Abstract:
Lake Chad is a vitally important wetland in the semi-arid Sahel corridor. It provides the basis of many thousands of
livelihoods which depend on its seasonal fluctuations to renew fish stocks, farmland and rangeland. This paper describes how the
institutions which govern access to fishing rights has evolved on the Nigerian shore of the lake. The paper aims to assess the
applicability of different institutional approaches to fisheries management on the lake’s floodplain. These include: the ‘equilibrium or
tragedy’ approach characterized by Hardin (1968); critiques of state attempts at regulating natural resources exploitation in the
Sahel; models of institutional adaptation to resource scarcity; and approaches which perceive institutions for resource access as a
crucial determinant of social and economic development. The western shore of Lake Chad has been under the jurisdiction of
Borno State in its various guises since the end of the fourteenth century and is currently one of 36 states in the Federal Republic of
Nigeria. Although the administrative status of Borno has varied, it has been dominated by a Kanuri aristocracy for most of its
existence. Traditionally, the Kanuri administration has played a crucial role in allocating access to farm land. In recent years, the
‘Kanuri administration’ has not only maintained its pre-colonial authority over farming on the lake shore, but has expanded it to
cover new areas of the lake floor and the increasingly lucrative fishing opportunities which federal government has been unable to
regulate. This success suggests that collaboration with the traditional administration is essential to the success of future natural
resource management efforts.
