Characterisation of the inland fisheries of north east Nigeria including the upper Benue river, Lake Chad and the Nguru-Gashua wetlands

A major constraint to the planning and management of inland fisheries in North-East Nigeria is the lack of multi-disciplinary sectoral information. A survey of the major fisheries including the Upper Benue River, Lake Chad and the Nguru-Gashua Wetlands was undertaken to address this problem. Using a multi-stage random sampling strategy, the survey covered 1,300 households within 66 fishing villages. A pre-tested structured questionnaire-based interview approach was used to obtain information from household and village heads on the structure and operation of the fisheries. The information was synthesised within a planning framework to provide a profile including: fisheries resources, fishing units, economic and social organisation, fishing patterns, catch utilisation, management systems and trends in the fisheries. The data were also explored using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and analysed using various confirmatory statistical techniques (e.g. logistic regression, ANOVA) to develop a typology of fishing households. In turn three key suppositions about the fisheries relevant to future planning and management were examined and discussed: 1. It was confirmed that fisheries have an important role in the regional socio-economy providing income and employment for 5-10,000 households in each region. 2. It could not be confirmed that fishers and fishing communities were homogeneous groupings, instead there was evidence of inter- and intra-regional variation in socio-cultural and economic characteristics. 3. It was confirmed that the fisheries were threatened by overexploitation, through a combination of environmental change leading to reduced catching opportunities, increased fishing effort through the use of modern gears and increased commercialisation of production and the patchiness of distribution of effective management.