Moving towards Effective Governance of Fisheries and Freshwater Resources

Governance of fish, fisheries, and freshwater resources encompasses both ecological and human well-being. Nevertheless, achieving both is challenging because of the diverse sectors competing for finite resources. This challenge is not related to a lack of understanding of what contributes to effective governance, but rather is due to the tendency to divide freshwater resource users into sectors that do not coordinate their use of freshwater. A panel of experts identified six issues and recommendations for improving governance of inland fisheries. These issues are (1) the lack of cross-sectoral integration in the development and management agendas for freshwater ecosystems, (2) the need for governance mechanisms on shared water bodies, (3) the recognition of the rights and wishes of indigenous people and other stakeholders dependent on inland fisheries, (4) recognizing the important role of aquaculture and how to incorporate aquaculture into governance mechanisms, (5) how to improve fishery management, and (6) how to improve communication among institutions and stakeholders. To facilitate addressing these six issues, this paper systematically explores how governance of inland freshwater resources, and specifically freshwater fisheries, can be made more effective by focusing on the following: 1. Guiding principles of governance the values and ideals that guide the process of governing; 2. Governing institutions those that are charged with overseeing and controlling the governance processes by which problems are solved and opportunities created; and 3. Opportunities and solutions the manner, method, and system by which the fishery sector is governed, including the policies and management actions that are the tasks of fishery managers and policymakers for the fishery sector, and the need for more integration between all sectors using freshwater.