This reports describes the status of mangrove ecosystems and associated communities in the Mahakam Delta, Indonesia. It describes historical degradation of the mangrove ecosystems for shrimp farming and land speculation. The report describes the livelihoods of the local communities, their usage and connections with the mangrove forests and farming activities, and socio-economic factors impeding the restoration of mangrove habitats, which are in large part related to poverty. Attempts to replant areas are described.

This paper provides an overview of seafood consumption production in southeast Asia circa 2006. It forecasts a need for aquaculture to expand area under culture and intensity; highlights the potential for fishmeal to constrain growth, and identifies a trend towards cultivation of high-value species. Sources for the review included a regional synthesis of aquaculture developed for a regional workshop in 2005, a review of marine finfish hatchery development and a regional survey of cage fish culture.

This manual provides guidelines for attaining better practices in culture-based fisheries, an emerging practice in rural areas in the Asian region. It deals with the principles of culture-based fishery practices, primarily based on relatively long-term experiences in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. It deals with the gross factors that are applicable to improving fish yields and therefore revenue; and sustaining culture based fisheries as a development activity in the long-term.

Our better-practice guidelines are an attempt to share lessons that are learnt from local practice or from research, with many more people within Asia-Pacific and to enable people, institutions and policy-makers to use new tools and mechanisms which support aquatic resources management in ways that benefit the livelihoods of people who are poor. This publication is also available in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi, Ilonggo, Khmer, Myanmar, Nepali, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese.

Self-help groups are a way to start working that helps to build up the social connections which people find useful in support of their livelihoods objectives, helping people to agree on things and to speak together, giving people a stronger voice in decision-making and in negotiating with more powerful forces. This publication is also available in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi, Ilonggo, Khmer, Myanmar, Nepali, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese.

An information access survey is a tool that identifies key issues about people and what information needs they have, what media sources are available, what strategies people use to get information and how cost effective they are. It also provides guidance on methods of communication that are useful for poor rural communities that use aquatic resources to improve their livelihoods. This document is also available in Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, Hindi, Ilonggo, Khmer, Myanmar, Nepal, Oriya, Sinhala, Urdu and Vietnamese.

The stories that fishers and farmers tell us about their lives can give us a deeper understanding of the realities of their experiences. They can help policy-makers to build an understanding of the aspirations and complex livelihood strategies of poor people and disadvantaged or marginalised groups. A consensus-building process is a way of providing a space where people can tell their stories, so that policies can be improved to better support poor people's needs.

These guidelines provide advice on producing fish seed in small-scale hatcheries. This publication is also available in Oriya.

‘Spawn’ is the name for the young fish about three days old that are available from hatcheries. Sometimes these young fish are also called hatchlings. The spawn of catla, rohu and mrigal is about 6-8 mm long. At this stage, the ‘yolk sac’ is absorbed, the mouth opened and the fins fully developed. Spawn are reared intensively, first to the ‘fry’ size and then to the ‘fingerling’ size. All the three stages are marketed and collectively called ‘seed’.

The “fast fingerling system” can produce advanced fingerlings about two months earlier than they are normally available from fish farms.  The farmer uses just one pond for continuous growing until fingerling size is reached, and fewer fish are stocked. A farmer with a small, seasonal pond can produce fingerlings in one month. These can then be sold for a high price because everyone wants fingerlings as early as possible.

The fingerling rearing pond, like the nursery pond, should be free from weeds and predators. Submerged weeds and predators are killed by mahua oilcake, which then acts as a good fertiliser. If there are no weeds, to kill predators and competitors quickly you can just add 100 kg of urea followed 24 hours later by 200 kg of fresh bleaching powder for a 1-ha area of a 1-m deep pond.

This report provides insight into the status of the marine ornamental fish trade in the Philippines, including policy environment, collection, distribution channels, markets and constraints. The report also reviews the livelihoods of poor stakeholders in market chains including economic and financial aspects, natural and physical resources, livelihood patterns, social structures. The report provides recommendations for policy makers and stakeholders in improving the livelihoods of poor stakeholders in marine ornamental fish collection and market chains and resource management.

In watersheds, medium irrigation projects can be useful for aquaculture even though these water bodies are many times larger than ponds, and are basically built for irrigation or water storage. However, the full potential of these water bodies is not yet realised. Net pens or cages can be used to rear fingerlings in such environments.

It is best to stock advanced fingerlings in large ponds, tanks, and in both small and large reservoirs, since they can better escape predators and competitors. Seasonal ponds, often 0.10-0.15 ha and 1.5-1.8 m deep can be used as rearing ponds for raising advanced fingerlings. Low water levels at the end of the season will make netting and harvesting easy.

Everyone wants advanced fingerlings as early after the rains as possible. They fetch a good price and make marketable fish production possible in seasonal ponds. One way to produce early season advanced fingerlings is to grow them in perennial ponds and store them at high density with minimal feeding for the coming year. Whe such "stunted" fingerlings are stocked into ponds with good feed they grow fast and can be marketed in about 6-8 months.

Common carp is a foreign fish and there are several varieties. The variety used in Western Orissa is the fully scaled carp, which suits the tropical climate. Common carp lives and feeds near the pond bottom and can be grown with the Indian major carps, catla, rohu and mrigal as a 'polyculture' (which means growing many different types of fish together). It can also be grown alone, as a 'monoculture' in rice fields with high dykes that retain water.

In order to provide practical and effective technical guidance for shrimp hatchery management, it is necessary to establish a set of better management practices (BMPs) which underpin an effective hatchery production system. This document is not a complete manual on the management of P. monodon hatcheries but concentrates on the implementation of BMPs for the hatchery covering all of the critical stages and processes in the production cycle, which are currently believed to be causing problems in Vietnamese hatcheries. 

This report describes the experiences and lessons learnt from activities conducted by NACA in Viet Nam to support the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector using better management practices and harmonised strategies for the management of aquatic animal health and environmental problems. Achievements included reducing the risk of diseases from seed and on farms, developing capacity at the provincial and national levels, developing an effective surveillance system and wide dissemination of experiences.

These guidelines provide advice on producing fish seed of the Indian major carps in hapas within ponds to improve survival.

It was common to believe that fish cannot be cultured in seasonal ponds. However, fish can be produced in any pond of any size, anywhere in Orissa, provided that the water quality is good enough. A small and shallow pond that retains water for two months can be used for raising fry. A larger and deeper pond holding water for three to four months can be used for fingerling production.