Abstract
Floodplain fisheries make an important contribution to the total freshwater catch of Africa. Rules and institutions controlling access to these fisheries have received little attention in the literature. This paper explores property regimes operating in the Hadejia-Jama'are floodplain fishery, Nigeria, with a focus on a case-study village. Private, communal property, and open-access tenure regimes exist. The physical characteristics of the resources under each of these categories are differentiated. The economic cost of making resources more exclusive appears to be a key factor affecting tenure. However, the social benefits of communal access are also extremely important. In a risky environment that is characterized by spatial and temporal variation in the distribution of resources, maintaining rights of access to a wide geographical portfolio of resources is an important consideration. This is especially true considering recent environmental changes in the floodplain caused by dams and drought. This suggests that recommendations to improve productivity of the fishery by making access more exclusive may not maximize overall benefits from the fishery, since gains in productivity may be outweighed by losses in social benefits.
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Thomas, D.H.L. Fisheries tenure in an African floodplain village and the implications for management. Hum Ecol 24, 287–313 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02169392
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02169392