Opening

Opening address

Abstract

Report of the Meeting

"Inland capture fisheries are often under valued by decision-makers and development agencies."

Inland capture fisheries provide a valuable contribution to food security in many parts of the developing world including the Mekong Basin. National production estimates have consistently underestimated fisheries production compared to recent figures derived from focused fisheries surveys. The actual contribution that inland fisheries resources make to rural livelihoods is often unknown or underestimated due to a lack of basic production and consumption information. More focused studies report 60 million people inhabiting the Mekong Basin, a yield of 2.3 million tonnes and a per capita fish consumption of 39 kg/year. Many of the 60 million inhabitants engage in small-scale fishing or fish only part-time and represent some of the least empowered and poorest people in society.

As a result, inland capture fisheries are often under-valued by decision-makers and development agencies. Development activities may then inappropriately focus on other sectors, such as agriculture, aquaculture, water extraction, hydroelectric development, navigation and land conversion at the expense of inland capture fisheries and rural communities. This results in a vicious circle that continues to impact on the poorest people.

An accurate understanding of the size, value and overall importance of inland fisheries is essential for managers making decisions on appropriate use of the resources on which the fisheries depend. Importance includes issues such as income generation, employment, food security and the role of fishing in rural societies. At the fishery resource level, fisheries managers and development agencies need to know what the objectives of management programmes are, what information is needed to manage and monitor the fisheries and then how that information can be systematically collected and interpreted.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is an official repository for government statistics on inland capture fisheries production. The Mekong River Commission (MRC) in collaboration with other agencies has made significant progress in improving the quality of information collected on inland capture fisheries through studies focused on specific areas or fisheries. The information demonstrates that officially reported production from the Mekong Basin is vastly underestimated. An accurate understanding of the size, value and overall importance of inland fisheries is essential for managers making decisions on appropriate use of the resources on which the fisheries depend. FAO is continually striving to improve the reliability of fishery information through increasing the capacity of FAO Members to collect good quality data in a cost-effective manner. FAO convened a Technical Consultation in March 2002 from which developed a draft Strategy on Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries. The outputs of this meeting will be considered by the FAO Committee on Fisheries in 2003.

Ad Hoc Expert Consultation

To address the concerns for better data, an Ad-hoc Expert Consultation on New Approaches for the Improvement of Inland Capture Fishery Statistics in the Mekong Basin was held in the Charoensri Grand Royal Hotel in Udon Thani, Thailand, from 2 to 5 September 2002. The consultation was convened with financial support from FAO, MRC, Government of Thailand and the Government of the Netherlands.

Objectives

The overall objective of the consultation was to improve the state of knowledge on inland capture fisheries in the sub-region.

Specific objectives were to:

• Raise awareness of the value of inland capture fisheries

• Provide guidance on collection of appropriate information on inland capture fisheries

• Assess and develop methodologies for rapid data collection

• Evaluate and identify the use and utility of inland fishery statistics

• Establish minimum data requirements for national and regional inland fishery management

Process

The programme of the consultation consisted of a presentation of country reports, thematic studies and case studies, followed by general discussion in plenary and further elaboration in working groups. The meeting was opened by Oopatham Pawaputanon, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Fisheries of Thailand, who welcomed the participants to Udon Thani. In his address, Dr. Pawaputanon stressed the importance and relevance of the Expert Consultation to the Mekong countries. Further opening remarks were delivered by the Governor of Udon Thani, Simon Funge-Smith (FAO) and Jeanineke Dahl Kristensen (MRC). Over 50 people attended the Expert Consultation including delegates from Cambodia, China, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam and invited experts and resources persons from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), The World Conservation Union (IUCN), the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), The Mekong River Commission (MRC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Output of the Ad Hoc Expert Consultation

Information needs

The types of information needed will depend on the intended uses of that information. There are several possible objectives of inland fishery management that can be generally classified into social, economic and conservation categories. The consultation identified the following priority objectives for collecting information on inland fisheries:

• To fulfil international obligations

• To ensure proper valuation of the fisheries

• To justify the requests for appropriate allocation of funding and other resources to the sector

• To obtain status and trend information on the fisheries and the environment for the formulation and assessment of management interventions concerning the fishery

Whereas the simultaneous fulfilment of some objectives such as use and conservation may lead to conflict, most are not mutually exclusive and some fishery data may be appropriate for multiple objectives. The consultation further noted that there are layers of information needs: i) to establish baseline information, ii) for trend analysis, i.e. monitoring the resource and impacts of management decisions and iii) for specific objectives.

Status and trends of fishery and environment

Information on baseline conditions of the fishery and environment is a first step in managing a fishery for the benefit of the people who depend on inland water resources. Information on trends and how the resources respond to management interventions, development activities and environmental change will also be needed.

Yield of inland capture fisheries was cited as the priority information need. However, national statistics are inaccurate due to missing data, errors and exclusion of some fisheries. Some information does exist in project reports, but these reports have limited use for trend analysis as the data are not collected on a routine basis.

Other types of information include catch by species, length-frequency data, geographical distribution of fisheries and landing sites, effort and gear, price, fish export markets and consumption rates.

Habitat quality and quantity and, in particular, water quality and quantity (including water levels) were judged to be additional important information needs. The distribution and density of human population in the Mekong Basin were also considered significant factors.

Valuation of inland fisheries

In addition to data on the status of and trends within the fishery and monetary value of yield, information is needed on:

• market prices

• post harvesting activities

• per capita fish consumption

• employment along the chain of production

• flow-on effects along the chain of production

• nutritional value of fishery products in peoples' diets

• conversion factors from fresh to processed fish products

• the amount of fish products consumed at home by fishers

• the number, age and gender of people participating in the fishery

• the degree of dependence of rural households on fishery resources

• value of import/export and the balance of the two (includes national and foreign trade)

Accurate information on other sectors such as the value of crop or livestock production, number and types of people benefiting from hydroelectric development and tourism will be required to assess the comparative value of inland fisheries in relation to other uses for inland water resources.

Appropriate allocation of resources to inland fishery sector

With a comprehensive valuation in hand, inland fishery managers and policy makers need to convince national governments, donors and the international community to commit adequate financial and human resources to the sector. Therefore, information on the cost of fishery management, i.e. the operations, interventions and training, is needed before national governments can estimate budget requirements.

Fulfilment of international obligations

Countries of the Mekong Basin are signatories to several international agreements, codes and conventions that call for the sustainable use and conservation of biological diversity, the equitable sharing of benefits derived from such use, the protection of cultural heritage and the protection of important inland water habitats. Some of these international instruments are legally binding, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, while others are voluntary (the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries). In general, the participants were unfamiliar with the precise obligations of these instruments. Thus, a significant information need that emerged was to identify the requirements of international instruments in regards to inland fisheries. However, it does appear that information on the status of endangered species and historically, culturally or biologically important wetlands is important for fulfilling a number of international obligations.

Approaches to improve information

The consultation confirmed that inland fisheries in the Mekong Basin were extremely important, but that poor information on the status of the fisheries and the role they play in the economy of the region were preventing an accurate and comprehensive valuation of the sector. The poor state of knowledge on these fisheries arises from:

• The diverse nature of inland capture fisheries

• The fisheries are often small-scale and diffused over large areas

• Inadequate political power of many rural communities that rely on inland fishery resources

• The misconception that inland capture fisheries are of low value and not worth monitoring

• Much of the harvest is bartered or consumed locally and is not registered as part of the formal economy of a region

• Excessive power of certain stakeholders or sectors that do not want the true value of the resource known for personal or political reasons

In addition, official statistics are often estimates that may not be based on actual data. Major sources of error in these officially reported statistics are:

• Deliberate mis-reporting

• Lack of attention to small-scale fishing activities

• Lack of status, capacity or training of local fishery officers

• Errors in catch reporting (often field data is collected based on recall)

• Difficulty in accessing sources of information (women, children and other fishers far from population centres)

• A reluctance to report catches because this is linked, in most countries, to licence fees or other forms of taxation

In general, information collection methods in the Mekong are based on the application of traditional methods of government fishery officers assessing catch and effort data. These methods are best suited for formal, large-scale fisheries and are inadequate or inappropriate for the many informal, small-scale fisheries of the Mekong Basin. Thus, alternative approaches are being developed and evaluated that attempt to include individual fishers, households and communities. Additionally, indicators and proxy measures of fishery yield are being developed.

The consultation noted that data alone are not always enough to manage a fishery or develop fishery policy. Data must be analysed and transformed into meaningful information and this information delivered in an appropriate form to the people who are actually making decisions that affect the fisheries.

There are two general means to obtain information on inland fisheries: i) direct measurement of the fishery through frame surveys, catch assessment surveys, census at landing sites, creel census, counting number of fishers, gear, boats, etc. and ii) indirect measurements such as yield per type of habitat and extrapolation, GIS and remote sensing, post-harvest surveys such as consumption, financial, trade and household surveys. Direct measurement is not appropriate for the fisheries of the Mekong due to the variety of gear used; the scale of operations from subsistence to commercial; the geographic spread of the fisheries and the lack of centralized landing sites; the seasonality of fishing; and the number of species commercially exploited. For many of the indirect strategies, participatory approaches that involve the stakeholders will be necessary to promote cooperation, information sharing and compliance with fishery management regulations.

The participants identified several priority activities for data collection. However, they also stressed that focusing on 'priorities' may hinder data collection if the wrong priority was chosen and if the information collection system became too rigid. There are already rigid, inflexible data collection systems in some areas and it would do little good to replace one for another.

The main alternative approaches were agricultural surveys, household surveys, consumption surveys, use of geo-referenced data coupled with habitat productivity information and fishery co-management. Each approach has strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of the approach used, training in survey techniques, participatory techniques and gender issues will be necessary to improve the quality of data collected.

Traditional catch and effort surveys

These direct measurement methods are most appropriate for large-scale fisheries or where fishers must be licensed. Although difficult in the Mekong Basin as a whole, specific areas, species or fisheries could be targeted to obtain accurate information on a specific aspect of a fishery. Census of a fishery landing was judged to be most feasible for large lakes and reservoirs. Tax and license systems can be used to provide information from certain fisheries, but this has not proved successful in some regions of the Mekong where licensing family and other small-scale informal fisheries is impractical. Problems in accessing accurate data may arise when fishers become too powerful or fisheries become too valuable which could lead to deliberate mis-reporting to avoid taxes or licensing fees.

Agriculture surveys

National censuses are being used to provide structural data and other economic and social information on the agriculture sector. With the inclusion of appropriate fishery-related questions they could also be used to generate similar information on inland fisheries, especially on their subsistence component. These censuses could also generate comprehensive listings of households engaged in fishing that could be used in sampling surveys. Currently, the structure, questions and terminology in many of the agricultural censuses lead to inaccuracies in regards to the fishery sector. Modifications will be necessary to provide useful inland fishery information. Generally it was considered that national surveys could be an effective tool to obtain information about particular aspects of fisheries.

Some countries are adapting these surveys to meet the needs of the fishery sector. Lao PDR noted that the inclusion of one question on household expenditure revealed the important contribution of fish to overall consumption and corroborated the results of more detailed studies being undertaken in local areas. Viet Nam modified the household income expenditure survey to include the 'source of income' and discovered that nearly 70% of households engaged in some fishery and aquaculture activities. Thailand reported that questions on fisheries would not be included in the upcoming agriculture census due to the quinquennial Fishery Census due in 2003. Although the potential use of censuses for collection of data and information on inland fisheries was recognized as useful, they are large-scale exercises. Processing the data often takes considerable time resulting in long delays in getting the information to resource managers.

Consumption studies, including household surveys

Household consumption studies are increasingly used to estimate regional or national consumption of fisheries products. More than 15 socio-economic surveys incorporating consumption estimates were undertaken in the Lower Mekong Basin in the late 1990s. Synthesis of the information is currently being undertaken and is providing good first estimates of consumption and, by extrapolation, the yield of various fisheries. Generally speaking, household consumption surveys were considered to be the most effective means of obtaining basin-wide estimates of the fishery in a large and varied region such as the Mekong Basin.

It is clear that to obtain accurate information, good planning and control of survey design is essential. Specifically, effective consumption surveys require that surveys are designed to include appropriate geographic factors (e.g. marginal or transient communities), demographic factors (e.g. contributions from women, children and ethnic minorities) and that quality control of the data is incorporated into the design. Extrapolation of the consumption data to indicate fisheries yield in a particular area requires that import and export of fisheries products are also taken into account.

These indirect measures are extremely useful for small-scale, informal fisheries. However, there are several potential sources of error including problems of recall, accessing appropriate information from women, children and other less empowered minorities and the problem of double counting data from market surveys that could affect accuracy.

Market surveys

For major fisheries, landing sites may be equivalent to markets. They are usually well known, not too remote and can be surveyed. Problems of double counting may occur as noted in the section on consumption studies since the same fish may be sold in numerous markets. Market studies can involve different aspects of fishery production, such as trade, export/import, food items, fish seed, quantity and value of fishery products. Market surveys may be useful for small-scale and widely dispersed fisheries. However, substantial quantities of fishery products are traded before going to market 17% from reservoirs).

Geo-referenced information

Geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing information (RS) are used increasingly in fishery and ecosystems management. There is the impression, however, that these techniques are still expensive and difficult to implement locally. GIS are useful in predicting fishery potential but not actual yields. They are also useful planning tools for creating models and "what if" scenarios, for example, "what would be the change in production if flooded forests were converted to rice-paddy"? It is also possible to find proxy measures for fishery production such as in China where plant coverage can be assessed by GIS and RS and then related to fishery yield. Validation of the accuracy of the predictions from such models will be necessary, as will training and capacity building.

Habitat classification and measurement

These approaches involve establishing fishery production values for specific habitats based on results of focused studies. They are useful to establish a range of production values and potential, but not for routine monitoring. The consultation identified problems with accuracy in estimating production from habitat classification. These techniques are especially useful when coupled with GIS/RS models. Focused studies on particular habitats are needed, plus demographic data.

Co-management or fishery user groups

These techniques attempt to include the users in the data collection and fishery management process. The in situ management structure of some habitats/fisheries can provide the means to collect information. In China, fishing companies have been established that manage lake and reservoir fisheries and provide data to government resource officers. Related to market studies, intermediate buyers and sellers of fishery products also provide an entry point to access information on a fishery. Lake Victoria in East Africa provides an example of a co-management system that has improved the quality of information on a lake fishery. Such co-management and fishing associations promote cooperation between community and government regulators and provide a good means for communities to collect and collate information. Family logbooks can be incorporated into fishery co-management.

Key outcomes and conclusions

The Consultation reconfirmed that basic information is needed to manage and develop the sector, but the quality of the information needs to be improved. Given the nature of the fisheries and the ecological and human environments in the Mekong Basin, it is understandable why accurate information is difficult to obtain.

In view of the large number of people directly involved in fishing or in flow-on activities such as processing, marketing and sales, small errors multiplied by the numerous people involved lead to gross errors in estimating overall production. The acceptable level of accuracy in estimating production and value of inland fisheries will depend on what is being analyzed. For global estimates, less accuracy will be required than for local planning and fishery management.

Countries in the Mekong Basin are encouraged to submit data on inland fishery yield, species, effort and consumption to FAO. However, the primary reason for countries collecting fishery data is to help in the development of national fishery management and wetland policy. It is apparent that much of the information reported to FAO is not actually being used for these purposes and that the reason for collecting information on inland fisheries is unclear to national fishery resource officers, fishers or the local communities that rely on inland fisheries.

The objectives for collecting information on inland fisheries needs to be specified and conveyed to users along with the benefits of having accurate information.

The primary data need was identified as yield. There are direct methods to measure yield but these are difficult to apply to the entire Mekong Basin. Therefore, alternative approaches will be required to supplement direct measures of fishery yield.

The fisheries within the Mekong Basin are extremely diverse and composed of both formal and informal sectors that must be treated differently. Methodologies that work in one area may be inappropriate for other sections of the basin. A certain amount of standardization of terminology, approaches and methods will be essential for basin-wide planning and information exchange. The diversity of situations in the basin will require a diversity of approaches. Given limited human and financial resources to manage inland fisheries, it was acknowledged that you cannot measure everything needed in all areas. Thus, focused studies can provide information on particular fisheries or habitats and these results can then be extrapolated to a wider area. An ongoing and sustainable data collection programme needs to be based on activities that can be done well with a limited amount of financial and human resources.

Fisheries and fishing activity in the basin have a strong seasonal component based primarily on the flood cycle of the Mekong River. Data collection and interpretation must take into account how habitats, production and human activity change in response to the changing environmental conditions in the basin.

The capacity of local fishery resource officers needs to be increased. Training in standard and new data collection, fish identification and community participation techniques will be required. The status of government fishery officers is often very low and leads to lack of motivation, which results in poor performance of duties. Once the importance of inland fisheries is fully appreciated, the status of the officers responsible for managing the resource should improve.

There are data collection systems in place. Significant progress can be made by working with information that is already available in project reports, government offices, NGOs and IGOs. Modification of existing mechanisms is needed to make them more flexible, to ensure they do not bias results in regards to inland fisheries and to ensure that they access all available information. Such modifications can be expected to greatly improve the quality of information needed for fishery management.

Inland fisheries do not exist in isolation of other sectors and there are many other users of inland water resources. Inland waters are most strongly impacted by events occurring outside the inland fishery sector. Therefore, it will be crucial for policy makers and managers of the inland fishery sector to form partnerships with stakeholders in other sectors. The fishery departments in the countries of the Mekong Basin have good relations with some of the sectors using inland waters, e.g. ministries controlling hydrology, water resource management and hydroelectric development. Often government departments can help form links to other sectors where fishers have difficulty in establishing relations. The private sector must also be involved in the partnership, for example access to traders and brokers could improve information on commercial (formal) fisheries.

Countries of the Mekong Basin have limited financial resources and have acknowledged that external assistance will be needed to improve their data collection and fishery management capacities. Training is needed on a variety of subjects and should include local communities and training-of-trainers. Donor support in improving information for fishery management is well-justified given the productivity of the inland fisheries, the large number of people dependent on them and the wealth of biological and cultural diversity of the Mekong Basin.

The international community is becoming more aware of the importance of inland fisheries to food security and poverty alleviation. This awareness is reflected in the development of several projects in the region by FAO, MRC, MRAG and IUCN. It will be important for these projects to build on the conclusions and outcomes of processes such as the present Ad Hoc Expert Consultation. The participants stressed the importance of information exchange, communication and participatory processes in improving information on inland fisheries and viewed the Ad Hoc Expert Consultation as significantly contributing to this objective.