8. Lessons from Existing Modes of Governance in Malawi’s Small-Scale Fisheries

The small-scale sector lands over 95 % of Malawi’s fish catch and provides income and employment to about 65,000 fishers and over 500,000 people engaged in pre and post-harvest activities. The sector contributes 4 % to GDP and fish is the cheapest source of animal protein in the country. Annual production for the commercially important Chambo (Oreochromis species) has plummeted from 8,000 to less than 1,000 tonnes annually since the 1980s although recent years have witnessed a 60–70 % increase in catch mainly of low value usipa. Most of the management problems in Malawi can be traced to problems of governance. Fisheries management still remains largely centralized under the Department of Fisheries. A number of co-management arrangements had been introduced in the 1990s such as in Lakes Malombe, Chilwa and parts of Lake Malawi with mixed results. Examples of organic community based management also exist such as on Lake Chiuta, which appear to be yielding very positive results from fishers’ perspective. This chapter attempts to analyze the varying management outcomes under the three existing modes of governance (hierarchical, co-governance and self-governance) using the interactive governance framework’s three components – governing system, system-to-be-governed and governing interactions. Such a critical analysis will contribute towards finding possible solutions to current management failures in Malawi fisheries and other small-scale fisheries with similar characteristics.