“The aim of this study is to investigate factors that are contributing to the decline of the fishery and identify ways to improve the governance of this resource in Lake Victoria. This report highlights the discrepancies between the regional governance discourse and the complex national environment where regional
policies, if they are to achieve tangible results, must be implemented. These discrepancies are echoed in the relationship between the national fisheries authority and local-level actors such as BMUs and local government fisheries officers. In the course of fieldwork conducted for this report an interviewee observed that ‘behind the official fabric of policies and such, there is a very different reality on the ground’. It is this gap between policy and implementation that obscures the pragmatic actions required to manage the Nile perch
fishery.”