Freshwater Fisheries

The lower, potamonic parts of the Ganges–Brahmaputra, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy), the Salween, the Chao Phraya and the Mekong and Lancang Rivers are among the longest and most productive rivers for inland fisheries in the world. Except for the Chao Phraya, they arise on the Tibetan Plateau. All have steep and turbulent upper courses within deep mountain valleys and flat lower courses associated with large deltaic wetlands. Much of the riparian wetlands have been converted to rice culture. They all have rich and diverse fish faunas, comprising >100 families, that are adapted to a wide range of river channel and floodplain habitats. Many species are migratory whitefishes, but more sedentary blackfishes are more important in the fisheries of some rivers. Fisheries may be commercial, artisanal or subsistence and employ a wide range of static and moving gear, some of which requires considerable investment. Most species caught are consumed. Larger fishes
are sold for the table; smaller individuals are often processed into a variety of forms including dried products, fish pastes and
sauces. Small, low‐value fishes are also utilized for animal feed (mainly for aquaculture) sometimes after processing. There
are a wide range of potential threats to the inland fishes and fisheries of Asia including dam development for hydropower
and irrigation, overexploitation, pollution, land use change, mining, the introduction of invasive species, and water diversion
for agriculture and other purposes. Fisheries are managed either as open access fisheries or lot fisheries which are assigned to particular groups on the basis of auctions. At present, management at local, national, basin and international levels is not meeting the needs of fish and fishery conservation and urgently needs to be reformed to better protect the fisheries in the face of mounting pressures from other users of the aquatic resource.

""Lake Victoria is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and the largest in the tropics. The lake is shared by Tanzania(51%), Uganda (43%), and Kenya (6%). The lakes has a drainage basin of about 195 000 km2 which includes the neighboring states of Rwanda and Burundi. The lake provides employment, food, revenue, water for domestic, industrial and irrigation use, has tourism potential, and modulates regional climate. It is also a major transport route within the region, is used for hydro-electric power generation and is an important aquatic habitat with a rich biodiversity. The basin has a population of >40 million people of which 3 million depend directly on the fisheries. The lake has the
potential to produce >1 million mt annually giving the riparian states > US$ 800 million dollars.

Lake Victoria which was originally dominated by a rich fish fauna, comprising several hundred species of cichlids has seen disappearance of most of the species. Environmental degradation, exotic introductions and increased fishing pressure are believed to be the key factors leading to the decline. Currently the lake fishery is dominated by introduced Nile perch, Lates niloticus, a native cyprinid, Rastrineobola argentea and exotic Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus. Enormous resources have been used in management and conservation of the lake and its resources with very little success. However, the riparian nations of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have recognized that the lack of a coherent region-wide strategy as a major factor in environmental degradation and increased pollution of Lake Victoria. The states have acknowledged the importance Lake Victoria and its basin as a regional economic growth zone for their countries. They have further recognized the consequences of failing to address the threats to lake would be environmentally and economically severe epecially towards the fishery sector. It is to this end the countries through East Africa Community (EAC) are addressing issues pertaining environmental degradation in the lake and its basin. The EAC which now includes Burundi and Rwanda has put a holistic intervention process in addressing environmental issues in the lake and it basin. It is hoped with these interventions pollution and fish decline can be halted and the lake ecosystem restored to near its former state. ""

Los pescadores artesanales reciben de la naturaleza servicios ecosistémicos culturales (sc) que son esenciales para su bienestar y que pueden afectarse por
intervenciones de desarrollo que ignoran su importancia y ubicación. En este estudio cuantificamos la relevancia de estos sc, analizando las relaciones espaciales de su flujo e identificando las amenazas que los comprometen, a través de encuestas, entrevistas semiestructuradas, mapeo participativo y valoración social a pescadores de la subcuenca del río Mascota, estado de Jalisco, México. Los análisis revelaron que los sc integran la identidad colectiva e individual de los pescadores y ocurren en los ríos y cuerpos de agua próximos a las localidades principales. Las amenazas fueron disminución de la abundancia de peces y captura debido a malas prácticas, alteraciones de los ríos y pérdida del bosque de ribera. Esta investigación visibiliza el valor de los sc y propone acciones para su inclusión en los planes regionales de desarrollo.

Protected areas are frequently established as a management tool to conserve terrestrial and aquatic habitats and species. Monitoring and evaluation are a necessary part of adaptive management to determine whether such protected areas are effectively meeting their objectives. While numerous initiatives have developed methods to evaluate terrestrial and marine protected areas (MPAs), similar efforts and resources are lacking for freshwater protected areas (FPAs), which have become widespread as a community-based fisheries management approach in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). This review summarizes published literature on the evaluation of marine and freshwater protected areas to provide guidance on the evaluation of community-managed FPAs in the LMB. Specifically, the review examines several indicators related to common objectives of aquatic protected areas and provides considerations for measuring these indicators in the context of community-managed freshwater protected areas in the LMB. Key conclusions include that first, FPAs should be established with clearly defined objectives, and these objectives should inform the selection of indicators for evaluation. Second, indicators identified for MPAs are highly relevant to FPAs, although methods may require adaptation to a freshwater environment. Finally, socioeconomic and governance indicators are overlooked in both MPA and FPA evaluations compared to biophysical indicators, and interdisciplinary assessment teams could ensure these indicators receive adequate consideration.