Fishery Management Problems in Ethiopia: Natural and Human Induced Impacts and the Conservation Challenges

ABSTRACT

The objective of this review was to investigate the fishery management problems and conservation challenges in Ethiopia. Published and unpublished sources were used to obtain appropriate data. More than 183 fish species were reported in Ethiopia. The production potential of these water bodies is estimated to be 51,481 tonnes/year. Of these, only 30% of them are being utilized. Utilization of fishery is based on the socio-economic factors, resource availability, and religious influence on fish consumption. Types of fishing gears, fishing methods, socio-economic factors, lack of facilities and infrastructure, ineffective administration setup, lack of expertise, land use around fish habitats, and lack of scientific data were observed as the major fishery management and conservation challenges. The demand for fishes is, however, double increasing. Thus, effective management setup, regular stakeholders follow-up, and encouraging the development of aquaculture are very important to sustain the resources and meet the demand for the product.

KEYWORDS:

• Conservation
• Ethiopia
• fishery
• fishery management
• socioeconomic factors

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Addis Ababa University, College of Natural and Computational Science for material support. The authors also thank individuals who provided relevant articles. Finally, all authors cited in this study are duly acknowledged.