ASSESSING ECONOMIC AND WELFARE VALUES OF FISH IN CAMBODIA Project objective: assess the relative contribution of fisheries • role of fish in household income • role of other sources of income (agriculture, petty trade, jobs, etc) • contribution of fish to food security • contribution of fish to resilience • seasonal and geographic variability of these relative contributions • variability between wealth groups and genders

Duration: 2012-2016 Funding: by the ACIAR Fisheries Program (Australia)

Partners: • WorldFish • Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute • Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute • Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP, Cambodia) • Can Tho University (CTU, Vietnam) • Ubon Ratchathani University (UBU, Thailand)

The Welfare approach Welfare = well-being (not just income)

WEALTH in particular: NUTRITION - relative income (wealth) - food consumed (nutrition) - activities (labor) - access to care (health) LABOR - shocks experienced and ability to adapt (resilience)

RESILIENCE

HEALTH

Geographic scope

Tonle Sap

Upper Mekong

Lowlands

Focus on: - rural communities - populated areas - 3 ecological zones

Population sampled 747 households over 3 years (2,241 questionnaires) in 37 rural villages, representing 3.7 million people along rivers and lakes in 3 agro-ecological zones

Documents and information available on Facebook:

www.facebook.com/MekongFishValue

WELFARE COMPONENT • •

•

What is the economic value of capture fisheries in Cambodia? What is the relative contribution of fisheries to welfare in diversified farming systems? How does fish support the welfare of poor and vulnerable social groups?

FISH MARKETS COMPONENT Assess, over two years, the price of fish in different agroecosystems in different seasons

BIOLOGY COMPONENT Use existing information and fill gaps in order to produce an assessment of the fish production of different habitats throughout the country

UNIVERSITIES COMPONENT Develop a sustainable and low-cost network for the monitoring of fish resources, through BSc and MSc training programs


      


                      


             

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Aquaculture Aquaculture compared to capture fishery Total production (t) Inland capture fish production

Aquaculture fish production

$114 M

Year

In 2011, the aquaculture production (72,000 t) was valued at USD 114 million 76% Commercial aquaculture 2014 inland fish yield 505,000 tonnes Inland capture fisheries

110,000 tonnes Inland aquaculture

24% Smallholder aquaculture

In 2014, inland aquaculture represented 1/5th of the capture fish production

Aquaculture at the household level Only 5% of households are involved in aquaculture.

+ + Fish farming activities generate more money for less labour compared to most other Aquaculture provides only 2.1% of the fish rural households consume.

natural resource dependent activities, but they require important initial investment.

=

Aquaculture development is good, but aquaculture fish is far from replacing capture fish, in particular for the poor

Fish feed in aquaculture Proteic feed:

+ non-proteic feed (e.g. rice bran)

1.4 tonnes of small fish

are needed to produce

1% pellets 3% marine capture fish

1 tonne

of farmed carnivore fish

96%

inland capture fish

1.4 tonnes of (inland capture) small fish are integrated to the feed to produce 1 tonne of aquaculture fish

FISH PRODUCTIVITY BY AQUATIC HABITAT  AND ESTIMATED FISH PRODUCTION IN CAMBODIA

INTRODUCTION The overall objective of the Biology component was to assess fish productivity in the main fish habitats in Cambodia (rain-fed rice fields, flooded rice fields, swamp/grasslands, shrub lands, flooded forests, open waters and reservoirs). The study combines a literature review and complementary field studies aimed at filling knowledge gaps.

CAPTURE FISH PRODUCTIVITY IN 7 HABITATS

Rain‐fed rice fields [25‐112‐209]

Reservoir [21‐121.4‐214]

Open water [31.3‐93.8‐165]

Flooded forest [36.8‐66‐95]

Shrub  land [167]

Flooded grassland/ marsh/ swamp

Flooded rice  field [30‐113‐491]

[75.6‐91.5‐107.4]

Fig. 1: Fish productivity (kg/ha/year) by habitat.

The natural fish productivity varies depending on the habitat; the average is 115 kg per hectare per year.

Authors: CHHENG P., UN S., TRESS J., SIMPSON V., SIEU C. Project “Assessing economic and welfare values of fish in the Lower Mekong Basin” funded by ACIAR and implemented by WorldFish. July 2016.

EXTENT OF HABITATS Table 1. Surface areas by habitat (x1,000 ha).

A GIS-based assessment allowed quantifying the total extent of each habitat. By combining surface area and productivity of each habitat, we can calculate the production countrywide.

Area (1,000 ha) Rain-fed rice field 3,215.6 Flooded rice field (receding and floating rice fields) 371.8 Flooded grassland/marsh and swamp 302.8 Flooded shrub land 533.6 Flooded forest 20.6 Open water (Mekong, Tonle Sap and main rivers) 416.9 Reservoir 11.8 Total: 4,873.1 Land use category

CAPTURE FISH PRODUCTION BY HABITAT TYPE

Figure 2. Fish habitats in Cambodia and their annual fish production.

CONCLUSIONS • The total fish production ranges between 1000 tonnes/year (reservoirs) and 360,000 tons/year (rain-fed rice fields). • Rice field habitat is the largest contributor to fish production countrywide • The total fish production in all habitats is estimated at 560,000 tonnes per year.

UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP FOR FISH MONITORING

Objective: To establish a Mekong regional network for monitoring fish resources in partnership with national universities Partner universities

Rationale Historically there has been no monitoring of fisheries resources basinwide. The present network under development is aimed at creating such a monitoring tool through mobilizing students. Benefits: ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡

Opportunity to integrate the field research into existing BSc and MSC programs Improved capacity of young researchers Linkages between regional universities Standardised data basin-wide, allowing comparisons between countries Improved understanding of basin-wide trends and cross-border linkages Improved information and capacity for fisheries management in the three participating countries Low cost monitoring Potential for a self-sustaining monitoring system

Can Tho University (Vietnam), 40,000 students. Largest of the 9 faculties are Agronomy, Fisheries, Economics, and Environment. Offers BSc, MSc in Vietnamese, PhD in English Ubon Ratchathani University (Thailand), 15,000 students. Has a Department of Fisheries (Faculty of Agriculture), with 120 students over 4 years, i.e. around 30 per year. Offers BSc, MSc in Thai, PhD in English. Royal University of Phnom Penh (Cambodia),12,000 students. Department of Biology has 50-80 students each year, offering BSc. Hosts a Centre for Biodiversity Conservation, supported by Fauna and Flora International (FFI) which offers a MSc in English.

Methods Topics are related to fish biology or socioeconomics, especially in sites identified for dam development. They are designed to be manageable for BSc or MSc students, and can be repeated annually by successive students, producing time comparisons.

Achievements RUPP: 3 M.Sc. UBU: 1 Ph.D. involved, 3 M.Sc., 41 B.Sc. involved CTU: 1 Ph.D., 5 M.Sc., 10 B.Sc. involved The partnership formed with the Scientific Capacity Development Initiative (SciCap) has allowed adaptation and integration of a fish monitoring protocol already endorsed by institutions (e.g. MRC) at the regional level Fish monitoring protocol and activities have become part of the regular curriculum

Authors: Chaiwut Grudpan, Duong Van Ni, Furey N., Kanjana Payooha, Phauk Sophany, Souter N. and Pheng Sokline. Project “Assessing economic and welfare values of fish in the Lower Mekong Basin” funded by ACIAR and implemented by WorldFish. July 2016