The second international symposium on the management of large rivers for fisheries was held by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and Mekong River Commission on 11 - 14 February 2003 in Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. It had three primary objectives: (a) To provide a forum to review and synthesise the latest information on large rivers; (b) To raise the political, public and scientific awareness of the importance of river systems, the living aquatic resources they support and the people that depend on them; and (c) To contribute to better management, conservation and restoration of the living aquatic resources of large rivers.

The symposium was organised in six sessions:

Session 1: Status of rivers
Session 2: Value of river fisheries
Session 3: Fisheries ecology and conservation
Session 4: Management of river fisheries
Session 5: Statistics and information
Session 6: Synthesis

 It came up with the following recommendations for action -

• Improve the valuation of living river resources in order to contribute to equitable and sustainable management of fishery resources and properly place the fishery in the context of the other uses of rivers.
• Direct greater effort to better understanding the social and economic aspects of fisheries to support policy and management priorities; livelihood approaches will be a valuable tool.
• Communicate and engage with environment and water resources managers within the context of multi-use of water in order to accurately assess impacts and to sustain the benefits of river fisheries in an equitable manner.
• Develop processes that facilitate the users and beneficiaries of the fishery resource to assume greater control of its management.
• Establish appropriate mechanisms at national and basin level to enable negotiation for the needs of communities dependent upon the living aquatic resources. In particular further regulations need to be elaborated to protect general ecosystem function and provide for environmental flows.
• Use instruments such as the freshwater eco-regions approach, the Ramsar Convention and the guidelines for water allocation suggested by the World Commission on Dams, to enhance planning for conservation and sustainable use of river habitats.
• Incorporate ecological flow requirements of river-floodplain systems into development plans and impact assessments that affect river flows, taking into account the seasonality of the system and the environmental cues needed by the fish for migration and reproduction.
• Rehabilitate degraded ecosystems wherever possible. Prioritize schemes that ensure connectivity and protection of critical habitats.

Selected papers submitted to the symposium appear in the proceedings, which have been brought out in two volumes.

The papers from India appearing in these proceedings have been discussed below –

A review of the Ganges Basin: Its fish and fisheries by A I Payne, R Sinha, H R Singh and S Huq 

The paper presents a review of the fishes and fisheries in the Ganges Basin which spans the countries India, Nepal and Bangladesh and is occupied by around 200 million people. In its lower sectors it contains some of the highest population densities in the world and also includes major urban areas. The upland cold-water zone in Nepal and northern India has a diverse fish community characterised by migratory and specialised torrent species. The upland rivers support a significant fishery, which provides an unseen contribution to the welfare of the rural mountain population. The fishery across the whole of the lowland basin is driven by demand from Calcutta and Bengal where fish eating predominates.

The proportion of major carps in the fishery declined from 43.5 percent to 29 percent by 1972-76 and 13 percent today. Subsequent analysis shows that most of the reduction was due to reduction in rainfall and that there was a close correlation between catches and river discharge or rainfall. Clearly, any basin activity which affects discharge will impact on many aspects of river usage. Read more

State of degradation and approaches to restoration of floodplains in India by Gopal B

The paper deals with the state of degradation and approaches to restoration of floodplains in India. India has a large network of river systems of which three major rivers - Indus, Ganga and Brahmaputra - which originate in the Himalaya, drain nearly two-thirds of the land area and account for nearly the same proportion of the country’s total water resources. They form extensive floodplains and deltas. They are extensively regulated for water diversion, flood control and hydropower by a series of dams, barrages and embankments. Discharge of domestic and industrial effluents, besides numerous activities in the catchments, floodplains and within the river channels have rendered the water unfit for human use. The biodiversity in general and fisheries in particular have declined very sharply.

The need for improving river flows and habitat restoration has now been recognised and plans are being formulated to initiate action in the Yamuna River basin starting from the uppermost parts of the watershed. While dams and barrages will continue to be in place and the embankments cannot be removed, it is proposed to focus on the restoration of floodplain areas between the two embankments and in unregulated stretches. This paper presents the conceptual framework for the proposed floodplain restoration program. Read more

Biodiversity status of fishes inhabiting rivers of Kerala with special reference to endemism, threats and conservation measures by B M Kurup, K V Radhakrishnan, T G Manojkumar 

In this study the identification of 175 freshwater fishes from 41 west flowing and 3 east flowing river systems of Kerala were confirmed. These can be grouped under 106 ornamental and 67 food fishes. The biodiversity status of these fishes was assessed according to IUCN criteria. The results showed that populations of the majority of fish species showed drastic reduction over the past five decades. Thirty-three fish species were found to be endemic to the rivers of Kerala.

The distributions of the species were found to vary within and between the river systems and some of the species exhibited a high degree of habitat specificity. The diversity and abundance of the species generally showed an inverse relationship with altitude. The serious threats faced by the freshwater fishes of Kerala are mostly in the form of human interventions and habitat alterations and conservation plans for the protection and preservation of the unique and rare fish biodiversity of Kerala are also highlighted. Read more

The full proceedings can be viewed at the FAO website here: Volume I and Volume II