Fisheries
The overall goal of the Sangha Trinational fisheries project is to alleviate bushmeat hunting pressures on wildlife populations by developing and promoting the sustainable management of fisheries in the Sangha Trinational as an alternative source of protein and revenue for local communities.
Very little information on fish diversity or fisheries exists in the region, and so the project is attempting improve our knowledge of current fish diversity and the biology of economically important species, while also measuring baseline fisheries offtake to establish useful indicators for monitoring.
Implementation of the project in 2006 will implicate all Sangha Trinational partners, local stakeholders, national training institutions and government authorities, and the project will build on previous work and experience in implementing a transboundary catch/effort sample-based study design. Final recommendations for the implementation of a fisheries management program will be developed in consulation with local fishing communities and be based on the capacity of current fish stocks to support current rates of exploitation and to absorb an increase in harvesting levels.