The International Conference on Aquaculture and Fisheries (ICAF) 2024 was held under the theme ‘Blue Revolution for Healthy People, Economy, and Environment.’ This three-day conference brought together fisheries scientists, academics, professionals, students, and fish farmers to exchange knowledge, ideas, information, and technologies. National and international participants shared their findings on the social, technological, economic, biological, conservation, and environmental aspects of fisheries sciences.
One of the highlights of the conference was the announcement of the TBTI e-book series, The Beauty and Bounty at Risk, the first book dedicated to small-scale fisheries in Nepal. The announcement was made by TBTI Hub coordinators, accompanied by a proposal presentation by Dr. Tek B. Gurung titled, Proposing Big in Small-Scale Fisheries to Establish Too Big to Ignore Hub in Landlocked Countries. This innovative concept, which introduces a socio-environmental perspective to small-scale fisheries, captured the attention of senior delegates at the event.
The e-book seeks to compile knowledge, stories, and research on small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, providing readers with valuable insights into this critical area. According to Prof. Sunila Rai, the chair of ICAF 2024 and program coordinator of Fisheries Program of AFU, who wrote the book’s foreword, said that the publication “will be helpful in drawing the attention of policymakers and researchers, and promoting sustainable, equitable, and resilient fisheries in the country.” Ranju Ghimire, who played a pivotal role in the book’s preparation, expressed her hope that the book will make a lasting impact among readers, reaching students, professors, government officials, policymakers, and anyone keen to learn about small-scale fisheries in Nepal.
Additionally, TBTI e-book student contributors actively participated in the poster-making competition organized during ICAF 2024. Among them, Pravas Kumar Mandal secured second place for the best poster presentation.
Prof. Tek Bahadur Gurung presenting the chapter on ‘Proposing Big in Small-Scale Fisheries to Establish Too Big To Ignore Hub for Land-Locked Countries’. The chapter is part of the upcoming book by TBTI Nepal titled ‘The Beauty and the Bounty at Risk: Small-Scale Fisheries at Risk’.
Soft launch of TBTI Nepal e-book. Standing left to right are the book editors and coordinators of the upcoming hub TBTI Nepal: Tek B. Gurung, Thaneshwar Bhandari, Nelson Pokhrel, Sunila Rai & Ranju Ghimire.
Rejina Neupane presenting the study on ‘Fish Stock Assessment and its Management Practices in Fisheries Reservoirs of Agriculture and Forestry University’. The findings from the study will be published in the upcoming e-book by TBTI Nepal.
Divyanshu Shrestha presenting the study on ‘Sustainability of Malekhu Fish Eatery Market: Questions for the New Generation’. The findings from the study will be published in the upcoming e-book by TBTI Nepal.
Sanskriti Koirala presenting the study on ‘Local Indigenous Species of Fish caught by Ethnic Community at Ghinaghat, Singhiya Biratnagar, Nepal’. The findings from the study will be published in the upcoming e-book by TBTI Nepal.
Pravas Kumar Mandal presenting the study on ‘Transition from Small-Scale Fishing to Small-Scale Aquaculture Enterprise Pursuit’. The findings from the study will be published in the upcoming e-book by TBTI Nepal.
Pravas Kumar Mandal won a second place, receiving a cash prize for the best poster presentation.
TBTI Nepal upcoming e-book
Foreword by Prof. Sunila Rai
Nepal is a landlocked country but is rich in freshwater resources, especially fish (252 species) (Shrestha 2018). Despite this, we are not able to fully utilize the resources or manage them sustainably. Various destructive and undesirable human activities, such as use of electrofishing and poison, damming and channelizing rivers, disturbing and degrading habitat, diverting and polluting water, and overfishing, have resulted in the decline of fish population and their stocks. Hence, capture fisheries production is very low (21,000 mt) and has been stagnant, compared to aquaculture production (92,736 mt, CFPCC 2024). In addition, government’s policy and programs are inadequate and ineffective. For Nepal, capture fisheries are synonymous with small-scale fisheries, which are mainly for subsistence and livelihood, with some commercialization. In addition, small-scale fisheries can play important role in improving nutrition status of fishers’ families and rural communities. Increased consumption of small indigenous fish and molluscs, which are rich in micro-nutrients, are widely found in natural water bodies and can contribute to reducing existing malnutrition among children and women in Nepal. Nepal government has a target to increase the fish consumption rate to 10 kg fish/person/year by 2031. To achieve this target, sustainable management of fisheries is very essential.
The book ‘The Beauty and the Bounty at Risk’ is the first e-book on small-scale fisheries in Nepal. This book has twenty-five stories of fishes, fisheries and fishers of Nepal, which are written by experts, early career scientists and students of the B.Sc. Fisheries and M.Sc. Fisheries in the Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur. A five-day writing workshop conducted by TBTI experts, Prof. Ratana Chuenpagdee and Prof. Svein Jentoft, and assisted by Dr. Tek Gurung, Ms. Ranju Ghimire and Fisheries Program faculty members in the university during February 17 to 21, 2023, had been very fruitful in motivating our students to write for this e-book. The workshop enhanced our students writing skill and the results are the beautiful articles in this e-book. The book offers insights of different aspects of the small-scale fisheries such as fishing technology, socio-economics, environmental issues, and governance. It has covered fisheries in different water mass, both stagnant (lake, pond, reservoir, wetland) and running water (river, stream), and cold-water and warm-water from mid hills and Terai (plain area). The book also highlights cross cutting issues such as women empowerment, climate change and its impacts on aquatic biodiversity, and the need for conservation. Finally, the book explores the challenges, opportunities and visions, which are useful for future development of fisheries. I believe that the book will be helpful to draw the attention of policy makers and researchers, and promote sustainable, equitable and resilient fisheries in the country.
I would like to appreciate the effort of the authors and the editorial team in producing this wonderful e-book. I would also like to congratulate TBTI global team and TBTI Nepal team for this milestone pioneer work in establishing the TBTI Nepal hub.