Jakarta 11410A, Indonesi and

This paper introduces a new project based in Indonesia entitled ‘Selection Criteria and Co-Management Guidelines for Harvest Reserves in Tropical River Fisheries’. The project started in November 1997, and is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). It will identify ecological and institutional criteria for the selection and beneficial use of harvest reserves in tropical, artisanal river fisheries; and develop guidelines for their co-management. In this study, the term ‘harvest reserve ’ refers to a spatially defined area of water managed with any specified set of technical regulations, intended to sustain or increase the potential fish yield of existing, natural fish stocks, for the benefit of fishers. Project activities are divided into the following five main phases: (1) an inception and legal workshop, (2) a regional reserve survey (RRS) (reserve identification and fieldwork planning), (3) a monitoring programme (biological, socio-economic and institutional surveys), (4) analysis of reserve benefits (estimation of reserve benefits, and their causes), and (5) dissemination and training (preparation and presentation of guidelines). This paper describes the results of the first two phases. The RRS identified 22 existing harvest reserves in three provinces studied, i.e., West Kalimantan, Jambi and South Sumatra. In West Kalimantan, ‘community reserves ’ were used by at least three of the fort