The Missing Fish of Lake Tanganyika

An ancient aphorism says that if you give a man fish, you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. What happens, however, when after teaching him to fish, you discover that the fish have vanished due to unexpected ecological, economic, and political forces that have ravaged the environment?

On the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, teams from Action Against Hunger are addressing problems of hunger and food security with a sweeping array of programs. We provide farmers with seeds and tools, teach improved agricultural techniques, and try always to respond to the local population’s needs and expressed desires.

Because the region was destabilized by conflicts and economic collapse, local fishermen lost their equipment and wanted replacements. So as part of our broad-scale campaign against Congolese hunger, we looked at ways to help them. Our team found, for example, that fishermen had been reduced to hauling in their catch with mosquito nets, which trap small fish before the infants can grow old enough to spawn.

At the same time, the fishermen were reducing the population further by working during mating season. We supplied veteran fishermen with proper gear—nets, hooks, canoes, even lamps to fish in the dark—and offered training to improve their techniques. We expected a substantial increase in the catch.

To everyone’s surprise, it never happened. In fact, the catch was remarkably low for a vast lake such as Tanganyika. Our team decided to take a closer look.

The region surrounding Lake Tanganyika is something of a central African paradise. The lake is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and the second deepest, and it sits like a glistening jewel in the midst of luxuriant green hills. Most of the lake’s marine life, more than 600 species of cichlid fish, is unique to the lake. Local residents recall that not so long ago the lake teemed with fish.

For years, Lake Tanganyika served local communities as a dependable source of food and income. Now, our team discovered, poor farming practices in the surrounding hills coupled with aggressive deforestation has brought heavy amounts of sediment into Lake Tanganyika, smothering its vegetation, which is vital to the fish population. In addition, unregulated large-scale commercial fishing has further depleted the lake’s resources.

Action Against Hunger was the first organization to recognize this problem, which clearly requires governmental intervention to resolve. In response, our teams in Uvira and Baraka in Kivu province are working with individuals, local authorities, research groups, and other humanitarian organizations in the region to conduct a thorough scientific survey of the ecological and economic situation. We’re organizing a major conference at the end of March 2007 in Baraka to engage other NGOs in cooperative conversations that we hope will arrive at solutions for returning adequate stocks of fish to the lake.

In recent years, Action Against Hunger has recognized that in addition to its traditional four pillars against hunger—nutrition, food security, health, and water and sanitation—we must add advocacy so that we can convince societies and governments that their inadvisable policies are causing civilians to go hungry. Lake Tanganyika is a perfect example of such a challenge. The fishermen of Lake Tanganyika need our help—and as a result, we’ll beat the drum for their interests as loudly as we can. Our success will require us to attract the attention of powerful forces and persuade everyone to cooperate.