Fishing for a living: Subsistence and income uses of a common property resource in the Upper Zambezi floodplains

Fishing is a common activity in floodplains of the rural developing world, serving as an important source of food and supplemental income. However, variability in resource abundance and fishing effort means that there is no consensus regarding how, or even if, floodplain fisheries should be managed. Large numbers of fishers, often using highly extractive methods in an open access system, may place both the resource and its users at peril. But if fishers operate instead only part-time and high levels of effort are episodic, then fishing might have a limited effect on such a highly dynamic system.; This thesis explores the relative importance of fishing and the institutional environment that determines entitlement and access to fishing resources in a transboundary floodplain in southern Africa experiencing rapid economic and social change. I used data from a household questionnaire to determine the prevalence and importance of fishing as a major livelihood. To further understand fishing's role as a source of income and temporal variations in supply, I did a 10-month survey of a fish market and its vendors. I also attended village meetings and surveyed fishers to determine the present management structures and sources of fishery-related conflict, as well as to illuminate views regarding appropriate goals and means of fisheries management.; My findings show that fishing varies seasonally in its importance as part of a mix of livelihood strategies. While fishing is mostly done for income generation and large amounts of fish enter the market, individual fishers and vendors have small volumes of fish and participation in the fishery has been recent. The present level of management is low and limited to controlling access rather than fishing technique. Differences in fisher demographics and management views are related to the political and economic contexts of the countries sharing the floodplain. Emerging management must not only be premised on biological goals but also consider the potential effects of measures in the context of livelihoods and the role of fishing.