Because of the paucity of material on traditional management systems and on current management strategies that involve fishing folk two types of research are needed. These are archival research and field research.
Though our "desk" review has emphasized the paucity of material on traditional management systems, we suspect that much more material is available in unpublished limited circulation reports in the archives and libraries of international donors and fisheries departments. A logical approach to "unearthing" this material would be to start with a thorough search of FAO's own archives. Depending on results and interest in the topic, that might be combined with archival research on the most relevant examples of traditional management systems. Notwithstanding their importance, there is very little analytical information, for example, on how West African communities have managed fish parks through time. Such archival research could well be combined with fieldwork, since some historical material should be in national archives. And should the initial study of the FAO archives prove worth while, further archival research in the libraries of such organizations as CTFT (France), NORAD (Norway), IDRC (Canada) and the Peace Corps (United States) might be warranted.
We believe that priority should be given to further research on a relatively small number of stage one through stage four riverine fisheries. The research would focus not so much on local management systems as on management problems and opportunities and the ways in which the fishing folk themselves (as well as traders, government agencies and private voluntary organizations) could play a more active role in the management of fish stocks. Data would have to be collected on the dynamics of the current fishery and on the opportunities and problems presented by the fishery in its current stage. That information then could help with the formulation of more relevant management strategies. Although we are not necessarily linking the two types, research could also play a most valuable role in selecting a number of fisheries for donor-supported experimental development as management prototype projects.
More specifically, we believe the research should have a strong policy orientation. And it should be largely topical with the priority of the topic influencing the selection of which fisheries were studied in the field. Relevant topics would include the following:
(a) Appropriate management systems for stage four riverine fisheries where recent immigrants predominant.
(b) Appropriate management systems for stage four riverine fisheries that have a multiethnic population of well-established fishing folk.
(c) Appropriate management systems for stage four riverine fisheries in which a single ethnic group dominates.
(d) Appropriate management systems for incorporating migratory fishermen within limited access fisheries.
(e) Appropriate management systems for involving fishing communities in aquaculture and other forms of intensification.
(f) Appropriate management systems for incorporating still traditional fisheries within national parks and other natural resource management areas.
(g) Types of customary and other organizations which have fisheries management potential at the local level.
(h) Adaptation of shareholding, leasing and auction concepts for community management of local fisheries resources.
(i) Complementary management strategies to reinforce management systems based on limited access and local participation.
(j) Local participatory and limited access management systems that appear to work (see 12. for specific examples).
(k) The role of traders. government agencies and private voluntary organizations in locally based management systems.
Each of the above topics is based on the assumption that future government supported management systems must link limited access with strong local participatory action organizations.
In addition to such topical research, we believe that the paucity of material on inland fisheries, and their dynamic nature, emphasize the need for initiating a small number of long-term, comparative studies of several carefully selected riverine fisheries.
