Fish Capture and Culture in Agro-Ecosystems: A New Concept for Old Practice?

No poster available.Modern fisheries management is strongly based on ecosystem theory.\ud Ecosystem management involves direct manipulation of the habitat and\ud population as well as human activity in order to optimize sustainable\ud returns to humans. The ecosystems approach is widely viewed as a new\ud concept in management of fisheries and aquaculture. Ecosystems based\ud management has however a long history of practice in rain fed and flood\ud prone agro-ecosystems in China and Southeast Asia. Inland fisheries and\ud aquaculture are inseparable components of these systems. We argue that\ud aquatic resource management problems cannot be addressed without due\ud consideration of their socio-economic and agro-ecological context. We\ud conclude that conventional ecosystem based management does not\ud sufficiently capture the complex linkages between inland fisheries and\ud aquaculture, and wider services provided by the ecosystems of which they\ud are part. Inland fisheries and aquaculture management instead should be\ud based on agro-ecosystems management concepts in order to better capture\ud their social and economic objectives within the context of overall\ud ecosystem service provision