Fishing in Rwanda

Lessons

Senior 4 · Geography

Fishing in Rwanda

4 lessons

Lesson 4 of 4

Importance and Problems of Fishing, and the Lake Kivu Case Study

25 min

Up 60% in five years

Figure 5 shows Rwanda's fish production, wild and farmed together, for six years.

Figure 5. Fish production, 2020–2025. Drawn by Ganzaa from MINAGRI (2025).

Production rose every year, yet Rwanda still imports fish and the national plan for 2024 had aimed for 112,000 t (MINAGRI, 2019). Why does fishing matter so much to a landlocked country, and what holds it back?

Worked example 1: growth against the target

Data (MINAGRI). 32,756 t in 2020; 52,439 t in 2025; 48,133 t in 2024 against a PSTA4 target of 112,000 t a year by 2024.

\text{increase} = \frac{52\,439 - 32\,756}{32\,756} \times 100 = 60.1\%

\text{average annual growth} = \left( \frac{52\,439}{32\,756} \right)^{\frac{1}{5}} - 1 = 0.099 \approx 9.9\%\ \text{a year}

\text{2024 output as a share of the target} = \frac{48\,133}{112\,000} \times 100 = 43.0\%

Interpretation. Growth of about 10% a year is fast, but the target assumed far more. Production reached less than half of it, which suggests the target was too ambitious for the constraints you will meet below (cool water, feed costs, illegal fishing).

Definition

Overfishing: catching fish faster than the stock can replace them, so that catches fall over time. Fish stock: the population of a species in a water body that can be fished. Sustainable yield: the catch that can be taken year after year without reducing the stock.

Importance of fishing

Importance	Explanation and evidence
Food and nutrition	Fish supplies protein and micronutrients; Rwandans eat about 7.9 kg of fish per person a year (MINAGRI, 2023). Small dried fish are an affordable protein in rural markets.
Employment and income	Fishers, boat builders, net makers, traders, transporters and fish farmers; cooperatives such as COOPILAKE in Rubavu (RAB, 2021); 1,737 fish farmers trained in 2024–25 (MINAGRI, 2025)
Saving foreign exchange	Every tonne produced at home can replace part of the roughly 19,000 t imported (MINAGRI, 2023)
Investment and business	Private cage farms and hatcheries (71.7 million fingerlings in 2024–25)
Government revenue	Licences for fishing, aquaculture and lake concessions
Development of lakeside towns	Landing sites and markets at Rubavu, Karongi and Rusizi
Use of land unfit for crops	Ponds on wet valley margins; cages on lake water

Problems of fishing and their solutions

Problem	Evidence	Solutions
Illegal gear and overfishing	Mosquito nets and kaningini catch eggs and fingerlings (RAB, 2021); 483 illegal gears seized on Lake Kivu in three months (Police, 2022)	Gear rules, licences, patrols, closed periods, cooperatives
A shared lake	Lake Kivu's stock is shared with the DR Congo, so rules on one side alone cannot protect it	Joint management of the lake by the two countries
Silt and pollution	Soil erosion and mining make rivers and lakes turbid (REMA, 2021); runoff and waste threaten Lake Kivu (REMA, 2025)	Terraces, 50 m buffer zones, waste treatment, mining controls
Water hyacinth	Spread from the Nyabarongo into the eastern lakes from Muhazi to Rweru; Lake Mihindi was completely covered (REMA, 2009)	Mechanical removal, catchment control of nutrients
Poor preservation	A national cold chain is still needed (MINAGRI, 2023)	Private cold-chain investment; ice plants at landing sites
Low capital and simple gear	Wooden canoes and paddles; long nights for small catches (RBA, 2020)	Credit through cooperatives; training
Cool, high lakes; few species	Slow tilapia growth in cool water; Kivu has only 28 described species (MINAGRI, 2023; Wikipedia)	Choose species and sites to suit; stocking of fingerlings

Case study: fishing on Lake Kivu

Lake Kivu lies in the Western Rift Valley at 1,460 m. It is deep (average 220 m) and its deep water holds dissolved methane and carbon dioxide; fish live only in the upper, oxygenated layer. Until 1959 nothing ate the plankton of its open water. That year the Belgian agronomist Alphonse Collart introduced the Lake Tanganyika sardine, and the isambaza fishery was born (Wikipedia, "Lake Kivu"). Figure 6 follows its story.

Figure 6. Timeline of the Lake Kivu sardine fishery. Drawn by Ganzaa from the sources listed.

Fishing method: night fishing from trimarans with lamps and lift nets (lesson 2); fishers work in cooperatives in Rubavu, Rutsiro, Karongi, Nyamasheke and Rusizi.
Products: fresh and dried isambaza, tilapia and Haplochromis (indugu); cage-farmed tilapia from lake concessions.
The crisis: the catch fell from 24,199 t in 2017–18 to 16,194 t in 2019–20, and RAB blamed fishing methods that destroy young fish (Wikipedia, citing RAB). Sardine prices rose and in August 2020 RAB suspended all fishing on the lake for two months (RBA, 2020).
The response: the Ministerial Order of 11 December 2020 on gear; police patrols and seizures; training of lake users by REMA in October 2025. Fishers in Rubavu reported catching 500 kg to a tonne a day after adopting legal nets (RAB, 2021).
Ecological cost of the introduction: the sardine changed the plankton: a large grazer, Daphnia curvirostris, has disappeared from the lake in recent decades (Wikipedia, "Lake Kivu").

Worked example 2: how serious was the fall?

Data. Kivu catch: 24,199 t (2017–18) and 16,194 t (2019–20). National production in 2020: 32,756 t (MINAGRI, 2025).

\text{fall} = \frac{24\,199 - 16\,194}{24\,199} \times 100 = 33.1\%

\text{Kivu's share of national fish} \approx \frac{16\,194}{32\,756} \times 100 = 49.4\%

Interpretation. A third of the catch was lost in two years from a lake that supplies about half of Rwanda's fish (the years of the two sources do not match exactly, so the share is an estimate). A decline on Kivu therefore hits national food supply, prices and lakeside incomes at once, which explains the strong response of 2020.

Warning

Evaluate, do not just describe. An A-level answer on Lake Kivu weighs both sides: the sardine created a valuable fishery where none existed, but it is an introduced species that changed the plankton, and its stock collapses when fishing outruns breeding. Use the figures (24,199 t to 16,194 t; 483 gears seized) as evidence.

CGTN Africa, September 2025: "Rwanda's methane gas extraction benefiting local fishing industry". Lake Kivu supports both fishing and gas extraction; note how the two uses of the lake are linked, and what risks gas extraction could pose to fish.

✦

Practice

Explain five ways in which fishing is important to Rwanda.
Using Figure 5, by what percentage did production rise from 2022 to 2025?
Identify four problems facing fishing in Rwanda and suggest a solution to each.
Describe how isambaza came to Lake Kivu and how they are caught.
Explain why the Kivu catch fell between 2017–18 and 2019–20, and evaluate the measures taken in 2020.
Why is joint management with the DR Congo important for Lake Kivu's fishery?
"The introduction of isambaza to Lake Kivu was a success." Discuss.

Show answersHide answers

Food and protein (7.9 kg per person); jobs and income for fishers, traders and farmers; saves foreign exchange by replacing imports (19,000 t); attracts investment in cages and hatcheries; government revenue from licences; growth of lakeside towns; use of wet valley margins and lake water.
$\frac{52\,439 - 43\,560}{43\,560} \times 100 = 20.4\%$ .
Illegal gear (patrols, licences, closed periods); silt and pollution (terraces, buffer zones); water hyacinth (removal, nutrient control); poor preservation (cold chain); low capital (cooperative credit); cool water (suitable species and sites).
The Belgian agronomist Alphonse Collart introduced them from Lake Tanganyika in 1959 to fill an empty open-water niche. They are caught at night from three joined canoes with lamps and a lift net of at least 6 mm mesh.
Illegal fine-mesh gear (mosquito nets, kaningini) took eggs and young fish, so recruitment fell: catches dropped 33.1%. The two-month suspension let fish breed; the Ministerial Order set mesh sizes; patrols removed gear (483 in three months of 2022). Fishers reported larger catches after legal nets (RAB). Limits: enforcement on the Congolese side, poverty driving poaching, and the need to sustain patrols.
The fish stock moves across the whole lake. If one side fishes with illegal gear or ignores closed periods, the stock shared by both declines.
Success: it created a fishery worth thousands of jobs and up to about 24,000 t a year, cheap protein, cooperatives. Against: it altered the plankton (loss of Daphnia curvirostris), depends on one introduced species, and collapses under overfishing. Judgement: an economic success that needs careful, shared management.

Quick check

Key points

Production rose from 32,756 t (2020) to 52,439 t (2025), about 9.9% a year, but reached only 43% of the 112,000 t target for 2024.
Importance: food, jobs, foreign exchange, investment, revenue, lakeside towns, use of wet land and lake water.
Problems: illegal gear and overfishing, a shared lake, silt and pollution, water hyacinth, poor preservation, low capital, cool water; each has a matching solution.
Lake Kivu: isambaza introduced in 1959; catch fell 33.1% from 2017–18 to 2019–20; response: two-month suspension (2020), gear order (December 2020), patrols, training.

1Up 60% in five years

2Importance of fishing

3Problems of fishing and their solutions

4Case study: fishing on Lake Kivu

Up 60% in five years

Importance of fishing

Problems of fishing and their solutions

Case study: fishing on Lake Kivu