REFRESHED SPECIES - Mangochi BVC's step up sanctuary fish monitoring
Beach Village Committees have step up monitoring in sanctuaries to establish diversity counts and enable compilation of those species prevalent under communal managed areas on Lake Malawi waters
MANGOCHI, Malawi (Planet Defence) – Restoring Fisheries for Sustainable Livelihoods in Lake Malawi (REFRESH), a five-year (2019-2024) project implemented by PACT Malawi has intensified fish sanctuary monitoring exercises through capacity strengthening of Beach Village Committees (BVC) in Mangochi district reports Maureen Kawerama.
Project Technician Elijah Katantha under Community Initiative for Self-Reliance (CISER) one of REFRESH implementing partners explained the objective behind the exercise is to compile a list of fish species dwelling in the sanctuaries.
The exercise held at Namaso, Mbeya and Malembo BVC’s also established species diversity counts for each of the sanctuary.
“Refresh aims to restore fisheries resources in Lake Malawi. So the sanctuary monitoring exercise is one of the activities that helps us to understand progress in as far as sanctuary management is concerned. Through this exercise, we have seen some species that were not available the past two years like Lake Salmon Mpasa fish,” Katantha explained.
According to Katantha results of the monitoring exercise resonate with project’s goal of conserving freshwater biodiversity of Lake Malawi. More importantly restoring fish species including productivity in the lakeshore districts of Karonga, Rumphi, Likoma, Nkhata-Bay, Nkhotakota, Salima, Dedza and Mangochi.
In his reaction to the development, chairperson for Mbeya BVC, Chikagwa Aipila Banda, thanked REFRESH for the sanctuary monitoring exercise. He stressed that it has helped them to sample fish species present in the made-made aquatic conservation sites.
“Most of the times it’s hard for us to find out the different fish species present in our sanctuaries. As such this exercise has helped us to sample species present. For instance, through the exercise we now know that in our sanctuary we have the following species, Mcheni, Mdyamphipe, Chiyendammwamba, Mbuna, Kadyankhono, Mpasa, Mcheni, Bonya and Chitowawa. This information will help us in our fisheries conservation planning,” Banda shared the expectation.
Another community member Eunice Themba, urged her fellow women to take part in conserving the fisheries resources in Lake Malawi.
“People think that fish conservation is for males only. However, we also women can take part in fish conservation by supporting our men in different ways. Most of us here in Mangochi we depend on fisheries resources for a living hence fish conservation is cannot ne a male dominated job only,” Themba explained while helping men pushing the fish nets into the water.
REFRESH is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by a PACT – led consortium that includes core partners University of Rhode Island (URI) and Techno Serve (TNS) and local/regional partners Community Initiative for Self –Reliance (CISER), Find Your Feet and African Parks.
In Mangochi district, the project is being implemented by CISER.