Mekong River Commission

 

During the past year the Technical Advisory Body on Fisheries Management (TAB) made a number of important steps towards defining its role and objectives and creating a plan of work for the coming years.

At meeting in Hanoi in early 2004, the body reviewed its past performance and formulated clear a mission statement and vision for its future development. During a subsequent meeting, held in Luang Prabang in June, the TAB agreed on a three-year work plan.

In the short to medium-term this involves increasing the uptake of information on fisheries management and development into government policies and action plans. In the longer term, the TAB will work with other agencies to further the concept of regional, Mekong-basin wide fisheries management. The work plan comprises 17 activities; these will strengthen management capacity, create knowledge through research, and assist information flow.

As a priority, the TAB will develop and implement a training course for the provincial staff of national fisheries agencies on local, national and regional trans-boundary fisheries management. This will incorporate some of the experiences made and lessons learned from the FP's regional co-management capacity building during the period 2001-2003.

Other activities will include:

• Studies on 'regional fisheries issues' of mutual interest.
• Publishing of a series of short briefing documents (Mekong Fisheries Management Recommendations) for key fisheries policy makers.
• Publishing a regular newsletter.
• Study visits for senior government line agency staff to develop a better understanding of Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and the opportunities for and constraints to fisheries development in the region.
• Supporting TAB members to participate in Asian regional forums relevant to fisheries management and development.
• Establishing a secretariat, the TAB Support Group, or TSG.

The TAB has already initiated a number of these activities including:

• Sub-contracting specific studies to individual researchers and R&D providers (the STREAM Initiative; the Network for Promotion of Gender and Women in Fisheries; WorldFish Centre).
• Supporting TAB members’ participation at international meetings and conferences (including the 7th Asian Fisheries Forum in Penang in November 2004, and the biennial Meeting of Regional Fisheries Bodies at the FAO in Rome in March 2005).
• Launching a newsletter, TAB Update.
• Commissioning the first set of Mekong Fisheries Management Recommendations. The first four issues of these policy briefs present a précis of earlier studies commissioned by the TAB.

The TAB recently defined a set of indicators and milestones that will monitor and measure the progress and impact of its work. A key early indicator of progress will be when national fisheries, water sector line agencies and other concerned organisations themselves initiate and promote cross-sector management. Typical activities could be events to explain linkages between food and livelihood security and cross-scale fisheries management or agreements between fisheries and line agencies in other sectors.