The Master Plan for Fisheries Management, PCAP for short, was published by FAO in April 1999, as part of the FAO/Norway Cooperation Programme, mainly based on the results of the FAO/FINNIDA Lake Tanganyika Research Project (RLT). The PCAP discussed the work of the RLT Management Group and related activities that resulted in the formulation of the PCAP, including the main results of the RLT Scientific Sampling Programme, socio-economic surveys, as well as legal and institutional studies; the PCAP added the use of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCPR) as a basic normative matrix (FAO, 1999).

One of the activities of the current FAO Technical Assistance Project to support the Regional Programme for Integrated Development of Lake Tanganyika (PRODAP) was to update the Master Plan for Fisheries Management. The PCAP was updated and presented to the four member states for discussion at the four national workshops.