New approaches for the improvement of inland capture fishery statistics in the Mekong Basin

New approaches for the improvement of inland capture fishery statistics in the Mekong Basin

Year of publication 2002

Product type Document

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) Inland capture fisheries provide a valuable contribution to food security in the Mekong Basin. However, official tiol estimates of this contribution have consistently been lower than estimates derived from more focused and localized fishery surveys. Thus, inland capture fisheries are undervalued by decision makers and development agencies. The poor state of knowledge on inland fisheries arises from the diverse ture of inland fisheries, that fisheries are often small-scale and dispersed over la rge areas, that inland fishers have idequate political power, the misconception that inland fisheries are not valuable, the local consumption or bartering of inland fisheries harvest, and the excessive power of certain stakeholders that do not want the actual value known. Development activities may then ippropriately focus on other sectors at the expense of rural communities that depend on inland fisheries. Accurate information on the contribution of inland fisheries is essential for responsible development. Key uses of accurate information identified at the Expert Consultation were: i) to determine the status and trends of the fishery and the environment, ii) to assess correctly the value of inland fisheries, iii) to allocate appropriate resources to the inland fishery sector, and iv) to fulfill intertiol obligations. In general, information collection in the Mekong is based on figures collected from government fishery officers assessing catch and effort data. These methods are best s uited to formal, large-scale fisheries, but are ippropriate for many of the small- scale, informal fisheries of the Mekong Basin. Altertive approaches are being developed and evaluated that include individual fishers, household and communities, and proxy measures of fishery yield. Besides the traditiol catch and effort surveys, approaches to improve information on inland fisheries were identified to include agriculture surveys, consumption studies (including household surveys), market surveys, g eo-referenced information, habitat classification and measurement, and establishment of co-magement or fishery user groups. In the lower Mekong Basin, the primary information need was yield. The informal and formal fishery sectors must be treated differently to obtain accurate information on both. The results from focused studies on particular habits or fisheries can be extrapolated to provide information on a wider area within the basin. There is a strong seasol component to the fisheries that must be considered and the capacity and status of local fishery officers must be increased in order to facilitate accurate reporting. Useful information already exists in project reports, with NGOs and IGOs, and in government offices that should be alyzed, and stakeholders in inland fisheries should form partnerships with other users of inland water resources.

Language English

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New approaches for the improvement of inland capture fishery statistics in the Mekong Basin. Ad-hoc expert consultation 2003

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Inland capture fisheries make a valuable contribution to food security in many parts of the world, especially in the Mekong Basin. Many of the 60 million inhabitants living in the subregion engage in small-scale fishing or fish only part-time and represent some of the least empowered and poorest people in society. However, the contribution that inland fishery resources make to rural livelihoods is often unknown or underestimated due to a lack of basic production and consumption information. As a result, development activities may inappropriately focus on other sectors at the expense of rural communities that depend on inland fisheries. Accurate information on the contribution of inland fisheries is essential for responsible development. To address these concerns an ad-hoc expert consultation was convened on 2 to 5 September 2002 in Udon Thani, Thailand with the overall objective of improving the state of knowledge in inland capture fisheries in the subregion. A report of the meeting as well as country reviews, thematic papers and case studies are included.
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Developing an Environmental Monitoring System to Strengthen Fisheries and Aquaculture Resilience and Improve Early Warning in the Lower Mekong Basin. FAO/NACA Workshop 25-27 March 2015, Bangkok, Thailand 2017

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These proceedings report the result of a sub-regional consultation on the existence and effectiveness of environmental monitoring systems for fisheries and aquaculture in the Lower Mekong basin. The document also includes a baseline assessment of environmental monitoring systems in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, and the report of a regional workshop to discuss the assessments findings and future steps to improve an environmental monitoring and early warning system that will improve climate chan ge adaptation in fisheries and aquaculture in the area.
Document

An analysis of historical national reports of inland capture fisheries statistics in the Asia-Pacific region (1950-2007) 1950

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Lymer D. & S. Funge-Smith (2009). An alysis of historical tiol reports of inland capture fisheries statistics in the Asia-Pacific region (1950-2007). FAO Regiol Office for Asia and Pacific. RAP Publication 2009/18, 18 pp. The purpose of this paper is to alyse whether the apparent trend in inland capture fishery production in the Asia-Pacific region since 1950 according to FAO statistics is reflective of the growth in inland fisheries or whether it is influenced by changes in statistical r eporting practices. The objective of this alysis was to identify large changes (between years) that are significant for a reporting country and to investigate whether these changes also affect the regiol change of that year (for the countries of the Asia-Pacific region). An alysis was undertaken, albeit making several unsubstantiated assumptions, which provided indications that reporting practices have indeed changed and that historical catches were probably higher. The review suggests that the regiol trend of continually increasing production may be misleading and hides a period of limited growth in production. The effect of the trend line when compared against growth in populations of the countries reviewed indicates that per capita fish availability rose up to a peak in 1975, but subsequently declined until the early 1990’s. This has more recently started to increase again, possibly due to a number of factors particularly stock enhancement programmes. The results presented in this s tudy have implications for policy and our understanding of the status of inland fisheries in the region, as the review concludes that even where figures are adjusted upwards, these may still not be indicating increasing fishery production in some countries, but rather, the readjustments are reflecting previous systematic under-estimates and that it is possible that some inland fisheries may still have a declining trend.

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