Scoping study on thedevelopment and sustainable utilisation of inland fisheries in South Africa Volume 2: case studies of small-scale inland fisheries.

Small- scale fishing on inland waters is a widespread livelihood activity which has been overlooked in environmental policy and management arrangements flowing from South Africa’s democratic Constitution. This has perpetuated the Apartheid and Colonial era legacies of marginalisation of rural communities from natural resource access and, in the absence of clearly defined use rights, resulted in unmanaged and unsustainable fishing practises, and growing user conflicts. A major constraint to addressing the situation at policy level was identified as the lack of quantitative information on inland fishing for livelihood purposes. In order to address this information need the Water Research Commission funded a solicited research project entitled; ‘Baseline and scoping study on the development and sustainable utilisation of storage dams for inland fisheries and their contribution to rural livelihoods’. The results of the study are reported in two volumes; – the ‘Research Report – Volume 11’, and the present report, ‘Case Studies of Small- Scale Inland Fisheries’ – Volume 2. Research Methodology The project was executed by a trans-disciplinary team of researchers with fisheries and social science backgrounds from Rhodes University’s Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science; the University of the Western Cape’s Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB). The research approach consisted of a combination of literature reviews, community based surveys, fishery productivity modelling, and stakeholder consultations. The available literature on South African inland fisheries was reviewed, access rights arrangements and legislation analysed with recommendations for reform, and the production potential of South African impoundments estimated using morpho-edaphic models. A research survey was carried out on selected fishing communities to evaluate the role of indigenous and local knowledge in inland fishery utilisation, and to characterise the role of inland fisheries in rural livelihoods. A series of consultations and workshops was conducted with rural fishing communities, mandated government department representatives, and recreational angling bodies.