L. Chahafi re-stocked, protected

At the southern tip of Uganda, near the Rwandan border, lie four small lakes with a combined area of 32.7 sq km. One of these lakes is Chahafi, where the stock of tilapia fish is depleted and the surrounding wetland is disappearing, writes Isabel Pike.
Both of these phenomena are worrying: Fishing is the main income-generator for most of the poor, often illiterate lakeside families. The wetland holds the eroded earth from the nearby mountains and thereby reduces the silting up of the lake. But due to population pressure, the lakeside community was eating away at the wetland by agriculture.
So, in November, 2002, ECOTRUST provided funds for Kisoro district local government to carry out the Chahafi-Kayumbu Lakeshore Wetlands Restoration and Management project. Community meetings were held to discuss the importance of wetlands and alternative income-generating activities like bee-keeping taught.
To reduce encroachment, it was necessary to make the wetland’s boundary clear. Sugarcane was chosen for the boundary material as it is cheap and easy to grow.
Zachary Bahizi, the project’s district coordinator, once the boundary was planted “the children kept stealing the sugarcane.” However, there is a lesson learnt here, “Next time,” Bahizi says “we will not plant an edible boundary.”
Restocking the lake was also vital. To boost the numbers of tilapia in the lake, 40,000 tilapia fish fry were released in L. Chahafi and fishing banned for six months.
“But,” says the Kisoro fisheries officer, Richard Manina, “the catchings did not go up. We are not exactly sure why. This is how it is with fish re-stocking, sometimes it is a success and at other times not.”
However, in spite of the many challenges this project faced, Bahizi says “Overall, it produced positive results. The community learnt more about the importance of wetlands.”
Ends