Technology transfer in Myanmar fisheries

Fisheries are an important source of food and livelihood for the mainly rural population in Myanmar. Fishing usually provides seasonal employment to small-scale fishers and is regulated by the Government for ecosystem sustainability. In the afternoon of the first day of the CAPSA Policy Dialogue, participants learned about recent successful attempts to develop an institutional regulatory framework for fisheries in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwaddy Delta region.

Located between Bangladesh and Thailand on the Bay of Bengal, Mr. Bobby, Chief Executive Officer, Network Activity Group, Myanmar explained that his country is the largest mainland in South Asia. The country’s agriculture consists of crop production, hunting, fishing, and forestry, which are the pillars of the Myanmar economy responsible for most income and employment in the country. 

Because fishing is an important source of income for small-scale farmers, the government is regulating entire inland fishing rights in Myanmar to ensure sustainability of the ecosystem. The overall profile of the fishery sector in Myanmar is fragile since community-based fisheries have been encroached by tender holders and overfishing, which has led to lower yields and market price. In response, the Government of Myanmar introduced centralized fishing right allocation in 2011 to restore the communal farming. 

In 2011, the Government of Myanmar and Oxfam International jointly initiated a fishery development programme in the Ayeyarwaddy delta. The programme organized civil society and fishing communities in clusters of 100 villages to increase fish production by providing support and improving market access and local governance. This has led to the establishment of a Fisheries Development Association in Ayeyarwaddy, the enactment of a fresh water fishery law and the establishment of communal fishery grounds.

The initiative has resulted in improved coherence and consistency of the state and regional fresh water fishery laws that are now in line with national and international instruments for protection of small-scale fish farmer registration, sea safety and disaster risk reduction.

Reporter: Suraj Pandey, APCTT-ESCAP