"What the country needs is a clear strategy, which will benefit the poor by limiting adverse trends and restoring productivity in fisheries through community participation and decentralised governance," Darrel Deppert and Paul Thomson said in their presentation entitled 'Lessons and successes from inland fisheries projects'.

Department of Fisheries, Management of Aquatic Ecosystem through Community Husbandry (MACH) and Community-Based Fisheries Management (CBMF) jointly organised the roundtable entitled 'Future plans for inland capture fisheries' in association with Neeti Gobeshona Kendro at Cirdap auditorium in the city.

The speakers said the present system of leasing out jalmohal (water body), in fact, encourages maximisation of short-term profit by leaseholders, leading to poor fisheries management and posing threat to biodiversity.

Leasing of Jalmohal should be used as a means of ensuring long-term access for local fishing communities on condition that they conserve and sustain the fisheries and that the benefits go to those who fish for a livelihood, they said.

According to a survey, 82 percent of the fishing households are poor, said Rafiqul Islam, director of the department of fisheries. Local community-based management can address the dimension of poverty, he added.

After the completion of any fisheries projects, a committee should remain in place to oversee, review and coordinate local community management of fisheries, the speakers observed.

Nasir Uddin Ahmed, director general of the fisheries department, stressed the need for making an up-to-date inventory of water bodies incorporating administrative, physical and biological information.

The speakers urged the government to identify sources of pollution affecting fisheries and impose a ban on those factors.

They also called on the Department of Environment to enforce national water standards so that the industries comply with the rules and operate effluent treatment plants.

Stringent action should be taken against the encroachers and steps should be taken to prevent siltation, they said.

They also called for better coordination among the ministries, directorates, experts' committees, non-government organisations and local agents to implement sustainable fisheries projects.

Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdullah Al Noman was present as the chief guest at the roundtable moderated by Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS. Experts from home and abroad took part in the discussion.