Evaluating Livelihood Strategies and the Role of Inland Fisheries in Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation: The Case of the Yaéré Floodplain in North Cameroon

It is usually assumed that most, if not all, small scale fishing communities, particularly in tropical countries,represents the poorest and most disadvantaged part of rural societies. As a result, these populations have been targeted forpoverty alleviation by fisheries development programmes since the early 60’s. Unfortunately many of these programmes havefailed in achieving their objectives due to a lack of understanding for the complex livelihood strategies and networks ofsocio-economic and institutional relationships which characterise the different strata of these societies. In the present paper,we attempt to address the issue of poverty and rural livelihood strategies for the fishing communities of the Yaéré floodplainsof the Lake Chad Basin (Cameroon, Africa). For this, we carried out an socio-economic assessment of the Yaéré floodplainpopulation through a wealth / activity ranking exercise combined to an analysis of the land / water tenure systems. The resultshows that the floodplain population is made up of different wealth groups characterised by distinct livelihood strategies. Inparticular it is shown that the poorest rely in a larger proportion on fishing activities while the better off mainly rely onfarming. The analysis emphasises the key-role of the local water tenure system in this livelihood strategy distinction. Therelation between wealth and food insecurity as well as the different factors governing the wealth differentiation process areanalysed. The implications for poverty alleviation and rural development programmes at the micro-level are brieflydiscussed.

International Institute of Fisheries Economics and TradeU.S. National Marine Fisheries ServiceMG Kailis Group