Inland Fisheries and
their Often Overlooked
Role in Economies; Livelihoods; Health and
Human Development Spotlighted in New Report
Nagoya, 22 October 2010-The
vital importance of inland fisheries to
the diet, incomes and livelihoods of people
in developing economies is brought into
sharp focus in a new report launched today.
Globally rivers and
lakes are providing 13 million tonnes of
fish annually with the true figure perhaps
as much as 30 million tonnes due to under
reporting of catches.
These inland fisheries
are generating 60 million full and part
time jobs in fishing and other activities
such as processing with over half these
jobs carried out by women.
Close to 70 per cent
of the total inland catch is in Asia with
25 per cent in Africa and around four per
cent in Latin America. Much is consumed
domestically underlining the critical importance
to the people and economies of the developing
world.
The new report, compiled
by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the World Fish Centre, also highlights the
wide ranging importance of inland fisheries
in diet, and especially among children,
above and beyond the supply of protein.
"Even more important
in many countries (than protein) is the
role of inland fisheries in supplying micronutrients,
especially vitamin A, calcium, iron and
zinc," says the report Blue Harvest:
Inland Fisheries as an Ecosystem Service.
"Detailed studies
in Bangladesh for example have shown that
daily consumption of small fish contributes
40 per cent of the total daily household
requirement of vitamin A and 31 per cent
of calcium," adds the study whose findings
were launched at the 10th Meeting of the
Parties to the Convention on Biological
Diversity taking place in Nagoya, Japan.
As well as providing
nutritional benefits, fish also play a key
role in the functioning of aquatic ecosystems.
Their consumption of plankton, plants, insects,
and other fish is critical to the stability
and resilience of river and lake habitats.
Fish also serve as important
links between ecosystems. The nutrients
and organic matter from fish eggs, carcasses
and excretion help to support the production
of algae, insect larvae and other fish species
in rivers and lakes.
When fish populations
decline, there can be serious knock-on effects
for other organisms. Widespread mortality
of the cisco fish from Lake Mendota in the
USA, for example, led to changes in the
plankton composition of the lake, decreased
the level of nutrients in the water column
and caused a decline in the biomass of algae.
The report warns that
despite over 40 years of steady production
globally, rapid environmental changes are
occurring which challenge the viability
of future fish stocks and a range of internationally-agreed
development targets including the Millennium
Development Goals.
It cites low flows,
changes in seasonal flooding patterns and
loss of habitat and spawning grounds linked
with dams, unsustainable agriculture and
over-abstraction of water.
Other impacts are coming
from urbanization and road building, pollution
including wastewater discharges and climate
change.
The report highlights
a combination of overfishing and environmental
degradation as key triggers for declines
in catches in Lake Malawi and Lake Malombe
while catches on the Niger River have fallen
as a result of dam building and drought
related reductions in river flow.
Pollution is also taking
its toll. Chongqing, Nanjing, Shanghai and
other major cites in China's Yangtze River
valley are adding 25 billion tonnes of wastewater
to the river annually, much of which is
untreated.
Along with other factors,
such as dams and over-abstraction of water,
pollution is linked with a decline in Yangtze
fish catches with the Chinese sturgeon and
the Chinese paddlefish classed as critically
endangered.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
and UNEP Executive Director, said: "This
fascinating report has brought to the fore
the often neglected subject of inland fisheries.
While marine fisheries are under increasing
scrutiny, those based on river and lake
systems rarely engage the international
community-an oversight of potentially profound
implications".
"Why? Because an
estimated 100 million people in Africa alone
get important levels of daily protein from
these inland sources alongside essential
vitamins and minerals. Meanwhile unofficial
estimates put the global inland catch at
close to 30 million tonnes, comparable to
official marine catches, and employment
at 60 million people-13 million more than
in equivalent marine fisheries," he
added.
The report urges countries
to adopt an 'ecosystem approach' to managing
inland fisheries given the multiple impacts
coming to bear on their health and productivity.
Such an approach needs
to address a wide range of factors from
curbing pollution and destructive fishing
practises to sustaining river flows and
restoring habitats, including protecting
wetlands and other feeding and spawning
grounds.
New dams should be located
where they have least impact on river ecosystems,
and fish-friendly designs managed to allow
fish migration and delivery of seasonal
flows. Where possible older dams need to
be altered to provide similar benefits.
Patrick Dugan, the lead
author based at the World Fish Center in
Penang, Malaysia, added: "Recent achievements
in the United States and the Vu Gia-Thu
Ban River basin in Vietnam show that political
will and careful planning can provide win-win
solutions. These have kept some river corridors
free from dams, while others are managed
for both environmental and hydropower objectives.
We need urgently to replicate these successes
more widely and in larger rivers if we are
to sustain the world's inland fisheries."
Some Further Highlights
from the Report
The report focuses on
developing country fisheries in part because
inland fisheries in Europe, North America
and Australia are now mainly recreational.
Nevertheless they too
have important economic benefits. Latest
figures show that in the United States,
35 million people or 18 per cent of the
population aged 16 years or older, spent
$38 billion on fishing in freshwaters-0.5
per cent of GDP.
In the European Union
an estimated 25 million anglers, mainly
fishing freshwaters, spend more than $8
billion a year.
Africa and Asia
China, Bangladesh, India
and Myanmar are the largest producers with
a total official harvest from inland fisheries
of over five million tonnes a year.
Another 16 countries,
ranging from the Democratic Republic of
Congo; Egypt; Kenya; Mali and Uganda to
Cambodia; Indonesia; Philippines and Vietnam
each report annual catches at over 100,000
tonnes.
In India, 5.5 million
people are employed in fishing and fish-related
occupations followed by Bangladesh, an estimated
2.2 million; Nigeria, 1.7 million; Cambodia,
1.6 million and China, 1.2 million.
The biggest harvest
in Asia is coming from the Lower Mekong
Basin where the estimated inland fish catch
is over two million tonnes, worth up to
$3.8 billion at first sale and up to $7.6
billion on retail markets.
The Mekong provides
the main source of protein and micronutrients,
including amino acids, for 22 million people
in Cambodia and Laos. Catches of small fish,
eaten whole, provide calcium from bones
and iron and vitamin A from internal organs.
In Bangladesh, over
40 per cent of total fish production comes
from inland fisheries and in rural areas
up to 80 per cent of households fish to
feed their families: it is often the sole
source of income for the landless poor.
In Africa, the Lake
Victoria Basin produces just over one million
tonnes annually with export earnings from
Nile perch exceeding $300 million in 2007.
The importance of inland
fisheries to household incomes in Africa
is highlighted among communities in the
Zambezi Basin
On Zambia's Barotse
floodplain, households earn $180 a year
from fisheries, followed by cattle, $120
and crops, just over $90.
Fisheries are the second
biggest source of income among households
in the Lower Shire wetlands of Malawi.
Africa's Congo Basin
supports the richest fish biodiversity of
any African river with 690 species described.
The rich biodiversity
is linked to the complexity of rapids, pools,
runs, floodplains and seasonal flooding
which brings nutrients from the rainforest
into the aquatic food chain.
One of the big challenges
to the health and productivity is dams.
The study reports that the number of large
dams greater than 15 metres in height has
grown globally from 5,000 in 1949 to over
50,000 by 2006.
Meanwhile, there are
now also an estimated 800,000 smaller dams
world-wide.
In only 12 per cent
of large European rivers is waterflow unaffected
by dams, while in Asia; Africa and Latin
America the corresponding figures are 37
per cent, 38 per cent and over 50 per cent
respectively.
The impact on fisheries
is highlighted in the report with the case
of the Pak Mun dam, built on a tributary
of the Mekong River in Thailand in the early
11000s.
The Mun river, above
the dam, experienced a 60 per cent to 80
per cent fall in fish catches-a loss of
around $1.4 million a year.
It had been hoped that
the new reservoir would produce 220kg/hectare
of fish but this only reached 10kg/hectare.
Since 2001, a seasonal
flooding policy involving opening the dam
gates, has been adopted which has assisted
in bringing back close to 130 species to
the Mun river and reducing the impact of
the dam on fisheries.
Overfishing is also
becoming a challenge in some inland fisheries
with smaller and smaller fish being caught.
The report cites the
Tonle Sap fishery of Cambodia and several
floodplain fisheries in Africa including
the Oueme in Benin and on the Niger in Mali.
