Aquatic resources

During 1997–2002, a Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) project was implemented to monitor fish catches in two sections of the River Titas (Goshipur to Gokornaghat section and Ka section), an important tributary of the Meghna River in Bangladesh and the lower Indo-Gangetic Plains. The study covered fishing activities, fisher’s participation in managing fishery resources, gear-diversification, changes in fishing patterns, and overall catch and effort.

This paper reviews the status and some management issues of fisheries production in Asia, as well as the supply and demand situation. Its food security and nutritional roles and opportunities for value addition are also discussed.

This document is a draft paper to be used for discussion purposes only

Fishery has long been part of the staple diet of the people in Cambodia. As Cambodia moves to wards a free market economy, the commercial pressure on natural resources has dramatically increased. Privatization of the remaining fishery resources has had a great impact on local livelihoods, leading to an alarming increase in conflict over fisheries. In order to protect people livelihood and natural resources, NGOs, has advocated that government institutions apply more effort to solving fishery problems.

Southeast Asian fisheries such as in San Miguel Bay, Philippines operate in a multi-gear and mixed-species situation. Marine capture fisheries in the Philippines are conventionally sub-divided into municipal (small-scale) and commercial (large-scale) based on vessel gross tonnage (GT) and arbitrarily delineated spatially on the basis on area where fishing operations are undertaken. Fisheries management interventions are usually focused on the effort control by fishing gear type or specific fisheries (or species).

Proper resource management implies a better understanding of ecosystems and the conservation of biodiversity. Scientists from developing countries often have limited information on their aquatic resources because of many difficulties in accessing and exchanging information on a national and international level.

This document is part of a series of 5 technical manuals produced by the Challenge Program Project CP34 “Improved fisheries productivity and management in tropical reservoirs”. The objective of this technical manual is to relay the field experience of a group of scientists who have worked extensively in small fisheries in sub-Sahara Africa and Asia and lay out a series of simple and pragmatic pointers on how to establish and run initiatives for community catch assessment.

This research note is provided as a supplement to the technical report, “Influence of Built Structures on Livelihoods: Case Studies of Road Development, Irrigation, and Fishing Lots," as part of the livelihoods component of the “Study of the Influence of Built Structures on the Fisheries of the Tonle Sap".

The article highlights briefly the economics of different types of fishing units operating along the Indian coast; analyzes the exploitation trend of major marine fishery resources in relation to its potential yield; and suggests policy measures for optimum exploitation of resources, conservation and management.

The Basin Focal Project for the Volta (BFP-Volta) is a research project funded by the Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF). Its aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of issues related to water in the Volta Basin through three main thematic issues: water-poverty, water availability/use and water productivity. The overall objective of the BFP-Volta is to contribute to the main goal of the CPWF, that is, to alleviate poverty through better management of water in order to enhance agricultural productivity and environment conservation.