The artisanal fishery on Lake Kivu provides employment to a total of 6,563 fishermen; 3,027 of them operate FEU's - trimarans and 3,536 the other, traditional FEU's. During our survey a detailed information was obtained on the socio-economic profiles of both the owners and crews of FEU's - trimarans, their attitudes and the socio-economic profiles and attitudes of the other traditional fishermen. The following sections provide the results.
The ownership by nationality reflects exactly the proportion of FEU's - trimarans on each side of the lake i.e. at present there are 70% of units owned by the nationals of Rwanda and 30% of units owned by the nationals of Zaire. This proportion is almost the opposite of that 1987 when more than two third of then existing trimarans were owned by the nationals of Zaire (Hanek et al., 1988). There are several reasons for this, the main being the availability of spare parts and kerosene in Rwanda.
Figure 22 shows the owners relative age structure. The average age of all owners is 35 years; it ranges from 20 to 70 years. Almost 55% of the unit owners are aged between 31 and 40 years old. Age distribution is homogeneous throughout and no significant differences have been identified on a geographical or nationality basis.
Figure 22: Relative age structure of trimaran owners.
On average the length of ownership is 8 years which is understandable since this fishery started only some 12 years ago. There are 85 absentee owners or about 53 % of the total. The absentee owners list as their principal occupation as follows: 74% of them are farmers, 1.4 % animal producers and 24.6% list other occupations, mainly civil service and/or business.
During our initial surveys (Hanek and Reusens, 1987; Hanek et al., 1987) it was unusual to identify an owner of more than one unit. The situation changed over the last four years. At present there are on average 1.5 FEU's - trimarans per owner; 15.5% now own two units, 8.8% three units and 2.5% eight units each.
Information has been gathered on the marital status of the owners, the number of dependents and, if so, how many of them are working in the fishery. The vast majority i.e. 96% of owners are married. On average they have 7.1 dependents each or a total of 1,137 dependents for the total number of trimarans owners; 8% of dependents are working in the fishery.
The vast majority (69.5%) of the trimarans owners has followed either the primary or secondary education and only 30.5% have not. The level of education received was classified into four categories: no education, basic primary education (six years), secondary education (further six years of training) and specialized/supplementary education (religious, etc.). 64.9% of the owners have followed primary education, 4.6% followed the secondary one and the rest i.e. 30.5% had no education at all. Differences in level of education can be distinguished between the two countries. In Rwanda there are 72.2% of trimarans owners who have followed an education; in Zaire, this procentage is lower, 57.6%.
Figure 23 shows the crew relative age structure. The average age of all crew members is 24 years; it ranges from 12 to 65 years. Almost 55% of all crew members are aged between 21 and 30 years old. A high procentage (31.1%) of crew members are very young, being between 11 and 20 years old. Age distribution is homogeneous throughout and no significant differences have been identified on a geographical or nationality basis.
Figure 23: Relative age structure of trimaran crew.
As for the owners, the data has been gathered on the marital status and the number of dependents of the crew members. Similar to trimaran owners, the vast majority of the crew members (68.5%) are married. On average they have two dependents each or a total of 5,736 dependents for the total number of trimaran crew members.
The vast majority (68.1%) of the trimaran crew members has followed an education. 63.4% of them have received the primary education and 4.7% the secondary one; 31.9% of trimaran crew members had no education at all.
Considering the fact that the majority of trimaran crew members is young, the average length of fishing experience, determined on the basis of this survey, is five years. There is a considerable turn over of crew members. It is caused by a number of reasons, the main one being the employment possibility. For example, when a road or other important construction project is to begin there is a noticeable turn over increase.
The ownership of traditional FEU's is simple; there is not an absentee ownership and consequently all owners of traditional FEU's are fishermen. Further, since only the FEU - beach seine operation requires two persons, only these FEU's use crew members. In virtually all cases these are family members and usually always a younger family member. For the purpose of this study these are considered equal and are treated as such. Lastly, no difference among the four types of traditional FEU's is made and thus the socio-economic profile of the fishermen of all four traditional FEU's is now presented.
The ownership of traditional FEU's by nationality reflects almost exactly the number of these units on each side of the lake. There is only 1.6% higher ownership by nationality (39.9%) by Rwanda nationals than the actual number of traditional FEU's identified on their respective territories i.e. 61.7% of all traditional FEU's in Zaire and 38.3% in Rwanda. This could be explained by not always clear definition by nationality in the southern portion of the lake.
Figure 24 shows the traditional fishermen's age structure. The average age of all traditional fishermen is 33 years; it ranges widely from 9 to 88 years. The most prominent age groups are between 21 and 30 and 31 and 40 years old which account for 32% and 28.6% of all traditional fishermen respectively. Age distribution is homogeneous throughout on a geographical and thus nationality basis. On average the traditional fishermen have 12 years of fishing experience.
Figure 24: Relative age structure of traditional fishermen.
Information has been gathered on the marital status of the traditional fishermen and on the number of their dependents. The majority of them are married i.e. 75.5%. On average they have 4.75 dependents each or a total of 16,796 dependents in total; 8.6% of the dependents are active in the fishery.
Less than a half (45.2%) of the traditional fishermen has followed either the primary or secondary education; 44.3% of the total has received basic primary education, 0.9% the secondary one and 54.8% none at all.
As apparent from the above three distinct groups were identified during our survey. These are: (1) owners of trimarans; (2) crew members of trimarans and (3) traditional fishermen. Since there are interesting and significant differences among these three groups a brief summary of these is now given as follows.
Figure 25 shows the comparison of the relative age structure of all three groups. While the average age is 35, 24 and 33 years respectively for the trimaran owners, crew and traditional fishermen it could be noted that almost 55% of trimaran owners are aged between 31 and 40 years old, almost the same percentage (54.9%) of trimaran crew members are aged between 21 and 30 years old while 60.6% of traditional fishermen are aged between 21 and 40 years old.
Figure 25: Comparison of relative age structure
Similarly, the average number of years of experience in fishing shows a significant difference; it has been determined at 8 years, 5 years and 12 years respectively for the trimaran owners, crew of trimarans and the traditional fishermen. Figure 26 provides further details. It indicates, for example, that 48.2% of all trimaran owners and 58% of all trimaran crew members have both less than four years of experience; this is due clearly to the strong entry to this fishery by Rwanda nationals on one hand and the significant turn over of the crew members on the other. Lastly, it also indicates that 32.3% of all traditional fishermen have more than 10 years of fishing experience.
Figure 26: Comparison of years of fishing experience.
There is a clear relation between the age and marital status within the three groups. The highest marriage rate (96%) is found among the trimaran owners who have the highest age average (35 years), followed by the traditional fishermen (75.5% marriage rate; age average 33 years) and finally by the trimaran crew members (68.5% marriage rate, average age 24 years). Figure 27 provides further details.
Figure 27: Comparison of marital status.
There is also an obvious and clear correlation regarding the number of dependents among the three groups under consideration. The highest average number of dependents is found among the trimaran owners (7.15 dependents/owner), followed by the traditional fishermen (4.75 dependents/traditional fisherman) and lastly by trimaran crew members (2 dependents/crew member).
The total number of dependents has been determined at 23,669. This together with the total number of fishermen makes a total of 30,232 of persons who are directly depending on the fishery of Lake Kivu. If the secondary fishery sector (the number of women who market and distribute the fish, in total 3,340 who on average have 8 dependents each) is included a total number of 56,952 persons are benefitting directly from the fishery of Lake Kivu. Figure 28 provides further details.
Figure 28: Comparison of number of dependents
Lastly, there is also a significant difference in the level of education received among the three groups under consideration. The highest level of education is found both among the trimaran owners and trimaran crew members (69.5% and 68.1% respectively) and resultingly, the highest rate without any education (54.8%) among the traditional fishermen. Figure 29 provides further information.
Figure 29: Comparison of education level
