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Analysis of Power in Fisheries Co-Management: Experience from Lake Chilwa, Malawi

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  • In this article I analyse Lake Chilwa co-management arrangement in Malawi through the lenses of the concept of power. The analysis is at the local level where majority of the important actors operate. These include the fishing communities, Department of Fisheries, traditional leaders and the new local management entities created through co-management reforms called Beach Village Committees. The analysis, which is based on decentralisation and power frameworks, shows that there is unequal power distribution between these different actors, often resulting in the marginalization of the fishers themselves. While the Department of Fisheries and Beach Village Committee draw their powers from the Act of Parliament, policy and legislation, the traditional leaders have remained influential through their customary powers. They all, however, attempt to influence the outcomes of co-management reform through various indirect channels of power, often with the objective to advance their own political, economic, or institutional agendas. I observe, for instance, that although the powers of the traditional leaders vary from place to place, in most cases, they have interest in co-management, not because of the potential political empowerment of their community members or the resource management improvement that Lake Chilwa co-management is expected to provide, but because of the various personal benefits that they could derive from that reform.
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  • Njaya, F.J. Analysis of Power in Fisheries Co-Management: Experience from Lake Chilwa, Malawi. Visible Possibilities: The Economics of Sustainable Fisheries, Aquaculture and Seafood Trade: Proceedings of the Sixteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, July 16-20, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Edited by Ann L. Shriver. International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), Corvallis, 2012.
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  • FAO
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