Bio-diversity

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.

Syria