Current fisheries and aquaculture policies relevant to RFLP in Viet Nam

Nguyen, D. T. P.

Current fisheries and aquaculture policies relevant to RFLP in Viet Nam

Regional Fisheries Livelihoods Programme for South and Southeast Asia. (GCP/RAS/237/SPA)

Year of publication 2010

Pages 29 p.

Author Nguyen, D. T. P.

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) The Fisheries sector is significant contribution to the economy of Vietnam, the export value in 2008 was US$ 4.509 billion. The fisheries and aquaculture sectors have expanded rapidly over the past decade, with aquaculture production rising from 1,202,500 to 2,430,944 tonnes over the period from 2004 to 2008, with more than 1.3 million MT tons of Pangasius and 450,000 MT of brackish and freshwater shrimp and prawn. Fisheries production in 2008 was about 2,134 thousand tons, of which marine captu re contributed 1,937 thousand tons. The natural resources, particularly inshore fisheries are considered to be over-exploited with many high valued fish resources having declined to low levels. The number of vessels has increased continuously without control since 1980. This leads to increased competition in inshore areas. In order to earn a living, fishermen use many destructive fishing gears and bad practices including smaller mesh sizes than required, other destructive fishing methods like el ectricity, poisons, dynamite. As a result, fish of all sizes are captured, including young and fingerling fish. In recent years, the Government of Vietnam has enacted many policies to support the aim of sustainable development, and poverty reduction while protecting natural resources. To reduce fishing pressure in coastal areas, many programs have been promoted by the Government including offshore fisheries, aquaculture development, services on sea development and infrastructure development. The offshore fishing vessels under Government’s offshore fishing program are supported by a credit scheme for boat construction, upgrading of fishing vessels and offshore fishing services. Considered one of the major alternative activities to diversify income for coastal communities, the aquaculture sector has received increasingly strong support under Government of Vietnam policy over the past 20 years. The main focus has been on the establishment of infrastructure for aquaculture development, and to convert saline paddy fields, low lying land, land used for salt production, flooded land and other unproductive land to aquaculture. In addition Government policy has supported fishers and farmers in isolated areas through credit schemes. Micro-finance is conducted through the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (VBARD), the Commercial Investment Bank (CIB) and the Bank for Social Policy (BSP). BSP mainly provides subsidized loans to poor households, while VBARD and CIB make l arge loans to enterprises. These policies have supported fishermen investing in pond construction, buying of equipment, seed, feeds and other items. To protect natural resources and bio-diversity the following activities have been implemented: Fishing licensing, control of productivity in specific marine areas, protection of rare and precious species that are in danger of extinction, restocking to enhance breeding population size and density, protection of aquatic habitats, and rehabilitation an d protection of fisheries resources etc. Co-management is considered as a potential tool for sustainable utilization of fisheries resources in Vietnam, particularly for small-scale fisheries. In Vietnam, co-management has recently been included in many policy instruments and pilots are in operation in Vietnam with varying degrees of success. Vietnam has set up and is continuously improving the law, regulations and standards on conditions for food safety, environment and animal health protection , which meets most of the provisions, articles for technical barriers to trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) measures on food quality and safety of fish and fishery products, from aquaculture to processing and trading of fish and fishery products. The assurance of food safety needs requires the use of a systematic approach from raw material production, handling, processing, preservation and distribution of fish and fishery product to the customers. Over last 20 years, the Vietnam g overnment has enacted many policies to improve safety and reduce vulnerability for fishing communities such as policies on improving safety for fishermen and fishing boats at sea, support of radio communication devices for owner of fishing boats, support to fishermen to overcome natural risks at sea, support to protecting and reduce the affects of natural calamities at sea, insurance support for vessels and fishers, establish anchorages and storm shelters, and establishment of information networ ks on sea and islands, etc.

Language English

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