Fisheries in an agro-ecosystems approach

Martin van Brakel & Sophie Nguyen-Khoa

Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries

Fisheries governance framework

• based on both conventional fisheries management and ecosystem management

Purpose

“to plan, develop and manage fisheries in a manner that addresses the multiple needs and desires of societies, without jeopardizing the options for future generations to benefit from the full range of goods and services provided by fisheries”.

Modern fisheries management

• strongly based on ecosystem theory

• sectoral, vertically integrated

• focuses primarily on fishing activity and target fish resources

Ecosystem management

• area based

• loosely cross-sectoral

• focuses on habitats and ecosystem integrity.

Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries

• Originally formulated in relation to marine capture fisheries, the concept is relevant to inland fisheries (FAO, 2005) where it requires:

• definition and scientific description of the ecosystem in terms of scale, extent, structure and functioning

• assessment of its state in terms of health or integrity as defined by what is acceptable to society

• assessment of threats

• maintenance, protection, mitigation, or rehabilitation using adaptive management strategies (Garcia et. al., 2003).

Ecosystem approach to aquaculture

More clearly expressed in a holistic “ecosystem approach” to development:

“An Ecosystem Approach for Aquaculture (EEA) is a strategy for the integration of the activity within the wider ecosystem in such a way that it promotes sustainable development, equity, and resilience of interlinked social and ecological systems” (Soto et. al., 2007).

Fisheries “vs.” Aquaculture?

Capture fisheries Aquaculture

Natural resources management Farming systems management

Greater control of the resource

Agro-ecosystems & fisheries

• (part of) a framework for integrated assessment which:

• requires clear vision of agro-ecosystems boundaries

• Involves assessment of the different scales and options of

fisheries and aquaculture among social groups

• includes explicit analysis of how different stakeholders

value fisheries and aquaculture differently

Agro-ecological basis and ‘scale’

(i) Identification of agro-ecosystems ‘boundaries’ (seasonal

floodplains, rain-fed or irrigated farming systems etc.) of

importance to inland fisheries and / or aquaculture

(ii) Valuation of (agro-) ecosystems goods & services from

fisheries and aquaculture

(iii) Identification of capacities that stakeholders have or need

to develop to influence trends positively and effectively

(incl. rights-based approaches)

Agro-ecosystems and seasonality

• Vegetation Index (VI) or vegetation greenness

• High - green vegetation

• Low - water and barren

• Time series of VI -seasonality

Time series analysis

Output: farming systems seasonality

Agro-ecosystems approach

Serves to:

• Delineate systems boundaries within which certain options and constraints for different aquatic production systems are more or less similar

• Extrapolate and scale up information on systems in use locally (both for “likelihood of occurrence” and identifying potential)

• Target development of well integrated and ecologically efficient aquatic production systems

Options and constraints

• Ponds (fish and supplementary irrigation

• Rice-fish (fisheries and aquaculture)

• Aquaculture or enhanced fisheries in irrigation reservoirs

• Seasonal water shortage and trade-offs

• Dependent on level of rice intensification (trade-offs)

• Drawdown

Rainfed

Irrigated

Possible applications in:

• integrated aquaculture

• ecosystem-based approaches of mitigating negative impacts of aquaculture

• inter-sectoral integration

• broadening stakeholders participation

• use of appropriate incentives

• use of local and other relevant knowledge

• promotion of EAA-specific research (e.g. estimate carrying capacity at farm level, at the aquatic ecosystem level, the regional level etc.)