Over the past few decades inland fisheries resources have come under increasing pressure from water engineering projects, pollution and overfishing. FAO and NACA convened an expert workshop to review inland fisheries resource enhancement and conservation practices in Pattaya, Thailand, 8-11 February. Experts from 10 Asian countries attended the meeting to share experiences and lessons learned. Regional collaborative efforts are required to facilitate assessment of current inland fisheries resource enhancement and conservation practices.

The production from inland capture fisheries in Thailand is about 1 million tonnes per annum. Engineering the environment and fish stocking are the two major practices adopted, and closed-season fishing as well as control of fishing gears are used for conservation purposes. Fish stocking programs date back to the 1950s have been continuously conducted. This presentation provides a historical perspective on stock enhancement practices in Thailand since the 1950s.

Inland fisheries resource enhancement has been considered a major component of reservoir fisheries management since 1962. Multipurpose reservoir construction commenced about the 1960s for irrigation, hydropower generation and flood control. Reservoir fisheries are always a secondary or tertiary activity and are given low priority; however stocking has been considered a major component of reservoir fisheries management. This presentation reviews the history of and changes to stock enhancement practices in Vietnamese reservoirs since the 1960s.

In this issue:

Development of modern aquaculture in Java, Indonesia. Better management practices - gateway to sustainability. Update on organic scampi aquaculture in Andhra Pradesh. Domestic fish marketing in south India. Seed rearing of catfish Clarias batrachus. Supply and use of catfish Pangasianodon hypopthalmus seed in the Mekong Delta. Risk analysis and sustainability of catfish seed in the Mekong Delta. Life of a river in the Himalaya: Ecological study of the Trisuli River, Nepal and more.

In this issue:

Inception meeting on methodologies for aquaculture society certification. Meetings discuss impacts, adaptation to climate change of Vietnamese shrimp farmers. Aquaclimate project: India case study. In memory of Gagan Bahadur Nhuchhe Pradhan. Version 2 of the draft better management practices for catfish farming released. Technical course on federating digital library systems.