This year, Nepal celebrated the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in a grand way with cultural parades, exhibitions, and programs supported by national and international organizations, including FAO and UNESCO. These events honoured the diversity of our Indigenous heritage, from language to land stewardship.
Young Futures” is a call to youth around the world, inviting them to express their thoughts and ideas about the future of the ocean, the fisheries, the coast, the communities and the society that they are part of. Check out the TBTI Nepal contribution for the ‘Young Futures’ call for 2025 World Day of Social Justice.
The International Conference on Aquaculture and Fisheries (ICAF) 2024 was held under the theme ‘Blue Revolution for Healthy People, Economy, and Environment.’ 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.
Nepal is among the top tourist destinations in the world, attracting a large number of visitors each year. Many head for the ‘mountains’, or at least for the view of them. When we said we were going to Bharatpur, people thought that we wanted to visit Chitwan National Park, well-known for rare mammals, like one-horned rhinos and Bengal tigers.
Special message from Tek B. Gurung and Ranju Ghimire, TBTI Nepal hub coordinators for 2024 World Fisheries Day.
Special message from Thaneswar Bhandari and Nelson Pokhrel from TBTI Nepal for 2024 World Fisheries Day.
Special message from Prof. Sunila Rai, co-editor of the upcoming TBTI Nepal e-book.
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.
The poor are losing their land, tradition, culture, language and even their existence is in crisis. Our traditional knowledge, skills and professions are disappearing fast. Here, in this essay my aim is to focus on justice for poor communities who have depended on aquatic resources for their food, shelter and livelihood since time immemorial.
Nepalese small-scale fisheries should be reformed according to the SSF Guidelines... since these fisheries play an important role in food and nutrition security of highly deprived, marginalized communities...
Nepal is endowed with water resources, which might be one of the reasons why both aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity of the country is so rich. However, with increasing human population and infrastructural development, especially hydropower and irrigational dams, there has been threats imposed to fish diversity in Nepal.
Sitting in the classroom and talking about small-scale fisheries and what to write about them is one thing, seeing what they look like and listening to the stories told by them is another. Standing at one of the tributaries of the Narayani River, we talked with fishers, men and women, who have been fishing in that area for decades... A woman from the community said to us after a while: “don’t just talk to us or write about us, do something”.
This is a story of a women called Mira Nagarkoti from Nuwakot district who fishes for livelihood. She is 47 years old and collects fish using a cast net in the Trishuli River... The fishing has been an integral part of her life, and she has plans to continue to fish in the river until the end of her days.
This story is not just a personal tragedy, but a reflection of the broader vulnerability faced by small-scale fishers in Nepal. These communities, who live in close connection with rivers, are disproportionately affected by climate events and lack institutional support.
As a student of fisheries, I decided to analyze the potential of small-scale fisheries in my own community in Morang District. According to Subba (2017), there are 118 species of fish in Morang district. Based on this information, I aimed to find out of the total fish reported in Morang, including how many of them are there and which ones are most dominant.
This paper explores case studies and online sources that highlight the multi-faceted contributions of women in Nepal’s inland fisheries. Specific attention is given to women’s role in production, processing, and marketing, alongside efforts to increase their agency through education, cooperatives, and access to resources.
This case study covers the fish stock assessment of the Fisheries Reservoir of Agriculture and Forestry University and implementation of the management measures in order to restore the fish diversity and population.
Overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has extinguished fish in many rice fields and rivers of Nepal. Based on my experience, I advise against the abundant use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Currently, the biggest problem for which the Bote people are constantly raising their voices, is the problem of limited licenses. Since the establishment of the Chitwan National Park, a policy of regulating the distribution of fishing licenses has been put in place.
The art of making traditional gear is on the verge of extinction as fishers are using modern gears like cast net and gill nets. Although traditional gears are made of locally available materials and are biodegradable, lack of modification over time has reduced its efficiency in comparison to modern gears.
This is a thread of a story of how small-scale fishers, being experts in handling fish,and having traditional understanding about the fish behaviour through generations, can successfully capitalize that knowledge as aquaculture entrepreneurs.
All the communities within the Koshi Tappu wildlife Reserve, especially the Malaha community and some of the member of Sardar community, are involved in fishing and wetland-based activities for their livelihoods. The main occupation of the Sardar community is the harvesting of wetland plants.
This chapter examines the welfare dynamics of Nepalese fishing com-munities by exploring definitions, dimensions, and key determinants, which remain largely unaddressed in data-poor fisheries. A survey was conducted among randomly selected fishers from Chitwan, Gulmi, Lamjung, Kaski, Makawanpur and Rupandehi districts.
Small-scale fisheries can cope with the impact of climate change by adopting a paradigm shift from subsistence to conservation through changing the knowledge, legal framework approaches, fisheries-based ecotourism, minimizing overfishing of species, employment generation through recreational fishery, and impartiality towards fisherfolk in the decision-making process.
... This paper argues that, through its conservation efforts, Chitwan National Park’s removal of traditional work and ways of life has led to landlessness, a livelihood crisis, poverty, and cultural erasure, which demands the need for policy intervention and power reorganization within Nepal’s first national park.
For these Begnas Lake fishers, small-scale fisheries support their livelihood but side jobs are often also required to supplement income... More government or international assistance and research is needed to ensure the small-scale fishery can continue to help support livelihoods, food security, social equality, and sustainable resource use for local people at Begnas Lake.
The small-scale fishing communities in the study area will likely be slowly adopting fish farming and marketing opportunities. If members of these communities could be trained for fish farming occupation, the traditional knowledge of the fishing communities’ skills could be utilized more towards a more professional fish handlings, which could probably result in higher fish production and productivity enhancement.
The Aandhikhola river carries great potential for fisheries as it is rich in fish diversity. Additionally, it has been supporting local livelihood of fishing communities and contributing to local, as well as national economy. Fish diversity of this river is in a declining phase compared to previous years.
According to the fishers, the catch is dropping at an alarming rate. Diversity is declining. Destructive gears are far from being regulated. Calamities are uncertain and pollution is damaging the riverine habitats… Will livelihoods still depend on the river in the future? Will there be any fish left to be dried? Can fisheries thrive again like they did decades ago?
The International Conference on Aquaculture and Fisheries (ICAF) was held on 23-25 October, 2024 at the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU) Rampur, Chitwan, Nepal. Organized under the theme ‘Blue Revolution for Healthy People, Economy, and Environment’, the 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.
Tek Bahadur Gurung
Ranju Ghimire
Thaneshwar Bhandari
Nelson Pokhrel
Dr. Tek Gurung is involved in Corus International, a humanitarian INGO as well as in Agriculture & Forestry University an Adjunct Professor. He had served as Executive Director of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council. He has received International Kasumigaura Lake Prize for demonstrating a concept of large cooperative approach to restore degraded lakes and was awarded with NABIL prize from Nepal Academy of Science & Technology for developing trout farming industry. He has also served to Sri Lanka as aquaculture consultants. Dr. Gurung has been a Fulbright Scholar in Missouri-Columbia University USA & obtained Doctor of Science degree from Kyoto University.
Thaneshwar Bhandari is a doctoral fellow who is specializing in fishery industry value chain analysis, with research focusing on fishery hubs in Nepal and coastal regions in India. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. Mr. Bhandari has completed two master degrees in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development disciplines. The latest one degree that Mr. Bhandari has earned is International MSc in Rural Development (IMRD) from Ghent University Belgium in 2010 under grant award of the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. Mr. Bhandari has 15 years of university teaching experience in Nepal and over a decade of experience in agricultural development with government organizations, German Technical Cooperation (GIZ), and NGOs.
Nelson Pokharel is a fisheries and aquaculture expert with extensive experience in research, development, and extension services. She holds an MSc in Agriculture (Aquaculture) from Tribhuvan University. She is currently on leave from government service, pursuing a PhD at the Kathmandu University. Her research interests encompass aquaculture development, fish health management, and indigenous fish conservation. Nelson has served in multiple leadership roles within Nepal’s agricultural and fisheries sector. She currently serves as the Section Chief of the Fisheries Department at the Directorate of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Koshi Province, overseeing aquaculture development across 14 districts. Her responsibilities include program planning, indigenous fish farming, hatchery management, pond expansion, and riverine fisheries studies.
