Status And Management Of Tropical Coastal Fisheries In Asia

In Asia, the fisheries sector is important in terms of food security, livelihoods and foreign exchange earnings. However, as in many parts of the world, there are signs that capture fisheries are fully exploited or overfished. Management of fisheries in the region is often hampered by lack of information on the status of fisheries in terms of biological, social, economic, policy and governance aspects. This regional project documents an alarming decline on coastal fishery resources, based on historic research surveys in South and Southeast Asia. Socio-economic analyses and policy reviews highlight the importance of the fisheries sector but also the challenges facing it. Potential interventions to improve fisheries management in the countries are outlined and defined with environmental, socioeconomic and institutional objectives.

An up-to-date, detailed, and fully-illustrated account of the biodiversity and status of coral reefs.

The workshop referred closely to the results of a first workshop held in Bangkok in 2002 (The International Workshop on Factors Contributing to Unsustainability and Overexploitation in Fisheries) but aimed more specifically at answering the following three major questions: What are the major obstacles to the implementation of major legal instruments? What are the main lessons learned and the possible paths to solutions for improved implementation? What are the possible gaps that may exist in these instruments to guide the international community in improving the management of marine fisheries? The workshop was based on a review of eleven case studies, each relating to one of the following categories of fishery: large volume small pelagics; tuna and tuna-like species; large volume demersals; and coastal fisheries. This publication contains the report of the Workshop, discussion papers containing case studies and notes submitted by participants. The document, and in particular the conclusions adopted by workshop participants, will serve as a basis for further analytical work aimed at improved fisheries management and a more effective implementation of major international fisheries instruments.

Besides the erroneous assumption that tropical fisheries are ‘open access’, the cases demonstrate that pre-existing systems (1) are concerned with the community of fishers and ensuring community harmony and continuity; (2) involve flexible, multiple and overlapping rights adapted to changing needs and circumstances; (3) that fisheries are just one component of a community resource assemblage and depend on both the good management of linked upstream ecosystems and risk management to ensure balanced nutritional resources of the community; and (4) pre-existing systems are greatly affected by a constellation of interacting external pressures.

The global fisheries sector in 2023 is now appreciably different compared to that of the 1970s, as are the dominant fish stocks that comprise most of the current global landings, their location and modes of their exploitation. The fisheries of South and Southeast Asia have also changed over this period and alongside their changing nature, there has been the continuous evolution of the tools and the requirements for calculating and presenting global sustainability information. This has transformed ability to assess fish stocks, use data-poor methodologies, assess multispecies fisheries and also take into account some of the complex interactions between target and non-target species and related ecosystem effects. The countries of the South and Southeast Asia region have not reported the status of stocks in a comprehensive manner to FAO and there is a need to understand how to access existing information and also build capacity to assess the fisheries of the region using appropriate tools. This review provides thematic papers on stock assessment approaches and their application to the region. The country analysis describes the data sources and assessment methods currently being applied in national fishery management areas and in smaller regions. The review contains recommendations on the needs for capacity building and how improved regional networking can provide support to the greater understanding and application of new or improved methods of stock assessment in the region.