1 2 Trend of fishing efforts Number of fishermen Number of fishing nets Increased 21 (24.7) 16(18.8) Much increased 61(71.8) 67 (78.8)

Source: Own survey result (2006) A fisherman in one of the discussions with focus groups expressed the increasing number of fishermen and fishing nets as follows: The current situation would not have happened if fishing had been practiced wisely. The Government hasnt managed the resource. Without studying the fish stock condition of the lake, a lot of fishermen and fishing nets are allowed. As a result many students who didnt succeed in their academic performance, landless farmers, and urban unemployed all entered to the lake and they looted the resource. Member of AFCA Focus Group 3, (2006)

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The above response shows that due to weak resource management practice of the government the fishery resource of Lake Chamo though owned constitutionally by the government turned to be common pool resource where every body can have access. Thus, new entrants from different walks of life joined the lake with high number of fishing gears beyond the stock capacity of the lack. Similarly, a study conducted by Amare (2001) has pointed out that the population growth, expansion of subsistence agriculture, large scale state farm, expansion of manufacturing plants, and unmanaged fishing activity has put unprecedented pressure on Lake Awassa basin since the beginning of 1950s.The author further noted that due to unsustainable resource utilization the lake and its surrounding has been changed to a threatened unit which as he mentioned calls for immediate rehabilitation (Amare, 2001: 6).

6.2.2. Policy and Institutional Failures with Regard to Fishery Resource Management
Generally, in the analysis of sustainable livelihoods, understanding the success or failures of policy and institution is very important to identify restrictions/barriers and opportunities to sustainable livelihoods (Scoones, 1998: 11). This becomes evident especially with regard to management of CPRs like fishery resources for sustainable livelihoods.

Johonson (2004) argues that a common pool resource regime is successful only when there is abundant resources and when equity is maintained. The author further argues that CPRs fails if demand is higher than supply, or if there is inequity of resource distribution. The situation in
the study area supports this argument, whereas the number of fishermen and fishing gears increased the fishery resource has become so scarce and the common pool fishery resource which is the source of livelihood to the fishing communities become at risk. According to report of FAO (2006) in such a condition constraints to have appropriate policies and institutions could lead small-scale fishers to vulnerability and insecurity of livelihoods (FAO, 2006: 6).

Similarly, the fishing communities of Lake Chamo seem to be constrained due to lack of appropriate policy and Institutional support with regard to management of their fishery resource base. Fishery management is the pursuit of certain objectives through direct or indirect control of effective fishing efforts or some of its components. Generally, the control

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aspect of management is thought to be appropriate for fishery resources that are over exploited while the development is thought to be appropriate for fishery resources that are underexploited (FAO, 1982, cited in LFDP, 1994: 1).

After long years of delay, the Federal Government of Ethiopia has issued fisheries development and utilization proclamation with he objective of conserving fish biodiversity, control of overexploitation of fishery resource, ensuring sustainable contribution by fisheries towards food security and expand aquaculture development in February, 2003 (Proclamation No 315/2003). Following the Federal Proclamation, the SNNPRS also issued its respective fisheries development proclamation with similar objective in August, 2004 (Proclamation No. 78/ 2004). Though the proclamation is one step in the endeavor of the fishery resource management, it is not yet supported by specific rules and regulations. As a result, it is not possible to put in place the regional fishery resource management, development and control proclamation.
From the discussions from fishery development experts at zonal and Woreda level it is evident that there are even pre-conditions to prepare specific fishery rules and regulations. Some of these are conducting stock analysis for economically important fish species, and determining the number of fishing gears for each fish species. Moreover, inventory of the current fishing communities and the fishing gears employed should be done. All these are not currently done on Lake Chamo, except the preliminary stock and gear estimate done by LFDP in 1990s (LFDP: 1994: 8).

By having seen the resource trend, prior to the Federal and Regional Fisheries Development and Utilization Proclamation, the local government of the then Semen Omo Administration attempted to have its own fishery resource management mechanism in 1998. The local government bodies have made efforts to license the fishermen, either working in cooperative or individually, decided the number of fishing nets that each fisherman could have and the standard fishing nets to be used on the lake. When some body was found doing against these rules and regulations, the local government bodies brought the case to court. Unfortunately, the charge was not considered and the so-called illegal fishermen were sent free due to absence of fishery proclamation and supportive rules and regulation. Rules and regulations made at

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local government levels (Zonal or Woreda) do not have acceptance before the law as it is the mandate and Authority of Regional and Federal states. Thus, the efforts of the local government to manage the fishery resource failed and they abandoned giving the license. Since then the local government is limited to protecting inappropriate gears and methods simply by group patrolling once or twice a year.

Currently, in a scenario where there is no supportive rules and regulations to the proclamation, it is not possible to protect or limit the number of fishermen, the number of fishing gears, the new entrants, inappropriate fishing gears and methods. Thus, inappropriate fishing methods like chase and trap, spear fishing, shallow belt fishing, fishing at the mouth of rivers where some fish species like Lebeo and Barbus use it as spawning ground is common in Lake Chamo and responsible for fish resource depletion in addition to over fishing in context of inadequate policy.

The chase and trap method of fishing is unethical method where fishermen after laying their net hit the water with stick and force the fish to be trapped. The method continues until the fishermen get sufficient catches. By so doing the method disturbs the ecology and increase the frequency of using fishing net to catch fish which in turn has caused resource depletion. Similarly, spear fishing, fishing in shallow belts and river mouths usually targets females which came to those places for spawning. Moreover, currently to compensate the resource depletion, fishermen have begun to use a new fishing net called lead-base net targeting Tilapia. This net has a lead base or other heavy material like gravels to touch the ground in shallow belt of the lake. Using this net the fishermen drug everything entered in the net. They named it as Jimela Cherash literarily means non-selective fishing method.

Regarding Organizational Capacity of the Woreda and Zonal fisheries development section in ARDD to put the proclamation in to practice, the experts at local level complain about the narrow structure which only invite one personnel each at Woreda and zonal level. Moreover, according to these experts relatively low attention is given in terms of budget and research to the section.

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These all imply that there is a clear policy and institutional gap with regard to fishery resource management in Lake Chamo. The fishery resource depletion is aggravated by lack of appropriate policies and institution to put he proclamation in to effect. However, most fishermen of the survey respondents (79%) reported that they prefer co-management where Communities and State together take responsibility of fishery resource management. The greater number of the survey respondents agree on application of different fishery resource management tools. Among the fishery management tool options presented, only community alone control and leasing for an Investor or a Fisheries Co-operative are opposed by majority of the survey respondents (Table 6.6.)

Table6.6: Fishermen Perception towards the Application of Fishery Management Tools on Lake Chamo
Fishery management tools Quota allocation Area and seasonal closure Mesh size control Limiting the fishing effort Taxation based on fishing effort Licensing Control of inappropriate fishing gear traders Community alone control Leasing for Investor/Co-operative Yes 77(90.6%) 76(89.4) 85(100%) 82(96.5%) 79(92.9%) 84(98.8%) 80(94.1%) 10(11.8%) 6(7.1%) No 8(9.4%) 9(10.6%) 0(0%) 3(3.5%) 6(7.1%) 1(1.2%) 5(5.9%) 75(88.2%) 79(92.9%)

Source: Own survey result, 2006

Because of the absence of fishery rules and regulation the fishermen who depended on the resource are affected. Moreover, those people who are engaged in fish related activities like fish gutting, fish filleting and transporting by human labor and those people who are engaged in fish food preparation are affected. Similarly, those people who live in low income and use fish meat as cheap source of protein are all affected.

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Box 6.1: Use of Inappropriate Gears and Weak Protection I am a member of Arbaminch Fishers Cooperative Association since its foundation in 1976. At that time we were very few. The fish stock condition was very good. We caught fish from the two lakes. By now the fish stock is depleted and we are in problem. We have informed the case to the local government bodies many times to protect the illegal fishermen and inappropriate gears used for fishing. The government did nothing to reverse the situation. Actually, every body is responsible for the depletion be it a member of cooperative or not, because we all prepare and use the fishing nets which are below the recommended mesh size. First, Labeo fish has been depleted from the lake. Its number was more than Tilapia. The government did nothing. By now let alone the unorganized fishermen, those organized since 1976 like me do not know where to go. I have more than 30 years experience in fishing. However, I do not have assets to recover from the current problem I faced. My immediate problem is the depletion of the resource and unable to catch sufficient fish. It seems hopeless to expect the fish stock to replenish under the present condition, unless all the fishermen leave the lake for a certain period of time. Source: A participant in a Focus Group 3, (2006) Member of AFCA

6.2.3. Environmental Degradation

Various natural and human activities have caused directly or indirectly environmental damage on the lake biodiversity in general, and fishery resource in particular. Among human activities lakeside farming and overgrazing, diversion of rivers for irrigation, upstream deforestation are the majors; where as erratic rainfall, high evapotranspiration due to climatic variations are among the natural phenomena related with the water volume and the fishery resource of Lake Chamo.

From the various discussions and field observation it was found that the shore of the lake which is the most important place for spawning of some fish species like Tilapia, is not well protected. Rather, it is threatened by human activities like farming, overgrazing and deforestation. Due to over increasing rural population and resultant reduction of farm land size, the local farmers and even some fishermen are using the nearby wetland resource of Lake Chamo. The nearby wetland is converted into farming of banana for commercial purposes, and 65

maize and other crops of subsistence. They use the land for settlement; clear the natural forest for construction and for fuel. These all have adverse effect on fishery resource base of Lake Chamo.

Moreover, small streams like Kulfo, and Sile that flow to Lake Chamo are diverted to irrigate banana, maize, and cotton, etc. This situation has caused the reduction of the water balance of the lake. It disturbed the life cycle of some species of fish like Labeo and Barbus by destroying the ecosystem. This is because these species of fish migrate upstream during breeding period and uses the river mouth as spawning ground. As these streams are used for irrigation, their flow towards the lake is limited which indirectly caused resource depletion.

The other environmental damage seen on Lake Chamo in relation to fishery resource is the fast reduction of the overall water volume. All of the survey respondents and key informants agreed that they have observed significant decline of the water level of Lake Chamo. They associated the causes to consumptive use of the inflowing rivers and the reduction of rainfall over time. The investigation result from Seleshi (2001) on water resource of Lake Abaya and Chamo is in line with their response. According to the same author, the water volume of Lake Chamo couldn't be regenerated to levels in 1960s and 1970s.He argues that the decrease in rainfall and runoff increase in evapotranspiration associated with climatic change, high rate of siltation, and consumptive use of water have been responsible for significant decline of the water balance of Lake Chamo (Seleshi, 2001: 156).

Finally, population pressures combined with rural poverty have caused clearing of upstream forest and natural vegetation cover of the Chamo Basin for farming, for purposes of fuel and constriction materials. The situation has exposed the basin for high rate of soil erosion and resultant sediment deposition in the lake. This in turn has reduced the water carrying capacity of the lake whereby creating disabling condition for fishery resource base.

Generally, the fundamental cause of all the degradation discussed above is in one way or the other associated with failure of the environmental policy and institution, which are meant to protect the environment. The government enacted the first comprehensive environmental

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policy in April 1997. In the policy document, water resource is one component, and thus the important policy provisions in relation to fishery resource are: Integrate upstream forest and wet land protection and rehabilitation activities in to the conservation, development and management of water resources. Protection of the interface between water bodies and land such as lake shores, river banks, and wet lands (FDRE, 1997: 11).

In spite of the policy provisions, so far little efforts have been done to reverse the everincreasing environmental degradation in the basin. Similarly, Eshete Dejen in his part conducting a research on Lake Tana Biodiversity potentials and threats informed that the lake ecosystem and the water resources as a whole are in danger due to deforestation, erosion, sedimentation, water level reduction, erratic rainfall, flooding of the wet lands, competing use of water resources, increased pollution and pressure of the growing population. Regarding fishery resource and biodiversity loss the writer recommended that there is an urgent need for fisheries regulations restricting fishing near river mouths and upstream on spawning ground during the breading period to prevent extinction of unique large Barbus (Eshete, 2004: 26).

6.3. Resource Access and Livelihoods

As discussed earlier access to common pool resource contributes much to livelihoods of the rural poor, including fishermen. On the contrary, unequal resource access can have adverse effect on the well-being of those who don't have equal access right. Neil et al. conducting a research on socio- economic condition of inland fisheries have come up with the result that ownership and access right have high effect on well-being of the fishermen. According to their research, relatively rich fishermen are those who have ownership and access right (Neil et al. cited in Been et al, 2000: 5). Similarly, inequitable use of resource is a constraint and fishing communities became vulnerable in Ghana (DFID, 2001: 32-25). The condition in my study area also supports this. Fishermen in the study area don't have equal access right to the fishery resource in spite of its importance to their livelihoods. Of the total respondents, 40% replied that they have resource access problem. Those who have full access right are those who are member of Fishers Co-operative Association. Unless and otherwise, a fisherman is considered as "illegal" and is not given permanent fishing and camping site.

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To have full access right to be a member of Fishers Co-operative is taken as a pre-condition. In other words, being a member of Fishers Co-operative is equated as license to fishing.

Cognizant of the importance of being a member of fishers co-operative, among the unorganized fishermen, 84% respondents replied that they have made efforts to be a member of the existing fishers co-operative association or setup new one. However, their request is not given due attention by local government bodies like Woreda Co-operative Desk, Woreda ARDD and the pre- existing Fishers Cooperative Associations.

Though the co-operative proclamation of Ethiopia and principles of co-operative says membership is open and on volunteer bases to all, (Proclamation number 147/91) the request of unorganized fishermen is not addressed. The pre-existing fishers co-operative associations have their own bylaws which are prepared based on the Co-operative proclamation and principles of co-operative. However, they are not usually willing to take new members with the expectation that the new comer is going to share the scare resource. Moreover, they want them to serve as their assistant fishermen for long times. Fishermen who served as assistant fishermen for more than ten years in Arbaminch Fishers Co-operative Association (AFCA) are complaining of not being a member. The other reason especially the AFCA not willing to allow
new membership is because of its ownership of fixed assets like office, hotel, cars, motorized boat, etc that it built in its thirty years of history. Similarly, the Woreda Co-operative Desk reports the resource depletion as factor for not allowing new fishing co-operative to be set.

Thus, those who are not a member of fishers co-operative are not given permanent fishing sites and are forced to conduct fishing either as assistant to those who are members or as contrabandist as they sometimes call themselves (see Table 6.7). Table 6.7: Access Options of Fishermen in Lake Chamo
Access options Member of fishers co-operative Assistant to co-operative member Non- member of co-operatives or (FACA) No (percent) 48 (56.5%) 3 (3.5%) 34 (40%) Access condition Full and secured Limited Limited

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From the Table 6.7, it is clear that 43% of the survey respondents do not have full and secured resource access right. The livelihoods of fishermen of Lake Chamo clearly depict the resource access status.

Fishermen work as assistant to those who are member of fishing co-operative due to different reasons. To have resource access is one among others. Those fishermen who work as assistant for long years complained that they are labor abused, they are mistreated and the money they worked is not given properly and above all they associated their current ill-being as free access denial and working as assistant being abused for long times. The case of Terefe Girma is a good example.

Terefe Girma is a young fisherman. He is 25 years old. He has a wife and one child. He has 8 years experience in fishing. Fishing is the only source of his familys livelihoods. He worked as assistant to fishermen who are member of co-operative. He told that he worked as assistant because of different reasons. Some of his reasons were to have resource access, relative security of life and property, and expectation to be a member of the existing co-operative association. His other reasons were that if he is in case drown in the lake while fishing, the cooperative members would search his dead body because they have motor boat and provide to his family. His other reason was his lack of sufficient money to purchase fishing nets and other necessary materials. He told that when a kg of fish meat is 20 birr, only 5 birr is given to him by the master fisherman who is usually not engaged in fishing. They collect what we caught and report as if it is their catch. A master fisherman can have 8-10 assistants. Terefe says if his catch is 40 Kg for a month period only 10 kg belongs to him. The rest 3/4 belongs to the master fisherman who is a member of fishers co-operative. If he complains no one will listen his voice and even the master fisherman can remove his assistants from any access to the resource. He said it is such a long time labor abuse that is responsible for his current ill-being. The case of Terefe clearly shows how unequal resource access could lead to difference of livelihoods.

The other groups of fishermen are those who conduct fishing as contrabandist. These people do not have formally given camping and fishing sites and they conduct fishing wherever they

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could have access. Most of those who were included in my study had their camping sites in Kulfo Ayne, Wodeb, Mahal Desete, etc. These are areas considered as within park boundary. For long time the park administration was not in a position to convince them or forcefully displace from these sites. As a result they stayed there for more than 15 years. However, very recently in 2005 African Parks took over the administration of Nech Sar National Park from the Government of Ethiopia and in 2006 forcefully displaced the fishermen in co-operation with local government bodies. The fishermen complained of their displacement because they stayed there fore long time and the area is fertile fishing ground. A displaced fisherman expressed inequality of resource access as problem to his household food security.

The main problem of my family is access denial to the resource. Even if the fish stock is depleted, one can get by his chance laying his net especially when there is rainfall and wind. If I had full access right, I would get even catfish to purchase maize to my children. If resource is a constraint, why others who are co-operative members leave the fishery resource as the government forced us to leave. Those who are member to co-operative associations don't have the same problem like me. Even if catches are reduced, because of their full and secured access right, they could get some money to buy maize. Dereje Dana Case 5, (2006) These show the existence of resource access inequality in Lake Chamo and the relative wellbeing difference among the fishing communities associated with resource access difference.

6.4. Conflict over Resource and Livelihoods

Conflict over scarce resource of Lake Chamo is a day-to-day phenomenon. The major conflicting bodies are individual fishermen themselves, fishermen and farmers, fishermen and park administration, organized and un organized fishermen, and full time fishermen and part time fishermen, etc.

The major causes of conflict as expressed by respondents from different sources are attempt of fishing in protected areas, looting of one's fishing nets, competition over fishing ground.

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According to Hillman (1993), though Nechisar National Park was proposed including some parts of Lake Abaya and Chamo in 1996 and have demarcated boundary since 1974, it is not yet gazetted (Bezabeh, 2004: 22 and 108). Accordingly, 30-km2 area of Lake Chamo was said to be proposed and demarcated with in the park boundary. The magnitude of conflict is high especially between unorganized fishermen attempting to intrude and maintain access in the proposed park boundary. "I went for fishing in what they call protected area to day. A scout of the park caught me and beat me hard. To day I will go again and even tomorrow. I want to die there. If I want to feed my families and live, I have to conduct fishing until the government gives me alternative livelihood options." Focus Group Two (2006)

Figure 6. 3: Focus Group Discussion Two (2006)

From the above response it is clear that there is intense and deep-rooted conflict over resource among different stakeholders of Lake Chamo.

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Understanding the magnitude and the overall effects of the resource dependence of the poor whose livelihoods is mainly based on the park resource and their potential threats to the park, the African Parks have designed a strategy to mitigate conflicts through its community development fund program. Regarding the fishermen who were dislocated from park boundary, African parks in co-operation with local government bodies have done some efforts to rehabilitate by integrating them to Chamo fishers co-operative association. In these programs, 68 fishermen were involved. It coasted African parks not less than 75,000 Birr. However, according to various sources the number of fishermen who were displaced from the water body of the park boundary was much higher than those involved in the program and they seem to be one of the potential threats.

As a study in Ghana shows that fishing communities have tried and unilaterally declared their own fishing territories and try to exclude others (DFID, 2001: 22). Similarly, in my study area farmers who/ whose household member/ conduct fishing in PAs adjacent to the lake like Gantta Kanchama, Shelemela, Wezeka, Ellgo, etc. usually do not let those fishermen who do not have permanent fishing and camping sites to camp and conduct fishing on their holding claming that the lake and the resource adjacent to their PAs belong to them. They consider it as communal property of the members of the PAs only. A person, who is not a member of that particular PA, is not allowed of access. Any attempt ends up in intense conflict. Look the story of Abebe below: I was a soldier. When I returned from war front, the government gave me 4000.00 Birr to rehabilitate myself. I rented a corrugated iron sheet house. I had very good household properties. Now I am dislocated from my fishing ground considering it as park boundary, now we are living by selling the household properties. I had ten armchairs in my home before. I sold five of them. Now I rented a hut to live in with my wife and one child. We sent one of my young children to my mother. Last time I went to Wazeka to conduct fishing there. They didn't allow me to fish on their site. I returned back as I am not the member of that particular community. Abebe Ayssa Case 10, (2006) Similarly, on the eastern side of the lake there are Guji Oromo, who are mainly pastoralists, who also claim ownership of the resource in their jurisdiction.

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The other conflict type is the one, which is seen among organized and unorganized fishermen. As already mentioned organized fishermen have secured fishing ground and camping sites, while the unorganized conduct fishing here and there and end up in conflict with others who have access right.

There is also conflict some times over fishing ground between different fishing co-operatives and even fishing co-operatives and park administration. A good example is the conflict between Arbaminch Fishers Co-operative Association (AFCA) and Chamo Fishers Cooperative Association (CFCA) over a newly allocated camping and fishing site given to CFCA. AFCA have very long shoreline and wide fishing ground. They have seven camping sites starting from Teshale Camp up to Mitimita camp with a total shore length of nearly 15 kms. CFCA members were first conducting fishing on Segene Metenfesha. However, African park scouts and local police force without ultimatum burned their Camps, considering it as within proposed park boundary. Then, after four months delay, when CFCA were given a new camping and fishing ground with a length of 700 m. distance for a member of about 34 individuals, the AFCA opposed and attempted to include the new site and expand its fishing territory. However, after discussion with local government bodies, CFCA is able to maintain the holding of 700m-shore length fishing ground for about 34 members.

The institution usually take part in resource conflict mitigation are formal governmental institutions. However, the fairness of these institutions to all parties seems to be in question in some cases. Among the survey respondents 39% replied that the conflict resolution doesn't take in to account the need and right of every party and usually tend to maintain the right and interest of organized fishermen and park administration. The story of Gebere is a good example.

Gebere Gaga is a full time unorganized fisherman who is a breadwinner to his household with six members. He is 38 years old. He has 20 years of experience in fishing. He had fishing license given to him to have access in 1998. He says when they conducted fishing with his colleague their fishing nets were taken by park administration or by agricultural development departments. When they brought the case to local administration, they responded that they

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were 'illegals'. When they again requested them to be legal, no body listened to their case. When Gebere and his colleagues asked their properties to be given back, the local government bodies told them that it had been burnt.

He says, with what he saved he has bought nets and whom he calls 'his enemies', the Park and Agricultural Development Department collect his fishing properties from the water body i.e. the park. This is how his family ended up in poverty.

These all show that the unequal resource access among the different communities in the study area is a root cause for conflict. This implies that there is a need for proper resource management where equity and access to resource is maintained and where conflicts mitigation takes into account the needs and rights of all parties.

6.5. Low Level of Choice Diversification

Literature shows that there are two competing schools of thoughts on the importance and need of diversification. The proponents of the negative effects of diversification like Lipton (1997), McIntire et al. (1992), and Berry (1989) as cited in Degefa (2005) argue that diversification weakness specialization, it forces shift of labor from one sector to the other, and diverts resources specially from agriculture to other non-agricultural sectors and by so doing reduces the performance of the agricultural sectors (Degefa, 2005: 34).

On the contrary, scholars like Shipton (1990), Bryceson (1996, 2002), Dercon and Krishnan (1996), Reardon (1997), Ellis (1998), Barretti et al. (2001) as cited in Degefa (2005) argue on the importance and need of livelihood diversification to alleviate rural poverty and food insecurity (Degefa, 2005:234). However, empirical research conducted by Bryceson (1996) on Sub-Saharan Africa as cited in Degefa(2005), Yared (2002) on North Shewa, Ethiopia, and Degefa (2005)on Erenssa and Garbi communities have shown the need and importance of diversification for household survival and secured livelihood.

According to available literature, there are different reasons that force households to engage in livelihood diversification. Generally, scholars classified these reasons into two. According to

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Davies (1996) they are named as survival and choice diversification. Hart (1994) on his part grouped into survival and accumulation, where as Bigsten(1996) labled it in to push and pull as cited in Ellis (2000: 55).

Choice, or accumulation diversification according to Ellis (2005) are carried out voluntarily by households for proactive reasons (Ellis, 2005:55)

However, choice diversification for the reason of accumulation or well-being was not common among the different members of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo. There were different constraints behind the low level of choice diversification of the fishing communities. According to Hussein et al., (1988) researches conducted in different less developed contries reveal that limited availability of education and skill training, lack of enough time to peruse diversification strategies, exclusion of certain groups from CPRs for the use of diversification, and unavailability of credit are the major constraints taken to choice diversification (Hussein et.al.,1998: 20). Among these constraints, in Lake Chamo fishing communities lack of education and skill training, unequal resource access right and exclusion, and deprivation of the right to be organized as a co-operative member are among the major constraining factors for most fishermen not to accumulate asset and carry out choice diversification prior to the fishery resource stress.

Of the survey respondents, 80% are in the primary level and below this level of education, and hence do not have skill training which would enable them to conduct choice diversification. A fisherman puts his lack of skill other than fishing as a constraint for diversification as: I wish if I were broken when I first went to the Lake for fishing. I wouldn't be in such a problem, if I knew some other skill other than fishing. Focus Group (2006)

On the other hand, in the fishing communities of Lake Chamo, another important factor behind the choice diversification is the saving behavior of the household (which will be discussed in detail later). Those households with good saving behavior and put their saving on productive assets are able to survive even without being engaged in survival diversification. A case in

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point is Addisu Asha, a 60 years old fisherman, who has 35 years fishing experience on Lake Chamo. His short story goes as follows: Understanding the importance of saving, I save money in my co-operative association. From the money I saved, I took 15,000 Birr and built my house in 1980. At that time I had few children. I escaped while life was good. At that time, there was sufficient stock in the fishery. A person could catch 1.0 to 1.5 tones in a month period using hook and line. Now, it is not possible to catch using gillnet. We are conducting fishing because we don't have any place to go. These days, if a fisherman gets 100 birr monthly income, it is good. I have built service rooms in my compound during good days with what I saved. I live better life with the income I get from these rooms after paying tax to the government. Thanks God. Addisu Asha, Case (2006)

Figure 6.4: Case Study One (2006)

From the discussion it is clear that in a context of household livelihood stress either choice diversification (carried out prior expecting risk or for the purpose of accumulation) or survival diversification is important to household survival. Otherwise, if a household is not able to engage in either case due to different constraining factors his/her household is vulnerable to another option usually distress migration. This is another livelihood strategy taken by

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considerable number of fishermen in the study area some of who are even members of fishers co-operative. A case in point is Kaltha Kara (see page-98).

Those who do not have alternative income source, relatives, and with large family size are vulnerable to distress migration like Kaltha Kara.

6.6. Lack of Adequate Government Support

According to DFID study in Ghana, fishing communities are exposed to poverty due to poor government support, remote location, poor services, low literacy and innumeracy and weak organizational capacity (DFID, 2001: 23-25). Similarly, in my study area government support in terms of resource planning, service provision, protecting security of life and property, listening the voice of the poor fishermen, and providing alternative employment opportunity seem to be weak and have exposed the fishing communities around Lake Chamo to poverty.

6.6.1. Adequate Policy and Livelihoods

FAO (2002) argues that over access by a certain group or individuals reduce power of middlemen, sustainable exploitation and alternative employment opportunities are important and widely supported to poverty reduction in small-scale Fishery (FAO, 2002: 5). Most of these are problems seen within the fishing communities around Lake Chamo. Hence, it implies the need for adequate policy, supportive directives, and capable institutions for overall development of fisheries.
Fishery development policy regarding small-scale fisheries sub-sector need to deal with conservation, economic and social equity objectives. However, in many countries, policy makers are not aware of the importance of inland fish production for food supply and income generation. As a result, most inland fish producer suffer from the absence or inadequacy of policies and institutional support (FAO, 2006: 6). Similarly, fishing communities in the study area are affected due to inadequate policy as discussed earlier in relation to resource management.

There are many statements in the Federal Government's Rural Development Policies, Strategies and Instruments (RDPSI) referring to the agricultural sector as the backbone and engine to the national economy. However, one of the sub sectors of agriculture i.e. fishing is 77

not mentioned at all in the policy document (RDPSI, 2001).Though the potential for fishery sector to reduce food insecurity is mentioned in the Federal Food Security Strategy (FSS) paper, the assignment to develop the sector is given to Regional States to be considered in their respective regional food security strategy programs (FDRE, 2002: 12). The role of the federal government seems to be by passed. This shows that there is weak linkage between the Macro and Meso level policies and strategies regarding fisheries sub-sector. DFID (2001) argues that sustainable poverty reduction in fisheries can not be achieved through work of either micro, meso, or macro level alone, but all the three levels need to be addressed, and in particular the linkage among different levels be strengthened (DFID: 200: 1).

As indicated earlier, though the federal government and some regional states like SNNPR, came up with their respective fisheries development and utilization proclamation since 2003 and 2004, all of them are not yet supported by detailed directive so as to put the proclamation in to effect. In such an inadequate policy environment it is not possible to determine users group, maintain equity in resource use, conduct continues monitoring and surveillance, provide credit and technical support to the poorest of the poor fishermen.

6.6.2. Technical Backup and Service Provision

The technical backup and provision of different services to a given sector of an economy is in most cases a reflection of the policy and strategies designed to the improvement of the sector and the capacity level of various institutions to put the polices and strategies in to effect.
As poverty is multi-dimensional by its nature, reducing poverty in fishing communities requires policy supported technical backup and service provision to the poor fishermen. Regarding technical back up in terms of training, extension services, etc. in the study site the respondents revealed that it is very poor. It is found from the survey respondents that only 14% have taken any sort of training either from government bodies or from their co-operative associations. The majority (86%) of the survey respondents replied that they haven't taken any form of training or technical assistance.

Similarly, when the survey respondents were asked to compare the overall technical backup and extension services provided to the sub-sector with other sub-sectors like crop production and

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livestock, 99% responded that the technical backup and service provision to crop production and livestock sub-sectors is by much better than the fishery sub-sector. The view of a key informant supports this idea. A key informant who is head one of the fishers cooperative association puts it as follows:

The EPRDFs overall development policy gives focus to Agriculture. The focus, however, is mainly to crop production and livestock sub-sectors. Pertinent professionals and their bosses usually run to those sub- sectors to give support in our area. Regarding the fishery sub-sector adequate technical support and backup is not provided usually. However, there are a lot to be done on this lake. What they usually request us is report of the monthly catch, nothing more than that. Key Informant (2006) The response of unorganized fishermen is even bitter than those organized regarding government technical backup and service provision. Government supports are given to those who are co-operative members. Members of cooperative are given fishing nets, net making thread, etc on credit bases. However, we are not known by the government. It is we who are really doing the fishing work as assistant to the master fishermen who are member of co-operative. Biruk Worku Focus group- 1 (2006)

Figure 6.5: Focus Group Discussion One (2006)

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Biruks narrative suggests that unorganized fishermen are all-in-all out of any technical and material support of the government as compared to the co-operative members. In fishing communities of Lake Chamo, being member of fishers co-operative is a pre- requisite to have any government technical and material support if any. In the same way a 38 years old Gebere Gaga, one of the non-members of co-operative fisherman puts his worst case as follows: "As unorganized fisherman, I got nothing from the government except polio vaccination to my children."
The senior fishery expert of Gamo Gofa Zone Agricultural Development Desk shares the Voice of the poor fishermen. He tried to compare the technical backup and assistance of the fishery subsector with others as follows: For peasants the government has been trying to assign three technical assistants who have knowledge in livestock rearing, natural resource management, and crop production at each PA level. If we compare the number of people who are engaged or base their livelihoods from Lake Chamo with any other kebele population of the whole Woreda of Arbaminch Zuria, it is by much higher. If we look in terms of economic and social importance still it is in a better position than other kebeles, perhaps those kebeles that produce fruits (banana). In spite of all these, the fishermen are not seen equally as other farmers in terms of assigning technicians. Key informant (2006)

Moreover, in the shore of Lake Chamo, basic services, which would enhance fishery development, are not available. Fishermen of Lake Chamo did not have well prepared fish landing sites and small-scale fish processing, gutting, filleting shops, and workshop of making local boat.

Along the shore of Lake Chamo, fish gutting and filleting is done simply on the ground because of absence of processing shops, which has reduced the quality of fish meat and income fishermen could get. It pollutes the lake as the fishermen do the activity near the lake water and the waste products enter the water of the lake.

Moreover, basic health and water services are not available for fishermen in their lakeshore. Most of the fishermen complained of diseases like Jardia, and malaria, which have caused the breadwinners of the household to be out of work for some days of the month. This has in turn its effect on household income. 80

Finally, fish-transporting service is very poor. Only AFCA is able to transport its members' Catch from landing sites up to marketing center, which is Arbaminch town, easily using both motorized boat and car of its own. Recently, AFCA even complains about the high overhead cost incurred to transport fish where catches are too low.

Co-operative members of Chamo, and other un-organized fishermen have a problem in transporting their catches. They use usually human labor to transport fish catches from landing sites up to all-weather roads or even to market centers. Of all the survey respondents, the great majority (68.2%) use human labor as means of transporting their catches from landing sites up to market center or main transport line where they can get car service.

6.6.3. Property and Life Insecurity of Fishermen

Poverty is a complex phenomena and insecurity of property and life is one of the indicators of ill being. All sources, including survey respondents, case studies and focus group discussions have revealed that the fishing nets and even life of the fishermen is in secured as they conduct fishing in remote location. The causes of insecurity is mainly internal that arise from the various fishing communities themselves. As already discussed, the fishing communities around Chamo are different groups and have unequal resource access, government support, and economic status. Thus, the inequalities become source of conflict and such conflicts go some times to an extent that they threaten the life of fishermen.

Conflicts regarding looting of fishing nets are common among the unorganized fishermen. There are no as such informal institutions within this section of the fishing communities to maintain security of property and life. The fishermen under co-operative association also complain of their fishing nets usually being stolen by other fishermen. Such conflicts some times end up in killing of one by the other.

The other source of conflict and threat to the life security of fishermen is from the nearby peasants and pastoralists due to resource claims. Such conflicts sometimes cost life. One of my case studies, Dessalegn Wolka puts his experience as follows:

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There are no services of public security. Last time three fishermen were shot in their camping sites by local pastoralists at night. They were alive till 10.00 in the morning. Due to lack of transport and communication it was not possible to rescue them. The government police force usually does not go soon to study the case. After a lot of delays, they go when their per-diem and boat service is ready. Dessalegn Wolka Case 7(2006) This shows how the fishing communities life is insecure due to remote location where the government is not in a position to provide security service like other services to the communities.

6.7. Lack of Voice

According to Farrington et al. (1992) lack of participation in decisions affecting one's life in a community and lack of sense of voice is among the indicators of poverty (Farrington, et al. 1992: 2). In the same way, fishing communities of Lake Chamo have demands which they usually raise to be answered by government bodies. However, their demands are taken for granted by the government bodies and the poor fishers become voiceless, which in turn affect their livelihoods.

Of all the survey respondents, the great majority (88%) has presented their claims either alone or in group to local government bodies in different times. Most fishermen replied that local government bodies do not usually consider most of their claims and demands. However, as the fishing communities of Lake Chamo are varied, their demands also vary accordingly.

Fishermen under different co-operatives claim the government bodies to protect the "illegal"

fishermen from the resource, request farmland, and manage the resource from depletion, request credit, and request machine guns for self-defense. However, the unorganized fishermen usually demand to be legal and to be organized as fishers co-operative and have secured resource access right. The above response suggests that the poorest of the poor fishermen first claim/demand/ resource access where as those who have that secured access try to protect that right and require additional income sources like farm land. The experience of a non-member cooperatives fisherman describes the situation more: 82

What the government is doing is not centering the poor; rather it is biased towards the better off. While the resource is a public property, they throw us away without any negotiation, as we are poor and weak. The Kores and the Gujis are in the middle of the park. The government made shelter, health post centers, and schools to kores before they leave the park. However, we are thrown on street." Focus Group 2 (2006)
This is a voice of non-member of co-operative fisherman who was conducting fishing for long years in the protected area within the proposed park boundary. As mentioned before, to protect the proposed park boundary the African parks administrators in co-operation with the local police force without any negotiation and discussion put fire on camping sites of these fishermen and took all the fishing nets of these fishermen.

From the above discussion it is clear that lack of voice, participation in matters affecting their livelihood is one of the factors, which have exacerbated the poor well-being of fishing communities.

6.8. Lack of Alternative Employment Opportunities

Studies by FAO (2006) indicate that limited alternative employment opportunities as constraint to the small-scale fisheries to contribute to food security and alleviate poverty.

Similarly, a study conducted by DFID (2001) in Ghana has shown that over reliance on one type of asset and lack of options are among the major constraints of livelihood of small-scale fishermen. In my study community too, lack of alternative employment opportunities for the fishermen, for rural-urban migrants and the urban unemployed has caused overdependence on ever depleting fishery resource of Chamo. As it is found from various sources, Chamo fishery resource is a common pool weakly regulated resource in which option less people are engaged as last resort. Even if the income obtained from fishing these days decreased significantly due to resource constraint, 86% of respondent fishermen replied that they wouldn't abandon fishing. This is one of the indicators of lack of other alternative employment options in Arbaminch town and the nearby rural PAs. Gebere Gaga, one of my case study household head puts the limited employment opportunities in the town as follows:

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I am as you are observing my house, my children, and me. Is there any factory in the town? Is there any employment opportunity in the town? It is not even available for those who are educated. The government rather than ordering to create job, it would have been better if it had created job opportunities. Gebere Gaga Case- 3(2006)

6.9. Poor Saving

As discussed earlier, the SLA places the current events in their dynamic context rather than looking at a 'snapshot' of a situation at a single moment in time. The current ill-being/wellbeing situation of a household is in most cases the outcome of the past (Swift et al., 2001: 91). In the same way, the present livelihood situation of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo is to some extent the reflection of how they were using their income and how their saving condition was in what they call good days. All of the survey respondents, key informants, and focus group members revealed that their livelihood was generally better some four/five years before than the present condition.

As shown before, of the survey respondents nearly half (49.4%) were getting a monthly income above 1000 Birr in the year 2002. This amount of income is by any standard an income of middle class in and around Arbaminch in that year. However, most fishermen agree that their saving trend was not good in those good days. Some fishermen even if they got handful money from fishing, when fishery resource was good, they spent extravagantly. There was a common saying among the fishermen during those days. "Ye wuha genzeb be wuha yalqal" literally mean money which is obtained from water is spent on water. This shows how some of them spent their income in unproductive activates like alcohol.

One of my key informants who had close relation for more than 15 years with fishermen beautifully put the condition as follows: Some years before, if you saw a person whose face was shining, who was enjoying extravagantly in the town wearing his modern clothes, without doubt he was a fisherman. Currently, however, if you see a disappointed person in the town most probably he is a fisherman.

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The experience of Tadesse Assefa is another example of poor saving behavior: My wife got sick last time and I took her to local clinic. The doctor examined her and found that the case is typhoid and malaria. He ordered me to buy the medicines. However, I paid 38 birr for the medicine of malaria and returned home without buying the medicine for typhoid as I didn't have any more. If I had had experience of saving, I wouldn't have been exposed at all to such problems. No one of my colleagues has ever risen about the importance of saving. Tadesse Assefa Case- 4 (2006) Similarly a key informant who has a day-to-day relation with the fishermen has put his observation as follows: Currently, about twenty fishermen of our cooperative members have left the association and migrated to other areas in search of alternative income source. Those who didn't save and put in to some productive assets like construction of service houses to rent, etc are the first victims of the resource depletion. Those who saved something back to bad days are still struggling with fishing.

Key informant (2006) On the other hand, the experience of Addisu Asha is the other side of the story. Addisu has long years of good saving trend. He told how he managed to escape from the current problem associated with resource depletion by his saving behavior during good days (see page -76).
Concerning the current saving condition, the great majority (73%) of the survey respondents do not save for the reason that their income is not covering the household food demand (see Table 6.8).

Table 6.8: The current Saving Condition

Fishing communities AFCA CFCA SFCA FOCA Total Current saving condition Yes No 6 (23%) 6(77%) 3(30%) 7(70%) 5(41.6%) 7(58%) 9(24%) 28(76%) 23(27%) 62(73%)

Source: Own survey result (2006)

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As illustrated in Table 6.8, among the fishing communities, relatively the rural fishing communities most of who have access to agricultural land are in better position in saving than others.

Generally, from the case stories and discussions it is clear that the personal assets, which are treated as different category by IFAD team, like peoples internal motives to accumulate or avert risk through saving is one of the explaining factor of the present well-being or ill-being.

6.10. Natural Shocks

Fishermen are vulnerable to natural disasters like storm, and other risks related to working on water bodies like lake or sea which may lead the families of fishermen to poverty (FAO, 2003: 4; DFID, 2001: 23). Fishermen in Lake Chamo also face a lot of dangers related to their occupation. The most difficult danger is the one caused by wild animals in the lake. In the lake the number of crocodiles and hippopotamus are very high and usually cause damage to fishing net and life of the fishermen. A story of a young fisherman Tadesse Assefa depicts the challenges of work on Lake Chamo clearly. He narrates: I am very weak now, because twice crocodile attacked me. A lot of blood flew out of my body in both cases. The first was on a daytime at around 2.00 P.M. The crocodile bit my leg and broke my one leg. My friends rescued me and put me on Wogello (local boat) and after transporting for five hours they brought me to camping sites. A lot of blood was flowing out of my body. I spent the night in the camping site without any further treatment. Two of my friends were beside me. In the morning my friends were unable to carry me alone up to the main road which is 45.00 minutes travel on foot. When other fishermen were asked to help me in carrying, they replied that they wanted first look whether there was catch in their nets. After all they performed their duties and ate their lunch they begun transporting me at 1.00 p.m. and they brought me to Arbaminch Hospital at 2.00 p.m. i.e. after 24.00 hours of the danger and finally my life was rescued" Tadesse Assefa Case- 4 (2006) The foregoing discussions have shown that the stress on the fishery resource, policy and institutional failures and environmental degradation due to poor wetland management in Lake Chamo Basin are among the major challenges of the fishing communities. Moreover, conflicts over resource due to inequitable resource access, low level of choice diversification, lack of adequate government support, weak voice, and little alternative employment opportunities and poor saving trend and natural disasters associated with working on water bodies exposed majority of the fishermen of Lake Chamo to poverty at household level

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CHAPTER SEVEN: HOUSEHOLD COPING AND ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES IN THE CONTEXT OF FOOD AND LIVELIHOOD INSECURITY
As it has been discussed in the previous chapters, the livelihoods of fishermen of Lake Chamo is challenged due to adverse trends in their fishery resource base, unequal resource access, conflicts and associated shocks, weak government support, limited choice diversification, poor saving trend of the fishermen, and natural shocks. Combination of constraints has exposed most of the fishing communities to food and livelihood insecurity.

The fishermen of Lake Chamo have undertaken various forms of coping and adaptive strategies to the challenges they are exposed. This chapter mainly discusses the coping and adaptive strategies undertaken at household level.

7.1. Household Food Insecurity and Coping Strategies

Scholars like Chambers (1988), Maxwell and Smith (1992) Davies (1993), Frankenberger and Coyle (1993) as cited in Maxwell (1996) have shown that food security is one of the elements of livelihood security (Maxwell, 1996: 293). Similarly, Tesfaye argues that ensuring food security at household level is the primary goal of livelihood strategies to rural households (Tesfaye, 2003: 47). The thinking of food security has evolved through time since 1960s.According to Maxwell (2001) the major paradigm shifts are: From Global and national to the household and the individual From food first perspective to livelihood perspective From objective indicators to subjective perceptions (Maxwell, 2001: 17-20)
Accordingly, various scholars have defined food security in different ways. Recently (2001) the
World Food Summit refined its 1996 definition as follows. Food security is a situation that exists when all people at all times have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.(FAO, 2001:

www.fao.org/docrep.htm)

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It is on the basis of these premises that I will try to look the food insecurity/security situations and coping and adaptive strategies of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo.
As mentioned earlier, the evolution of food security thinking has also brought change in ways or approaches of measuring food security/ insecurity. The general tendency is from quantitative measurement to qualitative, from objective measurement to subjective perception. Food security/insecurity is measured using economic measurements, i.e. by comparing the production or purchase with consumption, and nutrition measurement (assessing the food security situation of a household by undertaking 24 hour recalls of food consumption for individual members of a household) and anthropometrics measurement*, etc. (Maxwell, 1996: 292). Food insecurity/security could also be assessed on the basis of coping strategies that are undertaken by a household as response to temporal or chronic food insecurity (Maxwell, 1996: 293). Various authors have revealed that the coping strategies like short time dietary change, reducing or rationing consumption, altering household composition, altering intrahousehold distribution of food, depletion of stores, increased use of credit for consumption purposes, increased reliance on wild foods, short term labor migration, short-term alterations in crop and livestock production patterns, pledging, mortgaging and sales of assets, and distress migration are taken as direct indicators of food insecurity (Maxwell, 1996: 293). Dreze and Sen (1989) on their part argue that though coping strategies are indications of food insecurity, the distinction between "coping" and "failure to cope" is important to note (Maxwell, 1996: 249). Different authors like Watts (1983, 1988) Corbett (1988) and Swift (1989) as cited in Ellis (2000) argue that households tend to follow a sequenced response when faced with a collapse in their regular source of consumption. According to the same authors, typical coping strategies may take a sequence: pursue of new source of income, drawing on reciprocal obligation, temporary migration, selective sale of moveable assets like goat, cattle, or farm implements and finally the sale or abandonment of fixed asses such as land, houses, grain stores, and so on (Ellis, 200:44).Dessalegn (1987) on his part conducted a research on peasant response in famine condition in Wollo, north east Ethiopia and came up with slightly different sequencing of peasant strategies. The author grouped peasant survival strategies in to four namely austerity and reduced consumption, temporary migration, divestment, and crises migration.

__________________
Note:*Anthropometric measurement is one way of measuring food security /insecurity by calculating age to weight and height to weight of an individual

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According to Devereux (1993), however, sequencing disposal of different kinds of assets during a crisis varies across households. So there is no generalized indicator based on asset types (Ellis, 2000: 44). Similarly, Yared (1991:145) and Degefa (2005:330) have reveled that there is variation among households in the coping and adaptive strategies which they undertake during seasonal food shortages.

Table 7.1: Fishermen Perception of Household Income Sufficiency to Cover Food Demand
H.H. Income Sufficiency to Food Demands Fishing Communities AFCA CFCA SFCA FOCA Total Sufficient 5 (19%) 1 (10%) 10 (83%) 3 (8%) 19 (22.4%) Not Sufficient 21 (81%) 9 (90%) 2 (17%) 34 (92%) 66 (77.6%) Total 26 (31%) 10 (12%) 12 (14%) 37 (43%) 85 (100%)

Source: Own survey result (2006) The survey result in the study area reveals that the great majority (77.6%) of the respondents replied that the income they get from fishing has currently declined significantly and does not cover the household food demand. The disaggregated result at community level shows that 92% FOCA, 90% CFCA, 81% AFCA and 17% SFCA are food insecure according to their own perception. It is clear from Table7.1 members of SFCA fishing community are relatively in a better position in terms of household food security among the various communities. The main reason perhaps could be their access to farmland as most of the SFCA members are rural dwellers and have land holdings of different size.

Food in secured households are undertaking different coping strategies. The major coping strategies of the fishing communities are dietary change i.e. eat food which are less preferable,
reducing or rationing consumption, use of credit for food consumption, mortgaging or sale of nondurable goods including livestock, household equipments and fishing nets, etc (see Table 7.2.).

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Table 7.2: Coping Strategies of HHs to Food Insecurity by Community (Multiple Responses were Possible)
Application of the Strategy by Fishing Communities Coping strategies of HH food insecurity Dietary change

AFCA 24 (92%)

CFCA 10 (100%)

SFCA 10 (83%) 9 (75%)

FOCA 32 (86%) 34 (91%) 15 (40%) 16 (43%)

Total 76(89.4%)

Reducing/Rationing Consumption Use of credit consumption for food

23 (88%)

10 (100%)

76 (89.4%)

11(42%)

8(80%)

5(41%)

39 (46%)

Mortgaging/sales of Non durable goods

9(34.6%)

3(30%)

1 (8%)

29 (34%)

Source: Own survey result (2006)

As illustrated in Table 7.2, among the communities under study about 89.4% of the survey respondents have been forced to change their diet. The same amount of respondents also replied that they have reduced or rationed food consumption at household level. From Table 7.1, it is clear that from 22.4% of the households who replied that their monthly income is sufficient to cover food demand, 11.5% households undertake coping strategies like dietary change and reduce or ration food consumption at household level (see Table 7.2).Hence, these households are also considered as food insecure because they undertook one or other form of coping strategies. Regarding the undertaking of the above two coping strategies of food insecurity, there is not much difference among the various fishing communities.

Use of credit for food consumption is another strategy practiced by fishermen of Lake Chamo as response to household food insecurity. From the total survey respondents about 39(45.5%) households replied that they have taken credit and used it for food consumption as strategy to overcome household food insecurity. At community level, 42% AFCA, 80% CFCA, 41% SFCA and 40% FOCA have used credit for food consumption.

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The other coping strategy pursued by food insecure fishermen of Lake Chamo is mortgaging or sale of household moveable assets like livestock, other household assets and fishing equipments like fishing nets.34% of the households replied that they mortgaged or sold some kind of household goods so as to cope household food insecurity. When looking the same coping strategy at community level, 43% of FOCA, 34.6% of AFCA, 30% of CFCA, and 8% of SFCA members undertook the strategy. From the survey result, it is clear that high number of fishermen outside cooperative sold some kind of their moveable household asset and thus, it is possible to say that the level of food insecurity is relatively high among unorganized fishermen and relatively less sever within SFCA members (see Table 4.2).

7.2. Social Capital and Food Security

The social capital in the form of reciprocity is one of the most important capitals that enable households to supplement food demands and overall household security especially during times of crisis. Those households that have strong social ties within or outside their kin are able to receive some amount of assistance in the form of goods or money. The survey result reveals that about 42% of the total respondent households have received some kind of help from their
respective social ties (see Table. 7.3).

Table 7.3: Reception of Help/Assistance from Relatives or Friends by Community

Social Reciprocity Fishing Communities Practiced AFCA CFCA SFCA FOCA Total 10 (38%) 2 (20%) 2 (17%) 22 (59%) 36 (42%) Not 16 (62%) 8 (80%) 10 (83%) 15 (41%) 15 (41%) Total 26 (31%) 10 (12%) 12 (14%) 37 (43%) 85 (100%)

Source: Own survey result (2006) 91

Among the fishing communities 38% of AFCA, 20% CFCA, 17% SFCA, and 59% of FOCA have received some sort of assistance from their respective social ties.

Results of focus group discussions and case studies also revealed that some households got assistance from their kins and were able to cover the household food demand. Kasech Engeda, a wife of a fisherman whose husband recently went to resettlement, narrates her family's mutual exchange as follows:

My husband quarreled with me to sell some household assets to cover our food demand. We have 24 pieces of corrugated iron-sheet in our home. He wanted to sell some of these. I had opposed the idea and gave a call to my father who is living in Gofa some 250 Kms from Arbaminch. After my call, he came to visit us last time. While he was coming, he brought us some maize for home consumption. Moreover, Dad gave him a piece of advice not to be desperate and worry much. If things got worse, he was advised to send all the children and me to Gofa for two to three months where Dad would be responsible. Once again he complained with me to sell some of the iron- sheets or some of the chairs that we have. I refused, and he finally went to the resettlement site.After he left us, my children usually cried requesting what I can not provide. My father again sent us maize for our consumption Case 9 (2006) The story of Kasech's household implies that social ties are important not only to cover food deficits of the needy households, but also share ideas and to offer advice. Moreover, from the story we can see that household members like Kasech Engeda preferred to getting starved to selling their household asset considering their future livelihoods rather than immediate food demand.

Some households, on the contrary, are fragile because they don't have significant socialnetworks and assets to compensate for the food deficits. Gebere Gaga explains his lack of strong social ties and assets, which put him in desperate situation. Still my household's life is associated with nature. I don't have ox, TV, or any good household assets to sell and recover from the food deficit. Moreover, I don't have relative and good neighbor who could help me. I collect fuel wood from the forest (which is strongly protected these days and no easy access) and sell to feed my children. Even my wife doesn't know some skills like the wives of others.

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Social ties within the community or inter-community are not limited in exchange of goods or money between households, rather institutions like Iqub and Ider are important in the household life of the fishermen. Some households still participate in Iqub (local saving association) and receive some amount of money either as credit or as their turn, which they use as seed capital for petty trade to cover household food demand. Kasech describes how the money she got from her local Iqub helped her household to begin petty trade with the main objective to cover household food deficit. I participate (save) in females Iqub in our locality. Last time it was my turn and they gave me 200 Birr. I bought equipment to prepare local areke. What was left, I paid for the treatment of my baby who usually gets sick and the rest I spent on clothing of anther child who attends school. Kasech Engeda, Case 9(2006) Most households are so tenacious to the Ider (social gathering mainly for burial ceremony) and even if there are problems to cover household food demand, they don't want and usually do not get absent from participation in the Ider in terms of monthly payments or other obligations.
The case of Beletech describes it more clearly. Beletech, whose husband left recently to resettlement site, is the one who is currently taking care of her household members describes how she values the Ider as follows Even if I am in problem to feed my children, I will not stop participating in the Ider. It is when I decide to leave the area that I will stop participating in the Ider and get clearance. Until then, by spinning two Birr cotton and selling it, I will pay the Ider contribution. I don't care even to electric light, I will use the traditional light source i.e. "Kuraz", By any means, and I should pay the Ider contribution. Case 8 (2006)

Some social activities like coffee ceremonies have been given important place as some fishermen take it as short time coping strategy. It enabled them skipping meal. A fisherman in one of the focus group discussions mentioned the importance of coffee ceremonies as follows: "As you see, I am having coffee at my neighbors house. I may go to bed by what I am having here at the coffee ceremony (Focus Group 2, 2006).

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Moreover, it is on such coffee ceremonies that fishermen in their locality exchange ideas, share information, design alternative livelihood options, plan temporal and permanent group migration to other lakes and resettlement programs.

7.3. Livelihood Insecurity and Adaptive Strategies

Rural households undertake adaptive strategies when faced with stress on their livelihood. Daves (1993; 1996) as cited in Ellis (2000) makes a distinction between coping strategies and adaptive strategies. According to the writer coping strategies are short-term responses of households to unplanned crises where as adaptive strategies are responses to a long-term adverse events, cycles, and trends (Ellis, 2000: 45). As illustrated by Degefa (2003a),a peasant household that sells some of its livestock to buy food crops during seasonal food shortage does a coping strategy. On the other hand, a peasant who leases out or share crops some of his land due to labor shortage or engage in wage labor due to land shortage to get additional income is undertaking adaptive strategy to livelihood system (Degefa, 2005:74).In my study area, too, fishermen are undertaking different adaptive strategies to the challenges they have faced associated mainly with the depleted fishery resource base.

7.3.1. Survival Diversification

According to Ghosh et al (1992) cited in Hussein (1998) income diversification in the context of stress is a survival strategy (Hussein et al 1988: 15). Scoones (1998) argues in support of this view that when other options fail to provide livelihood, necessity or survival diversification is a strategy which aims at adapting with adversity (Scoones, 1998: 7).

Results from various sources in the study area support this view. Fishermen of Lake Chamo tend to diversify their household income associated with the stress on their resource base and resultant decline of income from the main source i.e. fishing. Such diversification is, practiced due to distress reasons as necessity at household level.

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The survey result shows that in 2002 the source of income for urban based fishermen was largely from fishing whereas for rural based fishermen it was fishing and mixed farming. However, in 2006 most households are forced to diversify their income other than fishing (see Table 7.4).

Table 7.4: Sources of fishermen household income in 2002, and 2006

% Of HHs getting some amount of Income Se. No HH. Incomes Source In 2002 1 2 3 4 Fishing Farming Petty trade Wage labor 100 14 12 5 In 2006 100 14 56.3 46%

Source: Own survey result (2006) As illustrated in Table7.4 in 2006, 56.3% and 46% of households are engaged in petty trade and wage labor at household level respectively as additional source of income as compared to 12% and 5% households in 2002. The petty trading at which households of fishermen are engaged in are selling of home made drinks, low cost food items, and collecting and selling of fuel wood, and grasses. Information from different case studies also supports the survey result. The case of Derejes household is a good illustration. This time it is his wife who describes the previous and the current living conditions of the household and how she is forced to be engaged in drudgery works to supplement the household income.
Our life was better while the fishery resource was good. These days we eat when we get. Even our children are adapting the problem. Is it not because of lack of other options that I am coming from daily labor, carrying stone? I didn't work such things before. I was only responsible to raise my children and manage the household with what he brought. Actually, when I had leisure time I used to prepare local drinks like areke. These days, I don't have money even to prepare this drink. I get only 5 Birr per day working all day leaving my 9-month child at home.

Wife of Dereje, Case 5 (2006)

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As the above case demonstrates, during stress condition in household income, it is not only the source of income diversified, rather the participation of household members, especially the role of women become so important in generating additional source of income.

Similarly, Sara Mengesha a wife of Abebe, one of my case study household members puts her role during the stress on household income and how her household attempted to adapt.

What I get from my husband for the household expenditure has been reduced since 2002. We females are now taking the responsibility of the household. Since 2003,I have been retailing Cabage. The small income I get from this petty trade enabled me to supplement to the household expenditure. Beletech, 30 years old and mother of three, and a first wife of a fisherman, is a household head who currently took the full responsibility of her family as her husband went to resettlement area. She describes how she is forced to engage in survival diversification.
While my husband was here he supported me. Now I am alone to the family. I borrowed money from someone to buy wheat for making of Ambasha (local bread) for sale, I haven't yet sold wood, but I bring wood from Boshe (mountain) to use as source of fuel to make Ambasha. However, I havent doen such business before. My responsibility was spinning of cotton, and embroidery at home. Now, everday I go to Boshe to collect wood and prepare Ambasha. I prepare and sell Ambasha twice a day, in the morning market and late afternoon market. Just now I am going to bake. I don't have rest. By the money I get from this small business, I feed my family, pay for electric services, and pay Ider expenses.

Case 8(2006) In survival diversification and generation of alternative income, grown up children are also important and take part. A fisherman in one of the focus group discussions put it as follows: I have stayed for 25 years as full time fisherman. I don't have any other skill. I have diabetes case. My family is in great problem due to the resource stress. My family is now living on the labor of children. Before they go to school they bring grass and fuel wood for selling. We live on the income we get from this. Focus group3 (2006)

7.3.2. Distress Migration

According to Ellis (2000), migration is the leaving of one or more members of a household from the permanent residence for varying period with the objective of making a new and different contribution to the household welfare (Ellis, 2000: 70). The author has identified four 96

types of migration e.g. seasonal, circular, permanent, and international which are undertaken as livelihood adaptive strategy depending on the objective reality. Moreover, the same writer argues that the income differentials are the major 'pull' factors; while seasonality, risk, market failure, erosion of assets, landlessness, and disasters leading to livelihood collapse as 'push' factors (Ellis, 2000: 72).

Similarly, in my study area, some fishermen are unable to cope and are forced to undertake distress migration mainly due to 'push' factors like depletion of fishery resource, lack of other employment and income source, weak social networking, and poor asset base. Accordingly, considerable number of fishermen went to Mellokoza Woreda within Gamo Gofa Zone as permanent settlers to conduct farming leaving their other family members behind with a plan to take them later on. The settlement program itself encourages the male household head to go first and prepare condition to other household members. Kaltha Kaara, whom the researcher got on his departure to the resettlement area with his colleagues, is one of them. He was a member of AFCA, and he was a breadwinner for his ten family members. He leaves his fishers' co-operative and goes to resettlement sites because he can not feed and educate his children from the income he gets from fishing. He gave short account as why he chose to undertake distress migration as follows: I am going to resettlement area not because it is my choice rather I am forced. In the good days I married and bore many beautiful children. I don't have any other alternative income source. I have nothing to give to my children, and I can't educate them. If you go and see my home, every child is crying. I don't want my children die in front of me of starvation. I am going to resettlement area to hide my self from the problem and try other alternative. If it is God's will, I will see my lovely family.
Kaltha Kaara Focus Group1 (2006)

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Figure 7.1: Fishermen Moving to Resettlement Area (2006)

As the above case demonstrates, those who don't have alternative income source, strong social networks and who have large family size like Kaltha Kaara are vulnerable to distress migration especially to resettlement areas.

Usually there is a debate on the effectiveness of the large-scale National Resettlement Strategy of the Government. Though the current resettlement program is different from the past regimes as it is based on the willingness of the settlers and it is carried out within a regional state, most scholars put serious criticism against the resettlement program as it is usually accompanied by environmental distraction, resource conflict, and hostility between the settlers and the host communities. However, in my study area people who do not have other options preferred taking it as an adoptive strategy in the scenarios of livelihood insecurity

In the study area fishermen undertook some other livelihood options like income diversification, sale of assets, receiving social network claims, etc before they decide to migrate to other areas. In all these coping strategies if household fails to satisfy its basic

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necessities usually decides to migrate to other areas as last resort. A good example is the household case of Beletech. She is one of the two wives of a fisherman named Ayssa Anja, who has ten family members. Beletech narrates her household condition comparing with the prior living situation of the family and the unsuccessful effort of her husband to engage in other income source before he went to resettlement area. How can I tell you the life we used to live before? It was very good life. My children wore cloths bought from Boutique/shop/. Now they are wearing second-hand clothes. We used to eat teff injera. Maize and wheat were used as supplementary. All necessary household food items were bought once for a month. As the fishery resource got depleted, our living also began to decline. At present we are as you see us. Before he went to resettlement area, my husband had made some efforts to diversify his income by selling plastic shoe to local rural markets. He couldn't be profitable in the business. Then he sent his second wife and her three children to her father's home. Finally, he registered to go to resettlement area and went to Mellokoza as a permanent settler. Beletech Case- 8 (2006) The case of Kassech Engidas household is the same. She is by now head of five families. Her husband was 'assistant' fisherman on Lake Chamo. He currently involved in the resettlement program and went to Mellokoza Woreda as permanent settler. Kasech explains how lack of skills other than fishing forced her husband to migrate in search of other livelihood option. He didn't have skill other than fishing. Before he went to resettlement area, he had tried to work as an assistant to a mason. He told me that he couldn't work because the work required high amount of energy, which he couldn't. Then he engaged in other activity, this time making of charcoal. Again, he couldn't succeed. After these entire attempts, he became hopeless and registered to go to resettlement area. He told me that if things are better in the resettlement area, he will come and take us. Case 9 (2006) The other form of adaptive strategy undertaken by fishermen of Lake Chamo is migration to distant Lakes like Turkana and Zewai leaving their families back at/around Arbaminch. Ato Sayinesu Ayele, expert in Arbaminch Fish Production and Marketing Enterprise and currently the representative of the Enterprise describes the situation as follows:

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Recently due to the resource depletion from the Lakes around Arbaminich area, our total fish production and purchase has declined significantly. Due to this and other reasons we took measures to compensate. Experts from our head office conducted a preliminary stock analysis and other necessary study on Lake Turkana and found that the fishery resource base is promising. Then our organization invited fishermen to conduct fishing and supply to our enterprise from Lake Turkana. We knew that most people who are engaged in daily labor in Arbaminch area were fishermen who abandoned fishing due to resource depletion. We were able to get 20 fishermen and their assistants to work on Lake Turkana. I hope these fishermen could get better income as the production is good due to the better resource status. I know that some fishermen also went to Lake Zewai to work as ''assistant to those who have already have access right and prior control. From the explanation of the expert, it is clear that the causes of migration of fishermen in search of other fishing ground is 'push' factor from their permanent residence associated with the stress in fishery resource base. The migrants are male household heads who moved leaving their families back in and around Arbaminch. The remittance sent monthly or in different periods is the base for the household survival of these migrant fishermen.

The discussion in this chapter has shown that though the type and the degree of strategies undertaken by households vary, most of the fishermen in the study area have taken one or the other form of coping and adoptive strategies as response to food and livelihood insecurity they faced.

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CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

8.1. Conclusion
The study was conducted in and around Arbaminch Town on fishing communities of Lake Chamo. The fishing communities are found to be varied in terms of their residence place i.e. some are urban and others are rural, and also in terms of organization i.e. some are organized under fishers co-operative association while others are non-member of cooperative i.e. operating on individual basis.

The investigation was undertaken with the main objective of learning the major livelihood challenges of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo. For achieving the objective, mixed approach of both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were employed.

Conventionally, different measures have been used to analyze poverty, and related issues at household and community level. However, it is very recently that the SLAs are being employed to uncover the multidimensional aspect of poverty, food and livelihood insecurity. In this research, SLAs were applied as a framework for analyzing the livelihood trends, processes, and outcome of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo in holistic way. In SLAs, the context, the assets, the mediating processes, and activities and strategies are the most important component of the framework, which affect ones livelihood. Hence, these components were used in one way or the other in the analysis of the sustainable livelihood of the fishermen.

According to Toner and Frank (2005) environmental sustainability is one of the preconditions of sustainable livelihoods (Toner and Frank, 2005: 3). Similarly, as cited in Ellis (2000), various scholars like Scoones (1998), Swift and Hamilton (2001), Chambers and Conway (1992) agree that for livelihood to be sustainable it should not undermine the natural resource base (Ellis, 2000: 7). However, the research result revealed that the sustainability of the livelihood of fishing communities of Lake Chamo has been challenged by the stress on the fishery resource base among others.

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Both primary and secondary sources revealed that the number of fishermen and fishing efforts on Lake Chamo has increased alarmingly overtime as explained by high rate of rural-urban migration, high unemployment rate and low employment opportunity in and around Arbaminch, which are among responsible factors for the resource depletion.

The weak resource management due to policy and institutional failures has encouraged every body that is interested to engage in the exploitation of the fishery resource, and over exploit the resource even applying inappropriate fishing methods and gears. As a result, it became too difficult to limit the number of fishermen, the number of fishing gears, inappropriate fishing gears and methods in the absence of detailed supportive rules and regulation to the Regional and Federal Fisheries Development and Utilization Proclamation.

As discussed earlier, there are different views and schools of thoughts with regard to the management of CPRs like fisheries resource. However, all of them agree on the need and importance of introducing some form of property right as solution to reduce the tragedy scenario. Considerable numbers of writers suggest state control and management where as scholars like Demsetz (1967) argue in support of the private ownership as solution (cited in Adhikari, 2001:1). However, the finding of this study is in line with the proponent of the third group like Adger (2003) who advocates the co-management option as solution to sustainable utilization of the CPRs like fisheries.

Furthermore, it is learnt that man induced environmental degradation generally associated with poor wet-land management: like lake side farming, overgrazing, diversion of small streams, upstream deforestation and resultant siltation have all caused adverse effect on the fishery ecology and fishery resource of Lake Chamo. Moreover, natural phenomena such as variability of rainfall and high evapotranspiration have brought adverse effect on the water balance of the lake, which in turn has negative effect on the resource status. There are various views regarding the nexus between poverty and environment in the literature. However, the finding of this research suggests that there are multiple factors behind the fishery resource degradation other than poverty, like population pressure, policy and institutional failures

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and overall environmental degradation in Lake Chamo Basin. Thus, the finding is inline with the argument of Alemu (2003)which says that complex set of variables come in to the play in the poverty and environment degradation nexus(Alemu,2003:11)

The fishing communities of Lake Chamo vary in access to resource. The difference in access right has caused a difference in well-being. In the study area being a member of fishers cooperative is equated with right to have full access to the resource. This has negative implication to non-member of cooperative both full time urban fishermen and part time rural fishermen. The rural part time fishermen in PAs of Gantta Kanchame, Shelle Mela, Elgo, Wozeka, and etc claim full resource access right in their respective jurisdiction along the shore. Generally, non-members of cooperative are considered as illegal. The research has revealed that the well being of these community members is relatively worse than the organized ones.

It is found that unequal resource access among different co-operative associations, among cooperative members and non-member of cooperatives, looting of ones fishing net, attempt to conduct fishing in proposed park boundary, and trying to have camping and fishing site in what is considered as communal resource by members of farmers or pastoralists in the shores adjacent to their respective PAs become the major cause of conflict.

Lack of education and skill training, unequal resource access right and exclusion, deprivation of the right to be organized as a cooperative member, and poor saving behavior are among the major constraints reported by most fishermen as disabling factor to accumulate assets and carryout choice diversification at household level. Though the fishers cooperative associations were set up with multiple purposes, except the little attempt of AFCA to engage in diversification of income through hotel service and boat service others like SFCA, and CFCA have not yet done any effort.

It is found that lack of policy focus to the fishery sub-sector is also reflected in poor provision of technical backup, service provision, poor financial and research support, protecting the public security and weak voice of the fishermen. Therefore, these are also among the major challenging factors that have adverse effect on the livelihood of the fishermen of Lake Chamo.

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Alternative employment opportunities for fishermen, rural-urban migrants, and urban unemployed are found to be very little in and around Arbaminch. This forced those who dont have other options to be engaged in ever depleting resource base of Lake Chamo.

As a result of these, most fishermen are not in a position to recover from the livelihood stress and shocks. Moreover, most of them are unable to maintain or enhance their assets and capabilities. The research revealed that significant numbers of fishermen (89.4%) are unable to cover household food demand and they are food insecure despite the attempts made to engage in survival diversification and receive social capital in the form of transfers. As the research revealed, considerable numbers of fishermen of Lake Chamo have undertaken various coping and adaptive strategies to the challenges they have faced. Of all the survey respondents, 76(89.4%) have taken coping strategies like dietary change and reducing or rationing food consumption at household level. Of the households included in survey 39 (46%) have used credit for food consumption and 29(34%) sold or mortgaged some of their household assets like livestock, chairs, and even fishing nets, etc, to cover household food deficit. Furthermore, those who are unable to cope by undertaking multiple coping strategies are forced to distressful migration towards resettlement places, and other lakes where the fishery resource is relatively abundant.

8.2. Recommendation
Based on the conclusion made and lessons drawn to mitigate the major challenges of the fishing communities and hence achieve sustainable livelihoods the following key remarks are recommended. As the major limiting factor of the fishing communities of Lake Chamo is found to be ever depleting fishery resource base, so to reverse the tragedy all-inclusive action has to be taken: 1. The policy and institutional gap of the Federal and Regional Fisheries Development and Utilization Proclamations should be filled by designing and enacting detailed rules and regulation through the full participation of various fishing communities.

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2. appropriate fishery management tools (like mesh size regulation, catch quota, closed area, closed season, gear restriction, licensing, etc) for the particular Lake should be identified and defined through the participation of the fishing communities. 3. So far the government alone management of the common pool fishery resource is seen to be ineffective and thus co-management of both government and fishing communities seem to be more important. In this regard, each party should be given a clearly defined right and responsibility in the management and utilization of the resource. 4. Strengthening the capacity of government and community organizations that would be responsible to put the rules and regulations into effect through training, personnel and financial support. The government organization, particularly the fishery section should be strengthened by professionals to collect necessary data on production, stock condition, and on the number and variety of active fishing efforts on the Lake which should be registered, monitored, and interpreted continuously for sustainable resource utilization. 5. Currently there is a need to restock the fishery resource of Lake Chamo through the same species from other lakes or fishery laboratories of the country. 6. Creation of public awareness and sensitization of the rules, regulations, the proclamation, the importance of wet land management and conservation of Bio-diversity for sustainable livelihood. To put the above points in to effect it needs further research. 7. It is found that there is less policy focus and weak integration among different levels of government to the overall development of the fishery sector. Though the contribution of the sub-sector is low to national GDP, at regional and local level its importance is very high in terms of supporting the livelihood of a considerable number of people, as supplying cheap source of protein to local and national food demand, and even generating revenue to local government. Thus, there is a need for comprehensive well cascaded macro, meso, and micro level fisheries development strategy for promotion of sustainable fisher livelihood. 8. The fishermen in their remote working place should be provided with necessary social services like primary health care, water service, public security, and other infrastructures like road development towards the landing sites, preparation of landing sites, fish gutting shops, and workshops to prepare wooden boats along the shore. 9. Lack of voice of the fishermen in the study area exacerbated the poor well-being of the fishermen. Thus, the voice of the fishermen should be heard and they should participate in matters that affect their livelihood.

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10. The local government bodies should promote credit and saving within fishers co-operative and outside co-operative association through the PAs or Urban Kebeles so as to enable some fishermen to have the culture of saving. 11. As the wetland management of Lake Chamo Basin is poor and has adverse effect on the fishery resource, it calls urgent application of integrated wet-land management thereby protecting the Lake side from farming, over grazing and human settlement. Moreover, there is also a need to practice integrated upstream wetland management to reduce the siltation through reducing deforestation, and protecting soil erosion by applying different soil erosion protection measures. 12. Fishermen have needs and rights outside the fishing sub-sector. So, the local and regional government bodies should plan to integrate the sub-sector with other sectors and invest on issues of diversification and create alternative livelihood options to fishermen and to other unemployed who would be potential fishermen. 13. At household level the necessary education and training should be given to fishermen to enable his households to diversify and engage in other related activities. 14. At community level, especially to fishers co-operative members the pertinent government bodies, or NGOs should create favorable condition for diversifying their income sources through designing projects to enable them engage in other related business like poultry development, bee hives, lake side tourism, processed fish meal and other meal marketing, etc. 15. Creation of employment opportunities in Arbaminch and Woreda towns for urban unemployed and rural urban migrants to reduce the potential pressure to the fishery resource. Generally, the fishing communities in the study area face specific challenges in addition to those faced by other communities like farmers and at present this is not widely recognized in either national or local planning. Thus, it is time to take action by the Federal, Regional and Local governments to incorporate the fishery sub-sector, the fishery resource, and the fishermen in the overall development endeavor of the country through policy focus, program, projects, and planning for sustainable fishermen livelihood.

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COMESA(Common Market for East and South Africa) .2004. Development of East and Southern Africa Inland Fisheries Industry in a More Sustainable Way: Trade Aspect,Case Study of Inland Fisheries in Burundi, Ethiopia, Ruwanda, and Sudan CRIDA- Common Pool Resources in Semi Arid India: Problems and Potentials. http//w.w.w. Nri.org/Indian CPRs/NRI R.Congo, Dijibuti, Erteria,,

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CSA (Central Statistical Authority). 1999. The 1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia, Results of Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State. Degefa Tolossa .2005.Rural Livelihoods, poverty, and Food Insecurity in Ethiopia: A Case Study at Erenssa and Garbi Communities in Oromiya Zone, Amhara National Regional State, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Management, NTNU, Trondheim, Norway. Degefa Tolossa .2006.Combining Household Qualitative Data and Quantitative Data in Food Security Research: Working Paper on Population and Land use in Central Ethiopia, No.5, NTNU, Trondheim. Dessalegn Rahamato.1987. Famine and Survival Strategies: A Case study from North East Ethiopia, Institute of Development Research, A.A.U., Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. DFID/FAO .2001. Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Program: Study on the Impacts of Policies Institutions and Processes on Fisheries Livelihoods in Ghana. Ellis, F.2000. Rural Livelihoods and Diversity in Developing Countries, Oxford University Press,UK EMA /Ethiopian Mapping Agency/.1988. Map Index Numbers 0537A2, 0537A4, 0537B1, and 0537B3. EPA (Environmental Protection Authority).2005. Management Plan for the Conservation and sustainable Utilization of Abaya and Chamo Wetlands, Volume one, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Eshete Dejene .2004. Lake Tana Biodiversity Potentials and Threats, in Alemneh Dejene and et.al. (eds) Proceedings of the Technical Workshop on Improving the Natural Resource Base and Rural Well Working Paper No. 17, FAO, Room. FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) .1988. Small-Scale Fish Landing and Marketing, Fisheries Technical Paper 291,Rome Italy FAO.1994. Aquaculture Development and Research in Sub-Saharan Africa, CIFA Technical Paper 23, Rome, Italy. FAO. 2000. Use of Property Rights in Fisheries Management, FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 404/1, Rome, Italy. http:www.fao.org./docrep/oo5/y4281e/y4281e09.htm

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FAO .2001.Understanding the Cultures of Fishing Communities: A Key to Fisheries Management and Food Security, FAO Technical Paper 401, Colorado, USA. FAO .2001 Trade Reform and Food Security http:www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4671e/y4671e00.htm FAO.2002. Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Program and FAO. Advisory Committee on Fisheries Research Joint Working Party on Poverty in Small-scale Fisheries, Fisheries Report No.678, Rome, Italy. http:// www.sflp.org/fr/003/003/reportpov.doc FAO.2003. Strategies for Increasing the Sustainable Contribution of Small-Scale Fisheries to Food Security and Poverty Alleviation, Rome, Italy.
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FAO 2006. Document Repository Farrington, J. et al., .1999.Sustainable livelihoods in practice: Early Application of Concepts in rural areas, Natural Resource Perspective, Number 42, Overseas Development Institute Portland House, London. http:// www.odi.org.uk/NRP/42.html - 45k FDRE (Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia).1997.Environmental Policy of Ethiopia. FDRE. 2001. Rural Development Policies, Strategies and Instruments, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. FDRE . 2002. Food Security Strategy Paper. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. FDRE.2003.Fisheries Development and Utilization Proclamation, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Hussein.K, and Nelson. J .1998. Sustainable Livelihood and Diversification: IDS working Paper 69. IFAD.2006.An IFAD Sustainable Livelihood Framework http:// www.ifad.org/sla/framework/index.htm - 35k Indriss and et.al. 1992. The State of World Rural Poverty: An Inquiry in to its Causes and Consequences, New York University Press, USA. IBCR (Institute of Biodiversity Conservation and Research) .2000.National Report on Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in the Rift Valley Lakes of Ethiopia, Addis Abeba Ethiopia. Johnson, C. 2004. Uncommon Ground: 'The Poverty of History' in Common Property Discourse, in Development and Change, Vol. 35. No.3, Institute of Social Studies, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, UK.

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Julian Hamilton .2002. An IFAD Sustainable Livelihoods Framework. LFDP(Lake Fisheries Development Project).1994.Preliminary Estimates of Maximum Sustainable Yield. Maarten B. 2003. The Spatially Splinted state: Myths and Realities in the Regulation of Marine Fisheries in Tamil Nadu, India in Martin Poornbos and et.al. (eds). Development and Change, Vol. 34 No. 4. MARD(Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development).2001.Unpublished Document. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. MA RD .2004. Fisheries Development and Marketing Plan, Unpublished Document, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mekonnen Tadesse.2005. Depletion of Lake Chamo Fishery resource: Report on the Fishery Resource, In Soke Tree and Natural resource of Arbaminch (2005), Institute for Sustainable Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. MoA (Ministry of Agriculture).1994. Lake Fisheries Development Project, Phase II, Management of Lake Fisheries in Ethiopia, looking for ways, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Maxwell, D. 1996. Measuring food Insecurity: The Frequency and Severity of Coping Strategies, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC, USA. NAE. 1998. National Atlas of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Scoons, I .1998. Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis, IDS working Paper No.70,Bringhton Seleshi Bekele.2001.Investigation of Water Resource Aimed at Multi- Objective Development with Respect to Limited data Situation: The Case of Abaya and Chamo Basin, Ethiopia Technische Universitat, Drespen, Germany. SNNPRS. 2003. Fisheries Development and Utilization Proclamation of Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples Regional State, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. SNNPRS.2004.Rport of the 2004 population Estimate of the Regional Population Bureau, Awassa, Ethiopia. Swify, J. and Hamilton, K.2001. Household Food and Livelihood Security in Devereux S. and Maxwell S. (eds) Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa. ITDG, Publishing, London, UK.

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Senait Seyoum.2001.Governement policy on food Security in Ethiopia: Some Strengths and Weaknesses in Yared Amare (eds.)Food Security and Sustainable livelihoods in

Ethiopia, Forum for Social Studies ,Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Tesfaye Lemma .2003. Livelihood Strategies in the Context of Population Pressure: A Case Study of the Hararghe Highlands, Eastern Ethiopia, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Williams, O. T.1998. Multiple Uses of Common Pool Resources in Semi-Arid West Africa: A Survey of Exiting Practices and Options for Sustainable Resource Management, Research Article, and Overseas Development Institute. www.odi.org.uk/NRP/38.html - 29k Toner, A. and Frank, T.2005. Putting Livelihoods Thinking in to Practice: Implication for Development Management, Brandford Center for International Development, Research Paper No. 10. http:/www. doi.wiley.com/10.1002/pad.395 UNDP.2005. Human Development Report, New York, USA. Vandan,B et al. 1991 Source Book for Inland Fishery Resource of Africa, Technical Paper,FAO,219,Rome, Italy. Yohannes Benyam .1996. Open Access Water Resource Management for Sustainable Development in Bekuri Woldesemiat et al. (eds.) Population, Sustainable use of Natural Resource and Development, Association of Ethiopian Geographers, A.A.; Ethiopia. Yared Amare.1991.Household Resource, Strategies and Food Security in Ethiopia: a Study of Amhara Household in Wogda, North Shewa, Addis Addis, Ethiopia Zerihun Gudeta et al. 2004. The Effect and Persistence of Major Changes in Economic Policies on the Long-term Performance of Ethiopian Agriculture, Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, Vol.43, NO.3, Frankfurt.

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Annex I
Questionnaire For household Survey of the Lake Chamo Fishing Communities Part One, 1. Personal, Family and occupation information of the Fisherman

No

Name

Sex

Age

Ethnic

Religion

Relation to head

Martial status

Education level for age above 7 years

Permanent residence

Main occupation ____________ 1 2 3

1 2 3 4 5 code

Householdhead

1.male 2.female

1.Gamo 2.Gofa 3.Zeyse 4.Derashe 5.Amara 6.Konso 7.Basketo 8.Others

1.Orthodox 2.Protestant 3.Islam 4.Cultural 5. Others

1.wife 2.son/doughter 3.Father 4.mother 5.sister 6.brother 7.relative

1.unmarried 2.married 3.divorced 4.widowed 5.divorced 6.polygamy

1.illitrate 2.litrate 3.primary (1-8 th . grade) 4secondary(9-12 th..grade) 5.above secondary

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2. Fishing ground, Time spent on fishing and Experience of fishing for fishing operators both mobile and stationary
N o. Fishing ground Name Usual fishing ground /shore Distance from shore km Hrs Distance from Home km Hrs Time spent in fishing Hrs/day Day/month Month/year Experience in fishing years

1 2

Part Two 3.Fishing Assets/ Physical Capital/

No 1 2 3 4 5 Type Boat local /Soke/ Boat modern Gillnet Hook Others specify Ownership 1.Yes,2 .No Present value Economic life

4. Ownership of other Assets

No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Item House Land for housing Land for farming Farm tools Cow Ox Sheep Goat poultry Bee hive 1. Privately own 2.Rented

5. Household Assets
No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Type of household asset Pipe water supply Electric service Radio Tape recorder T.V. Telephone service Sofa chair Refrigerator Other specify 1.private 2.communal 3.rental 4.No

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Part Three 6: Monthly income of household by occupation in 2002 and 2006 / Financial Capital/
No. 1 2 3 4. Income source of HHs Fishing Farming Petty trade Wage labor 2002 2006

7. Other sources of Income. / Financial Capital/ 1. Pension per month 3. From NGOs 2. Remittance per month 8. Whether the respondent borrows money. 1. Yes 2. No 9. If response to question No. 7 yes, what is your major source of financial credit? 1. Credit and Saving Units 2. Fishers Cooperative Association 3. Informal borrowing from relatives 4.non- Informal borrowing from non-relatives 5.Community Association Part Four 10. Household Expenditure and Saving 10.1. Household Expenditure of Incomes
No 1 2 3 4 5 Item Domestic consumption goods, Food Clothing Drinking and leisure Education and Health of family members Social obligations Idir. Percent expenditure

11. Household Investment 11.1. In fishing ________11.2.In Non-fishing activities ___________ 12. Household Saving 12.1. Weekly saving Birr __________ 12.2. Monthly saving Birr _________ 12.3 Yearly saving Birr__________ 13. The house in which you are living is? 1. Private 2. Your familys 3.Relatives 4. Rental 14. Housing condition? 1. Corrugated iron sheet 2.Grass thatched 3. Hollow Block 4.if other specify__________________________ 15. What are the major health problems of the HH.(multiple responses are possible) 1. Malaria 2.malnutrition 3.H.IV/AIDS 4.typhoid/typhus 16. What are the Major health problems of the fishing communities? 1.______ 2_________

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17. Migration in and out of the HH head.

No No. of years staying in this area Residence Reason for in migration (1) Income per month 1.Yes 2.No Do you want to out migrate Why? (2)

Place of previous residence And Employment Employment 1.government 2.Private 3self employed Occupation

HH Code

Reasons: 1. _____________2____________ Part Five 18. Public utilities /social services around the lake
No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Type Security Landing sites Transporting of fish products Fish processing place Boat making workshops Net making work shops Water supply Basic health Others specify 1. No Service 3.Satisfactory 2 Poor 4.Very good

19. Some indicators of fish resource depletion. From your experience over time
No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Indicators of fishery resource depletion Change of fish weigh and height Mesh size of nets used for fishing CPUE, KG /Net/ Day Fish stock Thickness of thread used for net making Number of fishing nets Number of fishermen Availability of fish meat to local market Water volume of the lake Chang of Soke Tree 1 Very much decreased 2. Decreased 3.No change 4.Increased 5.Much Increased

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20. Whether the HH Participate in local social services?

No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 HH participation in local social services Ider Iqub Marriage ceremonies Church/Mosque/ services Coffee ceremonies Others specify 1Yes 2.No

21. If your answer is yes to most of the items in question No. 20, how do they contribute to your life?________________ 22. If your replay is No to question 21, what are your reasons? 1____________2___________ 23. Whether the fishing activity and the fishermen respected by local people. 1. Yes 2.No 24. If your response to question No.23 is no, give possible reasons.____________

(Question no.25 up to31 is to Co- operative Member) 25. Are you a member of a fisherman co-operative? 1. Yes 2.No 26. If yes, what is the name of your Co-operative Association? 1. Arbaminch Fishers Co-operative Association 2. Chamo Fishers Co-operative Association 3. Sego Fishers Co-operative Association 4. If other specifay _________________________ 27. When did you become a member the Co-operative?_______________________ 28. How the fisherman became a member to fishers co-operative? _________________ 29. What is the importance of being a member of fishers co-operative? _______________ 30. What advantages have you ever get by being member to the fishing cooperate?____________ 31.What are some of the major shortcomings of your co-operative that according to your opinion needs improvement?_______ (Question No.32 up to 35 is only to non-member of Fishers Co-operative) 32. Whether the fisherman has ever attempted to join a co-operative or setup new? Yes 2.No 33. If response to question No. 32 is no, give possible reasons? 1. Lack of awareness of the importance of being organized 2.Lack of organizing body 3. If other specify, ______________________________________ 34. If your response to question no.32 is yes, why it is not possible? 35. What have you missed for not being a member of a cooperative?______________

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Part Six (Access to Natural capital) 36. Do you have problems to access the fishery resource? 1. Yes 2. No 37. If your answer is yes to question No.36, what the problems not to access the resource? _________ 38. So, how do you get access to the fishery resource? _________________ 39. According to your view who should have access to the fishery resource of Lake Chamo? 1. Cooperative member only 2. All organized and non- organized which conduct fishing full time 3. Seasonal and Part time Fisherman only 4. All 1, 2, and 3 above 40. What are the major problems with regard to access the fishery resource? 1____2____ 41. How is the trend of your catch per unit effort over time? 1. Increased 2. Decreased 3. No change 42. If your replay is No.2 for question no.41, what are the probable reasons?1____2___ 43. How is the stock of fish resource trend? 1. Improving 2. Depleting 3. No much change 44. If your answer is No. 1. What could be the possible reasons? 1__________2.______ 45. If your response is depleting, what could be the probable reasons? 1.______2.______ 46. What are the signs, which you have observed of resource depletion?_____________ 47. Whether the resource depletion has caused negative effect on HH income and livelihoods? 1. Yes 2. No 48. Since when did this happen? Year______________ 49. If your replay is yes to question no. 47, how due you express these effects?__________ 50. Whether the HH is resilient to resource depletion? 1 .Yes 2.No 51. If your answer to question no.50 is yes, how your HH become resilient? 1. Diversifying income sources 2.Reducing consumption 3.Trying to fish long hours than before 4.Others specify__________________ 52. If your response to question No.5o is no, what are the reasons? _______________ 53. What do you think to be the solution to ameliorate the problem? ______________ 54. Who is the most responsible for the resource depletion? ____________________ 55. Who should take the initiative for proper resource utilization? (Multiple responses is possible) 1. The fishing community 2. The government 3. The people at large 4.Environmentally concerned people 5.Al 56 .What are its shortcomings /weakness /of the existing fishery resource management over Lake Chamo? __________ 57. What do you suggest as solution? 1. State control and management 2. Co- management between the state and the fishing communities 3. Management and control by fishing communities alone. 4. Control and Management by fisher's cooperatives 5.Other specify, ________________

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58. Which of the following fishery management tools do you prefer to sustainable resource use and to your sustainable livelihood?
No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Fishery management tools Allocation of Catch Quota Area and season closure Mash size regulation Gear restriction Limit on the number of boats and gears Taxes based on effort or catch Licensing Leasing to an individual /a cooperative Giving to Community alone Control of Traders 1Yes 2.No

59. Species of fish usually targeted No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Type of Fish targeted Nile perch Tilapia Labeo Barbus Cat fish Bagrus Other, spacifay 1.Yes 2.No

60. What is your reason for targeting selective spices of fish? _______________________ 61. What is the gill net size or mesh size you are now using? 1. for Nile perch________________2 for Tilapia __________________ 3. for Labeo___________________4. For others specify,____________ 62. Why you usually target that species?__________________ 63. How do you perform the fishing activity? 1. Alone 2. In crew 64. Where do you sale your fish catch? 1. at landing site 2. Market 3.Suppling to Hotels 4.Other specify 65. How long is the fish market from landing site? In Km ___________or.______ hours travel distance. 66. How is the fish catch transported from landing site? 1. by Human labour 2. By car. 3. Others specify______________ 67. To which Institution or marketing body do you supply your catch usually? 1. Private merchants 2. Fishers Cooperative Association 3. Brokers 4. Fish Production and Marketing Enterprise 5. Private consumers 6. Restaurants 68. How is the fish marketing system? 1. Free market 2. Fixed price 69. Do you think that you get fair price for the fish products you supply? 1. Yes 2. No 70. If your response is no to question no. 69, what would be the probable reasons/____________

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Part Seven (Food security situation) 71. Number of meals taken by majority of the HHs per day? 1. Once 2.twowice 3.threetimes 4.four times 72. Type of meal usually eaten at your household level? 1. Breakfast_______________ 2.lunch _____________ 3.Dinere________________ 73. Is your household income sufficient to feed the household members? 1. Yes 2. No 74. If your response is no to question no.73, when or in which months of the year is your income from fishing decreases seriously? 75. Coping strategies of the HH during food insecurity?
No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Coping and adaptive strategies Short time dietary change Reducing or rationing consumption Use of credit for consumption Mortgaging or sale of household assets Searching for other income sources Sale of durable assets Distressful migration Expecting support from relatives /friends 1.Yes 2.No

76. Long term adaptation strategies of the HH? 1. Diversification 2. Seasonal migration. 3. Mortgaging and sale of assets 77. If things continue in this way, what is your hope of life in the future? 1. It will improve 2. It will be worsening 3. It will be the same as today 78. If your response to question no.77 is worsening, what things need to be improved?__________ 79. What are the Major problems construing of your HH livelihoods? 1______2______3______ Part Eight (POLCY) 80. What things need to be done to improve your livelihood by pertinent government bodies your? 81. Have you ever got training or assistance from the government rural development department? 1. Yes 2. 82. How do you compare the extension system given to farmers and fishermen by the woreda agricultural and rural development office? ________________ 83. Is the government a friend of the fishermen? 1. Yes 2. No 84. If your response to question number 83 is No, what are your possible reasons? Reasons: 1.__________________ 2_____________________ 85. How do you express your living situation over time in general terms? 1. Improving 2.Worsening 3. No much change

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Part Nine (Resource conflict) 86. Do conflicts arise among the fishing communities? 1. Yes 2. No 87. If your response is yes to question No. 86, among whom do conflicts arise? 1. Among fishing individuals 2. Among co-operative members and non member to cooperatives 5. Between fishermen and local peasants/pastoralists 6. Others specify __________ 88. What are the usual causes of conflict? _______________ 89. How such conflicts are usually solved? 90. Which institutions play the major role in solving such conflicts? 1. Formal governmental Institutions 2. Informal Institutions within the fishing communities 91. Does conflict resolution take to account the needs and rights of every party? 1. Yes 2. No 92. If your response to question number 91 is No, what are the issues which are not taken in to account? 93. Have you ever claimed your rights to be considered by the government bodies? 1. Yes 2. No 94. If your response to question No. 93 is yes, what are some of your demands or questions? 95. Which of these demands were given due response by the pertinent government bodies? 96. Which of your questions are not yet given sufficient response? 97. If your answer to question No 93 is No, is it because your needs are fulfilled? 1. Yes 2.No 98. If your response to question No.97 is No, what are the reasons?

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Annex II
Interview Guide for Officials of Arbaminch &Chamo Fishers Cooperative Association
Name___________________ Age____________________ Qualification________________ Position_____________________ 1. General Profile of the Cooperative Year of establishment No. of members Male, Female Work division of members Office workers Marketing personnel Fishermen 2. Membership criteria of the cooperative 3. Are there new membership request? How do such issues addressed? 4. What are the major challenges of the Cooperative and its members? 5. What are the questions often rose by the cooperative to be fulfilled by government bodies? 6. How is the response of the respective government bodies? 7. How do you evaluate the income of your cooperative members over time? 8. Do the members of the Cooperative try to diversify their source of income? 9. In what kind of other activities do they participate? 10. What are the major problems you observe in the fishery resource management? Fish stock condition Causes for depletion Who is responsible? How can the problem be mitigated? Who do you think should have right to access the resource? Which group is the most affected? 11. Resource conflict Conflicting Bodies Causes of conflict Usual Conflict resolution ways Suggest ways to resolve conflicts in the future 12. Rural development policies & members to fishers cooperative. How do you see the technical support, the material support given? The woreda Cooperative Bureau in assisting the cooperative? How do you perceive the rural development polices in improving the livelihood of the fishing Cooperative members?

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Interview Guide for Experts and Respective Local Government Body in woreda Cooperative Desk
Name __________________________ Age____________________________ Qualification______________________ Position_______________________________ 1. What are your Organizations main responsibilities? 2. Who usually takes the initiative in organizing a certain group of people in to cooperative? 3. Do the existing rules and regulations allows a new comer to be member of an existing cooperative? 4. What is the importance of being organized as a fishers Cooperative? 5. Do requests come to your office from non-member of cooperative fishermen either to be organized as a new fishers cooperative or to be member of in the existing Cooperative Association? 6. How many such requests come monthly? Yearly? 7. How many of these get responses? 8. Did you observe conflicts of resource among the Non-members to co-operative & organized fishermen? 9. How such conflicts do usually resolve? 10. What are the weaknesses you have observed in the existing cooperative association? 11. Give your comments on the livelihood situation of the organized and un organized fishermen.

Interview Guide for Experts and Respective Local Government Bodies in Woreda /Zonal/ Agricultural and Rural Development Department
Name, Age, Qualification, Position, and Experience 1. What are the major responsibilities of your department? 2. Who are your direct beneficiaries or stakeholders to whom the department is setup? (Farmers, Pastoralists, Fishers) 3. Are there rules and regulation of fishery management on Lake Chamo? 4. Does the regional government promulgated its respective fisheries development and management plan? 5. What were the efforts being done by the local government and pertinent departments with regard to the fishery resource management? 6. What are the effects of not having fisheries development and management proclamation and respective Institutions at regional level? 7. Who are the most affected due to the absence of proclamation and respective institutions? (Organized, Unorganized/ Non member to cooperative/ Part time fisherman, the consumers) 8. Do your organizations give some sort of fishing license or permission? 9. Are there defined criteria? 10. Who have ever taken this permission?

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11. How do you control and manage the fish resource exploitation? What are your management tools? 12. Do you think that the resource management is effective and efficient? 13. If not what are the major reasons? 14. What do you suggest to alleviate the problem? 15. Are there resource conflicts among the major resource users? 16. How the resource conflicts usually resolved? 17. Does your organization give technical and material back up to the fishermen? 18. Which fishermen are your priorities to take services if any? 19. How often do you give such services? 20. What are the claims usually rose from the fishing communities? 21. How do you compare the living situation of the non-member fishermen and that Organized?

Checklist for Case Study Fishermen

Part One I. Demographic profile for household heads and household members Name, age ,family size , Place of Birth, marriage condition Educational background of the household head and his family members Labour mobility pattern

Part Two History of the family head, how he began fishing. Experience in fishing, purpose of fishing and time spent in fishing. Contribution of fishing to household income of the family. Other livelihood strategies carried by the head of the household and its members Species of fish usually targeted.

Overview of household Expenditure Domestic consumption Food, clothing, schooling and health services , Household health situation and the common health problems, Saving condition of the family Household assets condition Condition of house Land holding size if any and type of crops grown

Part Three -Social capital Participation in social gathering and social expenditure How do you value social gatherings and social networks for household livelihood The social value of fishing and fishermen in society Public services around the Lake

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Part Four - Financial Capital Source of credit Saving condition

Part Five What are the major challenges to the household? Access to fishery Need to be organized as fishermen co-operative Fishing assets Market

Part SixHow is the household food security /livelihood trend Improving Getting worse No change What are the signs /expressions/ of improving or getting worse or no change? What are the reasons? Part Seven-Rural Development policies and the fishermen Perceptions towards the rural development policies and institutions. Are they supportive to the fishermen Perception on the dependability of fishing as source of income to the household? What are coping mechanisms and adoptive strategies of the household?

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Check List for Focus Group Discussion

1. Demographic profile of the focus group Name Age Household size of each member of the focus group 2. General educational and health status of the household members of the group. Do they send they children to school? Do their families usually get health treatment when face health problems? What are the major health problems of the family members? 3. Social gathering Participation in Inder, equb, church ceremonies How do they value them? The importance of these to their life Usual source of credit 4. Fishing Full time, part time or seasonal fishermen Purpose and time spent in fishing Contribution of fishing to livelihood of the household Other livelihood strategies 5. Fishing assets status 6. Non- fishing assets status Land holding House Durable household goods Livestock 7. Household Income Fishing Non- fishing Improving /getting worse/No much change 8. Household expenditure 9. Food and livelihood security/ insecurity situation 10. Major challenges of the focus group o Access to fishery resource o Fishing asset o Credit o Market o Resource depletion o Weak government support 12. What are the household coping and adaptive strategies? 13. Resource conflicts and claims 14. Response of the government 15. Perception to rural development policies and institutions

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Checklist for discussion with Nech Sar National Parks Representative

Name _______________________________ Age_________________________________ Qualification__________________________ Position______________________________ 1. General profile of the Park Its Area, Boundary, Major flora and Fauna Current status of the Park

2. Part and Area of the lake demarcated as part of the park 3. Relation of the Park Administration with the local government organs local communities

4. Conflict of resource o Major conflicting bodies o Cause o History of conflict o Magnitude of conflict o Ways of resolving conflicts o Future plans to resolve conflict 5. Resource management plan of the park. Is it participatory? Does it take in to account the resource dependence of the fishing communities?

6. Policy and institutional problems to protect the park boundary that is demarcated as park boundary 7. Comment on the sustainable livelihood of the fishing communities

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Annex III General Profile of Key Informants

No 1 Name Abera Kassa Qualification M.Sc. in fishery science Position and place of work Expert in Livestock and Fisheries Resource Development Department of Arbaminch Zuria Woreda Head of the Co-operative and Input Disk of Arbaminch Zuria Woreda Expert in small- scall Business Promotion Department of Arbaminch Town Transitional Administration Head of the Agricultural Desk within the ARDD of the Gamo Gofa Zone. Head of Nech Sar National Park Head of the Livestock and Fisheries Resource Development Department in Arbaminch Zuria Woreda of ARDD Community coordinator of African Parks Head of the Board of trust of the AFCA Head of the technical section of the Arbaminch Branch of the Fishery Production and Marketing Enterprise and Representative of the Enterprise Representative of the Arbaminch Town Transitional Administration Expert in Livestock and Fisheries Resource Development Department in Arbaminch Zuria Woreda ARDD.

2 3

Alemayehu Gezahegn Asmelash Siyum

Diploma Diploma

4 5 6

Bimerew Tadesse Girma Timer Kanko Katama

B.Sc. in Marine Biology MSC in fisheries B.Sc. Ecologist and systematic zoologist Diploma

7 8 9

Mesfin Teklay Samuel Sata Saynesu Ayele

M.Sc. (socio economist) 12 grade complete B.Sc. in Animal Science

10 11

Sofoniyase Desta Terefe Guche

Diploma Diploma

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Annex IV General Profile of Case Households

Case No Number of Household head Sex Age Kebele Ethnicity Family size Educational level Me member ship to Fishers cooperative Member (AFCA) (AFCA) was member and currently leaving Nonmember Nonmember Nonmember Member (CFCA) Member (AFCA) Major occupation Place of Birth

1 2

Addisu Asha Sharafo Shanka

M M

60 43

01 08

Gofa Gofa

8 6

Read and write Read and write

3 4 5 6 7 8

Gebere Gaga Tadesse Assefa Dereje Dana Firew Taye Dessalegn Wolka Beletech Loa Kassech Engida Abyot

M M M M M F

38 25 35 28 57 30

01 10 04 08 12 08

Gamo Oromo Gamo

6 3 7 6 2 10

5th grade 8th grade 11th grade 8th grade 4th grade Read and write 7th grade 4th grade

Full time fishermen Was full time fisherman now shifting to farming Full time fisherman " " " " House wife of a fisherman " Full time fisherman

Mellokoza Mellokoza

Bonke Geresse Kemba Bonke Geresse Arbaminch town Bonke Geresse Shelle

Amara Gamo Wolayta

Gofa

9 10

F M

26 30

09 01

6 4

Nonmember

Gofa Bonke Geresse

Gamo

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