Fishery management

National fish hilsa was declining in Bangladesh. The government of Bangladesh took several measures like the establishment of sanctuaries, bans on catching of brood hilsa and its offspring jatka, and reduced the illegal gears. USAID/ECOFISH-Bangladesh project joints hand with the coastal fishing communities and stakeholders by establishing an adaptive fisheries co-management in hilsa shad sanctuaries as one of the key strategies to revitalize the once-degraded stock of hilsa shad in the Padma-Meghna riverine-coastal habitats.

The Timor-Leste National Aquaculture Development Strategy (NADS) 2012–30, which was developed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) with technical assistance from WorldFish, emphasizes implementation through joint ventures between government, INGOs, NGOs and the private sector to realize its success. The 2nd Timor-Leste National Aquaculture Forum was held on 8 August 2019 in Dili. Attended by 106 participants from a diverse range of stakeholders including government, non-government, private sector organizations and farmer groups.

Hilsa: Status of Fishery and Potential for Aquaculture is a proceedings book, which is edited by an international team of experts and authored by 10 international expert teams working on different disciplines of the hilsa shad. Hilsa is a widely distributed fish within the Bay of Bengal region and harvested in the waters of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar. It is famous worldwide for its delicious taste and superb texture, which persist for a long time. Hilsa is unique in that it contains high amounts of both proteins and lipids.

The term ‘Blue Economy’ is increasingly used in various marine sectors and development frameworks. For it to be a truly useful approach, however, we argue that social benefits and equity must be explicitly prioritized alongside environmental and economic concerns. This integration of social dimensions within the Blue Economy is required to ensure that marine economic sectors contribute to achieving sustainable development goals.

The Darwin-Hilsa project is developing an incentivebased system of hilsa fisheries management in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to assess the socioeconomic status of local fishing households. Many are extremely vulnerable, owing to the seasonal nature of fishing and unpredictable flows of income. Coping strategies include informal loans, livelihood diversification, and migration, while many flout fishing restrictions to cover costs and repay loans.

The hilsa is a critically important species for smallscale fishing communities in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta and Rakhine State. Yet current fishing regulations are inadequate and exploitation rates are well beyond sustainable levels. This study analyses key parameters underlying hilsa biology, comparing them across different ecological zones of the hilsa’s range in Myanmar and across time. It provides evidence of major spawning activity between July and September in the freshwater zone, particularly in September.

These guidelines are a summary of a full manual for Community Fish Refuge (CFR) - Rice Field Fisheries (RFF) system management in Cambodia. The aim of these guidelines is to document good practices in CFR-RFF system management, and thus act as a resource for organizational stakeholders wishing to support fish conservation, food security and nutrition in such environments.

These guidelines are a summary of a full manual for Community Fish Refuge (CFR) - Rice Field Fisheries (RFF) system management in Cambodia. The aim of these guidelines is to document good practices in CFR-RFF system management, and thus act as a resource for organizational stakeholders wishing to support fish conservation, food security and nutrition in such environments.

This manual is based on findings from the implementation of the USAID-funded Rice Field Fisheries Enhancement Project (RFFEP) in four provinces of Cambodia (Kampong Thom, Siem Reap, Pursat and Battambang) between 2012 and 2016. The manual has been developed to guide relevant stakeholders and target communities in how to approach i) the selection of Community Fish Refuges (CFR) and ii) the process of designing and implementing improvements to the CFRs.

This study seeks to inform fisheries management and social protection processes of the key vulnerability issues faced by fishers at five pilot sites selected for fisheries co-management within the research programme of the Myanmar Department of Fisheries, WorldFish and FAO on an Centre for International Agricultural Research(ACIAR) funded project. The PRA-V study also explored gender vulnerability aspects, focusing on female-headed households and individual women from fisher households.