Community-Based Rehabilitation and Conservation of Dalha Lake in Raqa (SYR/OP3/05/01)

Project Details & Results

Fishers Association in Dalha was established in 1977 as the community's organization in charge of organizing the exploitation of Dalha Lake. Over the course of time, fishers, due to their lack of awareness, over-exploited the lake which resulted in adverse impacts on the lake. Fish was gradually lost and the invasive plants reproduced at a high rate. The negative impacts of miss-managing the lake affected both the eco-system and the livelihoods of the families living on its resources. There has been an increasing awareness amongst fishers that their unsustainable practices have to be changed but they had no chance to get the funding to help their lake. Many fishers had to look for alternative source of income or immigrate to the nearby cities searching for a living. Those who stayed are suffering extreme poverty, a claim that was supported by a recent UNDP study on Macro-Poverty which identified the North-eastern region as one of the poorest in the country.

Project Objectives
The overall objective is rehabilitating Dalha lake. The more specific objectives are:
? Re-introducing Grass Carp, Silver Carp and Common Carp to the lake which will help cleaning the lake as well as improving the livelihood of fishers,
? Designing and implementing a community based conservation and protection programme,
? Building the capacities of fishers on practices of sustainable management of the Lake,
? Providing fishers with alternative source of livelihood during the period of fishing ban.

Notable Community Participation
Participants and beneficiaries will include:
 The direct beneficiaries will be fishers living on the resources of the Lake,
 Beneficiaries also include school children in neighboring villages and villages surrounding the Lake,
 Participants will include fishers, Directorate of Environment in Raqa, Directorate of Agriculture in Raqa and, volunteers from the neighboring villages.

Capacity - Building Component
 Designing and implementing a comprehensive capacity building programme for fishers on the sustainable management of the Lake.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
 Providing the poorest fishers with fishnets and fishing boats.
 Providing fishers with alternative source of livelihood during the fishing ban period. The poorest fishers will be provided with sheep.

Gender Focus
no gender focus

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
 Organizing regular field trips to school children in the neighboring villages to get the children acquainted with basic environmental knowledge with particular emphasis on the importance of the Lake to the eco-system in Dalha.

Project Results
results:
- the lake was considerably rehabilitated and water quality improved by around 65%
- invasive plants reduced by around 70%
-fishing capacity in the lake increased to around 3 million SP
-the local community was provided by guard boat, fishing boats and nets.

Participants/beneficiaries
male 48 female 28 of local community + some people from neighboring villages

Capacity Building/Training]
male 67 female 68

unexpected difficulties/problems:
-despite objections from the society, a bridge was built across the lake without providing access for water and fishing boats to go through, which led to dividing the lake in two separate parts.
-continuation of directing domestic and agriculture waste water to the lake which makes efforts for improving the quality of water less affective
-few members of the local community raised complaints against the head of FAD accusing him of manipulating aid fund. the complaints turned out to be of personal and untrue nature. investigation proved the head of FAD to be honest and his bookkeeping was accredited for accuracy.