Impacts of small built infrastructure in inland valleys in Burkina Faso and Mali: Rationale for a systems approach that thinks beyond rice?

The potential to increase agricultural production in inland valleys in West Africa has received a good degree of attention in both national development strategies and academic literature, and improving agriculture productivity in inland valleys has been an active area of donor engagement. Despite this attention, documentation of the degree to which benefits are enhanced through construction of built water storage infrastructure in such sites is somewhat scant. This paper examines evidence from eight inland valley sites with recently-built water retention infrastructure (4 in southwest Burkina Faso, 4 in southeast Mali) to determine how economic returns derived from agricultural production have changed through built infrastructure construction. Farmer interviews were undertaken at each site to identify costs and benefits of agricultural production before and after small built infrastructure construction. Overall results indicate that net present value increased substantially after built infrastructure was constructed. The results nonetheless highlight substantial variation in economic impacts across sites. A central variable explaining such variation appears to be the degree to which water retention is exploited for groundwater-based offseason cultivation. These findings will help development planners to better predict the degree and nature of change engendered by water storage projects in inland valley sites, and help to ground-truth grand statements about the development potential of this piece of natural infrastructure.     

Taiwan's response to international fisheries management after 2005 as influenced by ICCAT and fishers' perception

It is widely recognized that fishing states are obliged to exercise flag state responsibility over their vessels. In an attempt to become a responsible fishing actor, Taiwan has endeavored to manage its distant water fishing fleet in accordance with international fisheries management. However, the long-standing problems of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, fish laundering, and fishing overcapacity, which remained unsolved during the 1990s and early 2000s, brought its management capability into doubt. Failure to address these problems undermined the credibility of all management measures and ultimately resulted in a recommendation adopted by International Commission for the Conservation of the Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) in 2005. This recommendation significantly affected Taiwan's distant water fishing policy. This paper examines how Taiwan assimilated this outside force into its fishing policy as a new response to international fisheries management and how fishers perceived this response. It shows that Taiwan's efforts in controlling distant water fisheries marked a big change, specifically manifest in three noticeable actions - reducing excessive bigeye-targeted efforts, deterring IUU fishing, and strengthening fisheries management. The study advises that management of small tuna vessels be effectively exercised and recommends future actions on providing subsidies for fishers to partially offset costs incurred by rule compliance, streamlining their administrative work, enhancing communication with them, putting more enforcement and meaningful penalties in place. Finally, the study indicates the existence of an interaction in the international fisheries management scheme, potentially favoring Taiwan to bargain for fishing rights and a favorable status in the participation of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) in the future if it continues to exercise effective control of distant water fisheries.     

Managing fishing capacity in tuna regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs): Development and state of the art

Overcapacity is a major threat to the sustainability of tuna resources. Diverse actions are being carried out by tuna RFMOs to counteract this problem. This paper reviews and analyses both the historical development of fishing capacity management in tuna RFMOs and their state of the art practices. Despite the fact, that thus far, management measures have not yielded the expected results for capacity reduction, they provide a good basis for improved management of capacity at regional and global levels.     

Unfinished business: Taiwan's experience with rights-based coastal fisheries management

This paper examines a case involving a mix of Territorial Use Rights in Fisheries, co-management and the competition for using coastal zones. In the 2000s, Taiwan's government initiated a remodeling of the fishery right system, which is a rights-based approach to fisheries management, as an attempt to address conflicts between fishers and developers regarding the use of coastal space and to put community-based co-management into practice. The paper particularly compares the system before and after 2000 and identifies areas of concern in the implementation of the remodeled system. The results show that the government's support for this system signifies progress in the right direction. However, concerns emerge, mostly involving fishers' low participation, fishermen's association's lack of technical skills and financial resources, and the division of management responsibility. The government is advised to play a more active role in dealing with these concerns. Finally, the paper reveals that the factor of competition for using coastal zones poses a challenge to co-management, and suggests a holistic view with integrated coastal management or marine spatial planning practices, for developing co-management under the fishery right system.     

Are input controls required in individual transferable quota fisheries to address ecosystem based fisheries management objectives?

This study examined the use of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) to effectively manage fishing impacts on all ecosystem components, as required under Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) principles. A consequence of changing from input controls to output-based (catch) management is that the control of the regulating authority tends to be reduced, which may affect the outcomes for ecosystem management. This study reviewed the use of input controls across six fishing methods in 18 ITQ fisheries, which have been independently accredited as ecologically sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (12 fisheries) or under Australian environmental legislation for Wildlife Trade Operation (six fisheries). Input controls were retained across a range of ITQ fisheries, with non-selective fisheries such as trawl, gillnet and line employing more input controls than selective fisheries such as purse-seine, pot/trap and dredge. Further case-studies confirmed the widespread and recent use of input controls (spatial and temporal closures) with the aim of managing ecosystem impacts of fishing. The retention of input controls, particularly closures affects the security (quality of title) characteristic of the fishing use right and the theoretical ability of fishers to manage their right for their future benefit. The security characteristic is weakened by closures through loss of access, which undermines industry trust and incentive for long-term decision making. By reducing the security of ITQs, individual fisher incentives and behaviour may separate from societal objectives for sustainability, which was one of the foremost reasons for introducing ITQ management.     

Corruption and regulatory compliance: Experimental findings from South African small-scale fisheries

Although corruption is often mentioned as an obstacle to fisheries management, its negative effects have seldom been investigated empirically in a systematic manner. This article examines the impact of corruption on regulatory compliance among South African small-scale fishermen. Results from scenario experiments with 181 participants confirm that perceived corruptibility of the enforcing authority corrodes the willingness to comply with regulations. Both grand and petty types of corruption have significant effects. Attitudes related to moral support of the regulations, perceived inclusion in the decision making leading to regulations and an individual record of law breaking all affect the willingness to comply. However, these effects are trumped by the relative size of the negative impact of corruption. These findings underline the importance of curbing corruption involving public officials in the small-scale fisheries sector.     

Mercury in wahoo, Acanthocybium solandri, from offshore waters of the southeastern United States and the Bahamas

Wahoo, Acanthocybium solandri, are predatory oceanic fish that occur and are harvested in all tropical and subtropical oceans. Total mercury concentrations analyzed in dorsal muscle tissue of 208 wahoo from offshore waters of the southeastern United States and the Bahamas ranged from 0.021 to 3.4 mg/kg (wet weight), with a mean of 0.50 mg/kg (± 0.595 SD). Analyses indicated significant positive linear relationships between mercury and length, as well as, age of wahoo. The piscivorous nature, generally high trophic position, fast growth rate, and associated high metabolism of wahoo within tropical offshore pelagic environments may lead to comparatively higher concentrations of mercury over relatively short time periods. Mercury in wahoo, a highly mobile species consisting of one world-wide population, is regionally influenced by large-scale spatial differences in available mercury in selected prey fish species - many of which have been found to contain relatively high concentrations of mercury.     

Tracing anthropogenic inputs to production in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan - A stable isotope approach

The Seto Inland Sea (SIS) receives waste runoff from ∼24% of Japan’s total population, yet it is also important in regional fisheries, recreation and commerce. During August 2006 we measured carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of particulate organic matter (POM) and zooplankton across urban population gradients of the SIS. Results showed a consistent trend of increasing δ¹⁵N in POM and zooplankton from the western to eastern subsystems of the SIS, corresponding to increasing population load. Principal components analysis of environmental variables indicated high positive loadings of δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C with high chlorophyll-a and surface water temperatures, and negative loadings of low salinities related to inputs from large rivers and high urban development in the eastern SIS. Anthropogenic nitrogen was therefore readily integrated into the SIS food web from primary production to copepods, which are a critical food source for many commercially important fishes.     

西双版纳州渔业资源研究

根据澜沧江下游流域西双版纳州1989～2006年渔业资源量数据,分析渔业资源量变动特征,结合1989～2003年同期水文数据,应用人工神经网络技术分析环境因子与渔业捕捞量的关联,并依据2006年数据进行预测检验。结果表明,自1989～2006年,西双版纳州水产品产量逐年增加,养殖面积扩大、养殖技术发展是主要原因。渔业捕捞量总体呈现上升趋势,但在1990～1991、1998～1999及2001～2003年有所下降,与渔政管理和执法加强相关。气温和年降水量对渔业捕捞量的影响最大,其次是最高水温、最低含沙量和最低径流量。人工神经网络下渔业资源模拟值与实际值相关性高,2006年预测值与实际值的相对误差为9.7%,模型预测效果好。     

An assessment of “fishing down marine food webs” in coastal states during 1950–2010

渔获物平均营养级（Mean trophic level of fishery landings,MTL）是目前评估人类捕捞活动影响的研究中使用最广泛的生物多样性指标之一。根据联合国粮农组织FAO提供的渔获生产统计数据,结合Fishbase提供的相关鱼种营养级数据,本文评估了1950-2010年太平洋、大西洋和印度洋各沿海国海洋渔业开发状态。研究发现,在全球三大洋75个主要捕捞国中,43个国家MTL呈显著下降趋势,发生了Pauly于1998年提出的“捕捞降低海洋食物网”现象;但是,仅16个国家MTL的下降是由于高营养级种类的衰退,而27个国家属于“捕捞沿着海洋食物网”的下降机制。此外,20个国家MTL呈恢复上升趋势,但是,该恢复上升趋势通常伴随着传统低营养级种类产量的大幅下降;在上述20个国家中,11个国家的低营养级鱼类产量呈显著下降趋势。需谨慎分析“捕捞降低海洋食物网”现象,掌握MTL的潜在变化机制。