Jean Calvin Njock
Programme des Moyens d'Existence Durables dans la Pêche
(Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme)
BP 1369, Cotonou, Benin
Njock, J.C. 2006. The sustainable fisheries livelihoods programme (SFLP) and the fight against poverty. In M. Halwart & A.A. van Dam, eds. Integrated irrigation and aquaculture in West Africa: concepts, practices and potential, p. 157. Rome, FAO. 181 pp.
Summary
Using a sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) and the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) as tools, the Sustainable Fisheries Livelihoods Programme (SFLP) stresses community participation to ensure holistic and sustainable development that will favour strategic, technical and financial partnerships. Programme activities, which could have a direct link to integrated irrigation and aquaculture, were conducted as part of poverty-profile studies, and were based on a strategy for the sustainable development of fisheries in Burkina Faso. Poverty-profile studies were conducted as part of a pilot project on fisheries co-management in inland waters. These studies were conducted within fisheries communities along the Bagré and Kompienga reservoirs in Burkina Faso, Lake Kossou in Côte d'Ivoire, Lake Volta in Ghana, and the Sélingué reservoir in Mali, where fisheries and irrigated agriculture are practised. These systems cover vast areas that could offer riverine communities the opportunity to diversify their livelihoods through the integration of aquaculture and irrigation. By linking these activities to a strategy for the development of enhanced fisheries, it would appear there is a need for an approach that will integrate government agriculture policies with small-scale irrigation, fisheries (including aquaculture), food security, land tenure, and poverty reduction efforts. Given this situation, it is necessary to prioritise: (i) the creation of a body to oversee the management of local-level water body resources; (ii) strengthening organizational and technical capacities to improve participation in planning, resource management, and local development; and (iii) the development of an effective information system to facilitate the collection of useful data to be disseminated to both professionals and policy makers.
