Empowerment and institutions: Managing fisheries in Uganda

SummaryThe perception of communities as homogeneous and concern over representation and accountability of structures are key critiques of community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). A focus on understanding institutions that mediate access to, and control over, natural resources is seen as a way forward to improving management regimes that include local people. Experience in the implementation of integrated lake management in Uganda is drawn on to understand how institutions can be challenged to improve access to fisheries for marginalized stakeholders. Processes such as empowerment and the formation of accountable and representative structures are part of the way forward.