Big blow to Uganda fishes

[Shane]

Uganda is looking at a plan to privatize its lakes. Private companies could "lease" a lake and it would become theirs to exploit.
As a friend of mine pointed out... Does anyone treat a rental car better than the one they own?

-Shane

http://allafrica.com/stories/201003120165.html

"Kampala — The fisheries ministry is drafting a policy to allow districts to lease lakes, state minister Fred Mukisa has disclosed.
Mukisa said the districts will lease the lakes for a specified period of time to investors. He clarified that the crater lakes would be privatised first.
He said the aim was to create a sense of ownership in the use and management of the lakes in order to increase fish production. Mukisa said because the public thinks the lakes belong to no one, the vital water bodies have been degraded and fish depleted.
Mukisa said the people, who will manage the lakes after paying for the leases, will look after the lakes and the fish and promote tourism.
He noted that once the lakes are privatised, they will encourage investors to carry out cage fish farming to increase fish stocks."

[Sharpfish]

This sounds bad. Who is going to pay a lease and pay to fix it up?

[mapyru]

What a big news

either we cry , either we try to buy it all together , making an internet world funds collect!
What' s the price of a crater , I want to have mine ....

[Shane]

What' s the price of a crater , I want to have mine

It did occur to me that this may present an opportunity for cichlid organizations to sponsor an "adopt a lake" type program. Just tell the locals that fishing is free and there is no catch limit as long as they agree to return any native ngege they catch in the lake and only keep perch and tilapia.
The overfishing of perch and tilapia stocks is actually a good thing for the native fishes.
-Shane

[LewC]

I wonder what kind of money we're talking about. It's an interesting idea.

Lew