by
Kachornsak Wetchagarun
Convenor/Chairman of the Workshop
The need to improve the standard of living of small fishermen in the rural coastal areas of this region has already been a long standing priority in our fisheries development policies. With the rapidly declining resource, abundance especially in the absence of fishery management measures, this need is now both urgent and real.
In this regard, your attention is drawn to the records of the Kyoto “Symposium on the Development and Management of Small-Scale Fisheries”, and also the background section of the prospectus of this Workshop. Particularly in the Symposium Report, which is distributed to you as an information paper, many of the issues and problems confronting our small-scale fisheries have already been discussed and in many cases conclusions and recommendations drawn. There seems therefore, to be no need for this Workshop to indulge in the discussion of these same issues except to make reference to them, as and when required.
It is however, important to draw your attention to three main points that emerged from that Symposium.
First, the provision of long-term development and management plans will require reliable information before effective planning can be made. Such information is at present either lacking or inadequate. In either case, considerable time and special efforts will be required to attempt long-term plans for the betterment of the small fishermen.
Second, the urgent and immediate need to uplift the standard of living and to bring it at least to a par with other economic activity within the same country, must be met as expediently and effectively as possible. There was also a notable consensus of opinion that “the poorest small-scale fishermen are particularly vulnerable to political instability stemming from dissatisfaction with their social and economic plight”.
Third, among the various methods which could be adopted to uplift the state of poverty of the small fishermen, the introduction of coastal aquaculture would seem to offer promising future prospects to the socio-economically depressed small fishermen.
In view of the findings of the Symposium and the present realities, it is the overall objective of this Workshop to come up with proposals as to:
the most realistic alternative engagements or income sources for the small fishermen in an attempt to as expediently as possible uplift their current socioeconomic status; and
the kinds of information required for the long-term planning of the development and management of small-scale fisheries in the region.
To these ends, the specific objectives of this Workshop are outlined in the Prospectus.
