Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in association with Inland Fisheries Society of India (IFSI) and Professional Fisheries Graduate Forum (PFGF) is organising a global webinar for understanding and managing small scale fisheries on Small Scale Fisheries in Inland open water: Status and opportunity on September 9 & 10, 2020. Experts, academicians and institutions from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Philippines, Malaysia along with the experts from Canada, UN FAO, Italy and Belgium will be participating in this global webinar. The webinar will be inaugurated by Dr. J. K. Jena, DDG (Fisheries Science), ICAR, New Delhi on 9 September 2020. Small-scale fisheries(SSF) is defined as traditional fisheries involving fishing households (as opposed to commercial companies), using relatively small amounts of capital and energy, relatively small fishing vessels (if any), making short fishing trips, close to shore and mainly for local consumption. Though almost 95 percent of the world’s inland fisheries catch is in developing countries, and 90 percent of inland capture production is consumed in the developing world. The activities of small-scale fisheries usually comprise supplying fish and fishery products to local and domestic markets as well as for subsistence consumption. Other ancillary activities such as net-making, boat-building, engine repair and maintenance, etc. can provide additional fishery-related employment and income opportunities for fishing communities. SSF is highly vulnerable to natural and anthropological changes in inland fisheries causing loss of employment and livelihood to poor fishers/ fish-workers. Thus, there is a need to give adequate policy support to this vulnerable sub-sector. However, due to the COVID-19 lockdown, there has been a sharp decline in anthropogenic activities, including fishing. It is believed that COVID-19 lockdown has helped improve the health condition of the inland water resources, while the livelihoods of the fishers involved in small-scale fisheries impacted critically. At this backdrop, it is imperative to organize a web-based Pan-Asia consultation with virtual participation of experts, academicians and institutions from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Philippines and Malaysia along with the experts from Canada, FAO, Italy and Belgium to make a review of the present situation and to formulate future strategies for enhancing smallscale fisheries management with the objective to fulfil five major Sustainable Development Goals through national and sub-regional cooperation. Webinar Objective: – To assess status of small scale fisheries in Pan Asia region in the context of Post Covid-19 lockdown. – To develop a future strategy for mainstreaming smallscale’ inland open water fisheries – To underline policy elements for enhancing the small scale fisheries management efforts in the overall framework of SDG Expected outputs from webinar: – Present status of Small scale fisheries in Pan-Asia region Research Programme prioritization on SSF – Development of an overview of the present status of small scale fisheries for sustainable inland aquatic ecosystem management – More than 30 papers will be presented at this webinar by the experts from different countries of the world. – More than 700 participants including policy makers, scientists of India and abroad have already registered for this programme.