Description
Around the world, human activities such as resource exploitation and pollution have put the natural environment in peril. Lake Victoria is no exception to this dilemma, as it suffers from pollution and over-exploitation of its resources, yet supporting a diverse range of socio-economic activity. In the Lake Victoria Basin (LVB), many empirical studies on environmental and fisheries research have been conducted, but only a few have been used or distributed to fishermen, despite the fact that policies exist to encourage the use of research findings. Despite the availability of study findings and policy, Kisumu City continues to face ecosystem health issues such as poor water quality, inadequate fish product handling, and diminishing fish catches. This is most likely due to resource users' inadequate application of study findings. As a result, the purpose of this research was to investigate how policies affects the utilization of research findings in environmental management among Kisumu City fisherfolks. Data was collected from policymakers at County and National level. Purposive sampling was used to choose all 11 policymakers for the research. A questionnaires was used to collect data from policymakers. Accordingly, 55% of the policymakers revealed that environmental research disseminating policy exist but 83% of them decried of no political good will from the government and lack of financial resources leading to poor utilization of environmental and fisheries research findings. It was recommended that capacity buildings and intensified social support network like cash transfer was necessary to increase utilization of environmental research. More environmental and fisheries research finding information should be disseminated through radios and public baraza. Increased fundings and minimum political interference in pertinent environmental issues would improve environmental quality in LVB.
