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Project Record

Objectives:

Adaptive learning approaches to fisheries enhancement developed, tested in Laos, and promoted.

Background:

Enhanced fisheries can provide substantial benefits due to both (1) direct biological effects of stocking (increased recruitment of valuable species), and (2) indirect effects due to institutional change resulting from the investment into common pool resources (eg: incentives for sustainable use, reduced fishing pressure and higher returns on labour). Past experience shows that benefits from enhancements often fall short of their potential, or are not sustained because advice on the management of these new production systems is either non-available, or provided in a top-down manner without accounting for the local ecological and institutional conditions which ultimately determine enhancement outcomes. In Laos, fish is widely considered to be the main source of animal protein in the diet. Fishing is also increasingly becoming an income generating activity, as the market for fish in Laos widens. The lao government is promoting enhancement as a means of meeting nutritional and income needs. Evidence has already shown that existing enhancements make substantial contributions to rural communities, particularly with respect to income generation. However, the potential for enhancements has not yet been fully realised. Adaptive learning approaches aim to overcome this problem by treating management as an experimental process, aimed at yielding crucial information for the improvement of management regimes as well as more immediate benefits. Preliminary studies indicate that adaptive approaches may yield substantial benefits within a short period of time, particularly in the enhancement of small water body fisheries with their large inherent potential for replication. The project will develop and test a framework for the implementation of adaptive learning approaches to the enhancement of small water body fisheries in a developing country setting, in order to facilitate the widespread adoption of this promising approach.

Intended Outputs:

Criteria for assessing the priority areas for adaptive learning established and applied.

Methods for appraising adaptive designs and analysing outcomes developed and applied.

Implementation and performance of adaptive learning process evaluated.

Process framework for implementation of adaptive strategies developed.

Results were analysed from the first stocking experiment (June 2000 - May 2001) and as a result of these, a new enhancement plan was instigated with all 39 participating villages for the second experimental cycle (June 2001 - May 2002). A major activity was developing a process for enabling the target institutions and participating villages to understand experimental results and participate fully in decision-making for the next year. It was felt that the original, still unachieved, aims of the experiment (species composition in relation to water body productivity) were still important and valid, and it would be worthwhile to try this again, with some changes based on what had been learned. The new experiment was implemented with improved methods for monitoring and evaluation, again based on lessons learned in the previous year. At the same time an adaptive learning model for polyculture systems has been completed and is now being used to simulate development paths of extensive polyculture systems given different experimental strategies. In addition to this, a number of activities to promote uptake were undertaken. These included starting work on the development of guidelines with the target institutions, presenting the approach at workshops and writing short promotional material.

Progress and Impact:

Frameworks, and associated methodologies that broadened the concept of adaptive learning were found to be useful tools for guiding the implementation of an adaptive learning approach.

Several mathematical models were developed that could assess experimental options and provide estimates of key biological parameters in culture based fisheries.

Results from Lao PDR showed that an explicitly experimental approach can yield beneficial results with direct practical applications.

A stocking experiment investigating optimal combinations of species, dependant on waterbody productivity, showed that carp species are a better option for low productivity waterbodies, and tilapia for high.

Comparative analysis of management systems found that each management system had its own opportunities and constraints and therefore extension advice should be less prescriptive to take into account local conditions and objectives.

Results from participant evaluations showed that methods developed for sharing results between stakeholders were effective.

Capacity of key stakeholders had increased as a result of taking an adaptive learning approach, according to their own evaluations. Whilst increases in knowledge were due to information gained during the project, skills were improved as a result of the way it was implemented. Adaptive learning approaches therefore have the potential to increase learning and build capacity at the same time.

A quantitative analysis of the benefits of information gain revealed that the potential to generate significant benefits from the adaptive learning approach, in the Lao case, is high.

Several characteristics of the Lao resource systems facilitated implementation of the process and absence of these characteristics would bring additional complications to implementing adaptive learning that would need to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Project Conclusions:

The outputs were achieved and contribute to the goal "yields from enhanced fisheries increased by optimising strategies for stocking and harvesting" and to "management tools and strategies for marine and freshwater capture and enhancement fisheries that are most likely to support improved livelihood outcomes of the poor developed and promoted." The project has had a direct and positive impact on the performance of small waterbody enhancements in 38 villages in Southern Lao PDR. Fish yields and community income from these systems, due to both initial stocking, and adaptations of stocking and harvesting regimes in the light of new information generated during the project have been increased. Additional technical, socio-economic and institutional information generated during the last experimental cycle is expected to improve further performance in these villages in the next years. Guidelines on these management systems, how they can be promoted and how stocking and harvesting regimes can be adapted to local circumstance, will ensure that all the results and experience gained from this project are available to Governments and NGO's promoting such systems elsewhere. With its pro-poor and inclusive approach to research in management, guidelines and associated outputs produced as a result of this project's experience are expected to contribute significantly to the development of tools and strategies to support improved livelihood outcomes of the poor.

General Notes:

See also the TECA Record Potential yield of South Asian small reservoir fisheries

Publications:

Rosenberg AA, Fogarty MJ, Sissenwine MP, Beddington JR and Shepherd JG. (1993). Achieving sustainable use of renewable resources. Science, 262: 828-829.



Arthur, R.I, Lorenzen, K (2002) Performance of alternative experimental strategies for developing extensive polyculture systems in small water bodies.



Garaway, C.J, Arthur, R.I (2002) Identifying and developing strategies for enhancing learning: a summary of ideas and methodologies used in the DFID Adaptive Learning project 1999-2002.



Arthur, R.I, Garaway, C.J (2002) Results of the exploratory baseline study to investigate the status of community led management of small waterbodies in Southern Lao PDR



Arthur, R.I, Garaway, C.J, Lorenzen, K (2002) Results of an experimental approach to community led management of small waterbodies in Southern Lao PDR



Garaway, C.J, Arthur, R.I (2002) Evaluation of the MRAG/RDC Adaptive Learning approach: small Waterbody Enhancements in Lao PDR 1999-2002.



Lorenzen, K. (2000) Allometry of natural mortality as a basis for assessing optimal release size in fish stocking programmes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57: 2374-2381



Garaway, C., Lorenzen, K. & Chamsingh, B. (2001) Developing fisheries enhancements in small waterbodies: lessons from Lao PDR and Northeast Thailand. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 227-234.



Lorenzen, K. (2001) Using population models to assess culture-based fisheries: a brief review with an application to the analysis of stocking experiments. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 257-265.



Lorenzen, K. (2001) Using population models to assess culture-based fisheries: a brief review with an application to the analysis of stocking experiments. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 257-265.



Lorenzen, K. (2001) Using population models to assess culture-based fisheries: a brief review with an application to the analysis of stocking experiments. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 257-265.
Lorenzen, K. (2001) Using population models to assess culture-based fisheries: a brief review with an application to the analysis of stocking experiments. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 257-265.
Lorenzen, K. (2001) Using population models to assess culture-based fisheries: a brief review with an application to the analysis of stocking experiments. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 257-265.
Lorenzen, K. (2001) Using population models to assess culture-based fisheries: a brief review with an application to the analysis of stocking experiments. In: Reservoir and Culture-Based Fisheries: Biology and Management. Edited by S.S. de Silva. ACIAR Proceedings 98. Canberra: ACIAR. pp. 257-265.



Lorenzen, K. and Welcomme, R.L. (2001) Stocking. In: Inland Fisheries: Ecology and Management. Compiled by R.L. Welcomme for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. Oxford: Blackwell Science. pp. 241-253.



Lorenzen, K., Amarasinghe, U.S., Bartley, D.M., Bell, J.D., Bilio, M., de Silva, S.S., Garaway, C.J., Hartmann, W.D., Kapetsky, J.M., Laleye, P., Moreau, J., Sugunan, V.V. & Swar, D.B (2001) Strategic review of enhancements and culture-based fisheries. In: Aquaculture in the Third Millennium. Rome: FAO. pp. 221-237. (Also online: http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/AB412E/AB412E00.HTM)



Lorenzen, K. and Enberg, K. (2002) Density-dependent growth as a key mechanism in the regulation of fish populations: evidence from among-population comparisons. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B - Biological Sciences 269: 49-54.

Paper File Reference:

NRD 9800 522/792/002

Associated References:

R6338cb, R5958, R5023