Lakes Edward and Mobutu support important fisheries whose total annual catch is about 30,000 t; the two lakes contribute substantially to the creation of employment and income in the isolated rural areas (zones).
The fisheries of lakes Edward and Mobutu depend on shared stocks and fishing is conducted inside national parks bordering on the shores of the lakes shared by Uganda and Zaire. In these circumstances, the two countries have strongly noted that the management of the fishery resources and shared species should be based strengthened bilateral collaboration.
At the request of the two countries and in collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa, the FAO/IFIP project organized a Technical consultation on the management of lakes Edward and Mobutu. This meeting was held at Kampala, Uganda from the 17 to 21 September 1990. The objective of the Consultation was ascertain the current fishery situation and identify the priorities for development and management of these fisheries and finally to recommend concrete actions of strengthening collaboration between Uganda and Zaire as well as the capacity for management.
The report of the Consultation is presented here-after in section 2 (paragraphs 1-91, adopted by the delegations). The list of participants, the agenda, the compilations and suggestions made during the Consultation as well as the working documents/papers are shown in the Appendices. These documents will be published in future by IFIP.
The Technical consultation created three working groups: one for statistics, another for research and the third for management and development, whose deliberations and recommendations were discussed and adopted. This permits a systematic identification of constraints, opportunities and priorities.
The Consultation re-affirmed the importance of regional collaboration in the management of the fisheries and creation of the joint sub-commission for the management of the fisheries of lakes Edward and Mobutu. The creation of this sub-commission has already been agreed upon by the large mixed commission existing between Uganda and Zaire in April 1990. The two delegations expressed willingness to finalize the functions of the subcommission as soon as possible.
The Consultation also defined the priorities and the type of technical and financial assistance concerning the strengthening of management capacities and research at the regional level.
The Technical Consultation was concluded by one donor meeting at which the conclusions of the consultation and project proposal were presented. Following this meeting the two countries (Zaire/Uganda) requested the IFIP project to facilitate a follow-up of the recommendations of the Technical Consultation.
