Roundup: Uganda forming armed unit to protect fish stock

The Ugandan government is establishing an armed unit to protect the country's lucrative fish stock from being plundered by lawless groups and corrupt officials.

Fishery is a critical sub sector to Uganda, contributing 2.5 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 12 percent of the agricultural GDP. The sector fetches over 150 million U.S. dollars annually in export earnings, employs over 30, 000 Ugandans and over 5 million others directly or indirectly benefit from the sector, according to government statistics.

Fishing is a lucrative sector in Uganda that has attracted all sundry to the water bodies to cash in on a trade whose insatiable market stretches to Europe, Middle East and South East Asia. Regionally, the demand for fish products cannot be satisfied.

Several armed groups including state operatives have gone to the waters to engage in illegal fishing, an act that has prompted the government to crack the whip even on its officials that are abetting the crime.

Zerubabel Nyiira, Uganda's fisheries minister on May 29 announced that the government is in advanced stages of forming a combined force that will monitor the country's water bodies to plug the rapidly dwindling fish stocks.

While the government's plan was to increase fish production to 600,000 metric tonnes per year by 2016 from 460,000 metric tonnes per year in 2011, the annual productions have stood slightly below 460,000 metric tonnes.

This, according to Nyiira, is due to illegal fishing coupled with corrupt government and security officers. He argued that although government has spent huge sums of money to enforce tough measures against illegal fishing, the evil has continued to flourish.

This evil forced the government to go back to the drawing table and the result is the birth of a Joint Fisheries Protection Unit, an armed group comprising of fisheries, judicial and security officers.

"Fisheries is so lucrative, there are so many quack enforcement officers. That is why we are coming up with such measures. The capacity is not there but we are building it," said Nyiira.

Nyiira argued that instead of running after traders of illegal fish like the previous enforcement teams, the new team which is in the final stages of formation will go to the source where the fish was got.

The team will among others ensure that the breeding grounds on the lake are protected so that the fishermen do not take advantage of the absence of enforcement officers to fish in the designated breeding grounds.

The Joint Fisheries Protection Unit will also be charged with ensuring that no fishing will be carried out on the lakes once the closed seasons start. Closed season is when no one is allowed to fish on the lake in order to allow the stocks to replenish.

Besides the enforcement measures, the new protection unit will also be charged with increasing public awareness about the dangers of illegal fishing. The team will be carrying out outreaches in fishing communities.

The government has also embarked on aquaculture in a bid to increase the fish stocks in the country. Government has partnered with countries like China which have provided technical support regarding fish farming.

Nyiira said although there has been stagnation in the amount of captured fish, fish farming is the answer to increasing the country's fish stocks.

"Increase in fish production for export and domestic markets is attributed to increased investment in open water fish farming (cage fish culture)," he said noting that on Lake Victoria there are over 1,300 cages. Endi