Socio-Economics of the Fisheries of the Lower Songkhram River Basin, Northeast Thailand

About this book

Language: English

The Songkhram River is a large tributary of the Mekong River which runs through the northern part of northeast Thailand. The river system supports a large but previously undescribed capture fishery. This survey covered villages within the lower one-third of the Songkhram River Basin, where extensive wetlands are associated with the most productive fisheries. The survey used two approaches (i) a census (by questionnaire) of all village leaders, to provide a broad coverage of the Lower Songkhram River Basin, and (ii) a sample survey carried out by surveyors within 27 randomly selected villages that covered 353 households.

The survey showed clearly that fishing is of considerable importance for people living in the lower Songkhram River Basin, despite rice farming being the main full-time occupation. Typically, households include rice-farmers and part-time fishers, but the importance of fishing is under-recognised officially.

A number of recommendations from the findings of this study are presented in this report as suggestions to agencies with an interest in the lower Songkhram River Basin.

Contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Summary

1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Results from village-level census
4. Results from the sample survey
5. Conclusions and recommendations
6. References

Appendix 1 Summary information on the sampling frame for the 27 villages, showing weightings used for analyzing the household data
Appendix 2 Village census. Frequency of gear types reported per village, based on returns from 349 villages
Appendix 3 Household ownership of economically important items
Appendix 4 Summary of household engagement in economic activities
Appendix 5 Breakdown of the economic activities of people in each household by gender
Appendix 6 Importance of household activities for food supply and income
Appendix 7 Land ownership by households and access to commons land
Appendix 8 Livestock and poultry ownership by households
Appendix 9 Habitats fished and distances travelled
Appendix 10 Summary information of catch and effort data by habitat
Appendix 11 Summary of the most recent catches from interviews of 295 fishers during the dry season in 2000

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