Namibian Experiences Establishing Community Fish Reserves
Britta Hackenberg, Clinton Hay, Jamie Robertsen, and Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa
Inland fisheries play a critical role in the ecology of the Okavango Delta, but their conservation is particularly complex. For nearly a decade, communities, conservancies, policy makers, and partner organisations have worked to establish fish reserves across the Kavango and Zambezi. Guidelines on the establishment of fish reserves have been developed to delineate the process throughwhich these protected areas are established, and a structured learning process has unpacked knowledge held by different stakeholders to better understand the opportunities and limitations of fish reserves and to subsequently revise these guidelines.