Fish reserves work in freshwater too, grassroots movement in Thailand proves - National Geographic

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In 1998, people in Na Doi, a quiet village in northwest Thailand, noticed that their fish catches in the nearby Ngao River were declining. The fish they did manage to net were also getting smaller. Together, Na Doi’s 75 households decided to try a radical solution: they would set aside a small stretch of river to be strictly off-limits to fishing.Nearly a quarter-century later, the experiment has paid off. The protected section of the Ngao brims with large barb and mahseer (a kind of carp), and catches outside of the reserve, where the villagers fish, have significantly increased. The project’s shared ownership has created a greater sense of harmony and unity among villagers, and has benefited them individually, psychologically as well, says Nok Wa, 55, a farmer in Na Doi.“Many times, when people in the village are upset, they go to watch the fish,” he says. “Sometimes the young children ask why we can’t eat those fish, and I tell them, ‘Our stomachs cannot eat those fish, but our eyes can still eat.’”Na Doi was the second village in the Ngao River valley to adopt this pioneering approach to freshwater fisheries management. Since the late 1990s, at least 50 other villages there have done the same. As a whole, the entirely grassroots-led reserves have been stunningly successful, according to findings recently published in Nature. Most importantly, the Thailand case study provides probably the best real-world proof of concept that fisheries reserves can benefit not just oceans, but freshwater, too. The Link Lonk


January 12, 2021 at 06:00PM
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Fish reserves work in freshwater too, grassroots movement in Thailand proves - National Geographic

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