{"id":1093,"date":"2014-03-14T14:55:14","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T13:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/blogs\/english\/?p=1093"},"modified":"2014-03-14T14:55:14","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T13:55:14","slug":"smartfish-secure-fisheries-secure-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/smartfish-secure-fisheries-secure-future\/","title":{"rendered":"SmartFish: Secure fisheries, secure future"},"content":{"rendered":"

The production of fish will certainly increase thanks to the largest program for fisheries in Africa. SmartFish has the main objective of improving the quality and quantity of fish in countries bordering Lake Tanganyika.<\/strong>-By Diane Uwimana<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fishermen<\/a>

Fishermen ready to fish in the Lake.\u00a9Iwacu<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/em><\/strong>The so-called program SmartFish is operational in four countries which border Lake Tanganyika i.e. Burundi, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. The program has five key objectives: \u201cfisheries management, good governance, monitoring control and surveillance, regional trade and food security,\u201d specifies L\u00e9onie Nzeyimana, Director of Water, Fishing and Fish Farming in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock and the Focal Point of the SmartFish Project.
\nSince March 2013, SmartFish has been operating in different areas and it already presents an effective impact. \u201cBefore setting up this program, fishermen didn\u2019t respect any rule to the good treatment of Lake Tanganyika. Thanks to the program, we now learn via movies different techniques of fishing and we also build our capacity through what we watch. Anyone who is against the SmartFish, he is punished according to the new program,\u201d says Gabriel Butoyi, the Chairman of the Fishers\u2019 Network Federation. He goes on saying that the production of the fish will increase if fishermen will respect the aquaculture protocol by using the right fishing nets for right fish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program will replace the old fishing law\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Up to now, the existing law aged about seventies doesn\u2019t contain any penalty. \u201cThose who commit any blunder, they only pay BIF 5OO. And there isn\u2019t also any fishing control. Everybody has access to the fishing practice,\u201d explains Nzeyimana. Today, Burundi presents eight thousand fishermen and the latter occupy 8% of Lake Tanganyika while Zambia 6%, DRC 45% and Tanzania 41%. It is worth indicating that Burundi gets a production of 15 million tons of fish per year. \u201cBut the production has fallen due to the mistreatment and pollution of the Lake. In 2010, we have got more than 20 million tons of fish, now the quantity has been regressively reduced to 15million tons,\u201d regrets Nzeyimana. She mentions that fishermen\u2019s community have received some training sessions about fisheries management, good governance, monitoring control and surveillance, regional trade and food security for the sake of capacity building. \u201cIf the aquaculture protocol is approved by the bordering countries of Lake Tanganyika, the production will without any doubt increase,\u201d she adds. She notes that the enthusiasm, energy and positive approach to this work ensure the successful completion of the program. However, the Director of Water, Fishing and Fish Farming calls upon everybody to protect Lake Tanganyika by avoiding its pollution. \u201cDue to the threats located in the Lake, those who will be caught will be punished according to the law of the new program,\u201d she adds. SmartFish programme in collaboration with Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA) has facilitated an aquaculture protocol and community sensitization events using videos and live debates to some fishermen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The production of fish will certainly increase thanks to the largest program for fisheries in Africa. SmartFish has the main objective of improving the quality and quantity of fish in countries bordering Lake Tanganyika.-By Diane Uwimana The so-called program SmartFish is operational in four countries which border Lake Tanganyika i.e. Burundi, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[256,564],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iwacu-burundi.org\/englishnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}