Report from the conference in Bangkok 2010

Coastal Zone Asia-Pacific Conference World Small Scale

Fisheries Congress

supported from the Danish NGO Fish network. 

By Zhannat Makhambetova from NGO Aral Tenizi Kasakhstan and Living Sea Denmark. Dec. 2010

The conference was held 18-22 October 2010. I was in Bangkok 18-23 October 2010. I arrived on the 18^th and participated from afternoon session. The conference was organized in special 7 plenary parallel sessions:

Monday 18 October

Special session: The Adaptation Research Network for Marine Biodiversity and Resources

1.      Concurrent session 1: Coastal initiatives – lessons and challenges

2.      Concurrent session 2: Integrated coastal governance

3.      Concurrent session 3: Coastal adaptation and climate change

Speed session: Coastal governance, community and ecosystem

Tuesday 19 October

PLENARY 1: Ecosystem complexity and interactions.

PLENARY 2: Fishery dynamics and resource competition

PLENARY 3: Access and rights

Parallel session:

Special session 1: Unravelling the vicious circle: poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods in small-scale fisheries (1)

Special session 2: Coping with change in lagoon, lake and river

Concurrent session 1: Understanding ecosystem complexity

Concurrent session 2: Dealing with conflicts

Speed session 1: Governance challenges and fisher perspectives

Wednesday, October 20

In the morning book presentation:

1.      “Coastal Fisheries in Latin America and the Caribbean” Silvia Salas, CINVESTAV, Mexico

2.      “Towards Marine Ecosystem-based Management in the Wider Caribbean” Robin Mahon, University of the West Indies, Barbados

Plenary sessions:

PLENARY 4: Wealth, resilience and freedom

PLENARY 5: Livelihoods and wellbeing

PLENARY 6: Post-harvest and globalization

PARALLEL SESSION 1

Special session 1: Unraveling the vicious circle: poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods in small-scale fisheries (2)

Special session 2: Amazonian small-scale fisheries

Concurrent session 3: Sustaining fishing livelihoods

Concurrent session 4: Addressing governance challenges

Speed session 5: Ecosystem surveys and management approaches

Thursday, October 21

 FIELD EXCURSION

We visited:

1.       The shrimp pond, the owner of shrimp pond work with his wife. They collect tiger shrimp. And sell every day.

2.      Mangrove nursery

3.      The fishing site, have interviewed a fisherman, who is the member of community based management group.

Friday, October 22

PARALLEL SESSION 3

Special session 1: Combining Marine Protected Areas and Catch Shares in community based small-scale fisheries management in Latin America

Special session 2: Assessing and mitigating the incidental capture of highly valuable megafauna in small-scale fisheries

Concurrent session 3: Integrating social complexity

Concurrent session 4: Broadening governance perspectives

Poster session

Special session 5: Combining Marine Protected Areas and Catch Shares in community based small-scale fisheries management in Latin America

PLENARY 7: Governance lessons and challenges

Paradox of fisheries governance: reconciling the decentralization experience vs. community-based management, Fikret Berkes, University of Manitoba, Canada

National fisheries departments and small-scale fisheries management: fit for the purpose? Robin Mahon, University of the West Indies, Barbados

Small-scale fisheries governance arrangements: reflections from negotiating them in real life. John Kurien, International Collective in Support of Fish workers (ICSF), India

Every day there were presentations of 4-7 speakers in each session

I participated the sessions where I can get knowledge about:

1.      Co- management principles and best practices

2.      Fishery policies related artisanal fishery in Asia Pacific countries

3.      Women’s contribution in small scale fishery.

In three days I was participating mostly the sessions related the community based management. In total 45 presentations.

Some presentations:

1.      Community role in participation coastal resource management in Sam Roi Yod Bay, Thailand.

2.      Small scale farmer adaption to farmer’s group.., Thailand

3.      Encourage local business in fishing communities, Cambodia

4.      Coastal micro banking program in Indonesia

5.      Coastal line development of Jakarta Bay driven by its economic power, Indonesia

6.      A review of the global impacts of small scale fisheries bycatch. Duke University, USA

7.      Fisheries development: policy implications on technological development and overcapitalization in SSF, Malawi.

8.      Conflicting gears, Spain

9.      Fishery rights, human rights and the future, Canada

10.  Controlling access to SSF: lessons from Gulf of California, USA

On the last day participants were working out the proposals of the conference in Small-group discussions.

The main proposals were ordinary like:

The research work should be close to real life with concrete proposal

The targets groups should be aware about the types of research work.

The government should support the young researchers.

Young researcher should include in the fund of the study possibility to monitor of the conclusions in the reports.

Conclusions

1.      I got a good understanding what co-management can include, and it is needed for implementation JSDF project in Aral region “The livelihood of Aral fishermen and community based management in the Aral sea” 2009-2012.

2.      I got interesting contacts related the future cooperation in the field of development SSF.

3.     There are problems of gap of cooperation between scientists and fishermen.