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CHAPTER 2. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF EUTROPHICATION

2.5. Examples of the History and Culture in Improving the Aquatic Environment

2.5.2. Lake Malawi and East African Great Lakes Region (suite)

Environmental Management and Framework for Integrating Community Attitudes

The need for bottom up strategies for rural development has been emphasized in the last three decades. At the southern end of Lake Malawi and adjacent water bodies, such as Lake Chiuta, Lake Chilwa, and the Shire River outlet, community participation takes the form of fishery cooperatives known as Beach Village Committees (BVCs). Beach Village Committees are community-based and their mandate is to monitor a designated fishery, often on a number of adjacent beaches. The Committee comprises ten individuals who are drawn from the community and include a Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer. Village Heads act as ex-officio members so that the Committee is continuous with existing authority. The structure of BVCs is adaptable and includes subcommittees that cater to special interests. For example, Water Hyacinth Control Committees have been introduced through this structure. The mandate of BVCs allows them to mobilize around issues of environmental degradation. Therefore BVCs are required not only to develop regulations for their fishery, but also to enforce those regulations. The institutional framework for community development committees is outlined in Figure 2.6. At the base of this structure are the community-led forums, such as Beach Village Committees. However, several problems occurred. For example, the overall impression was that the BVC is a policing agent for the government. In such a climate, it is unlikely that BVCs can be an effective outlet for community input. For this reason, a community-led strategy for combating the water hyacinth may not emerge effectively through Water Hyacinth Control Committees.

Figure 2.6. Institutional framework for community development committees.

The advantage of soliciting community participation through forums, such as BVCs, is that policy implementers can engage traditional institutions within the community. Such institutions, which include traditional authority, play an important role in facilitating communication. However, the BVC strategy does not automatically ensure that communities participate in formulating solutions to environmental degradation from within their knowledge base. Soliciting community participation in environmental management is discussed in detail in Chapter 4 of this publication.

One consequence of the ideological reorientation to bottom up strategies for economic and social empowerment is an increasing focus on knowledge that is embedded in traditional practices of various cultures. Anthropological studies of indigenous knowledge systems and land use practices are now seen as more than merely a collection of beliefs. They are a source of important information for scientists concerning resource management. Assessments of indigenous knowledge systems for resource management in the African Rift Valley have dwelled, among other areas, on agro-forestry practices, land tenure, fish taxonomies, and fishing technology

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