The Danish government is funding a four-year project in Rakhine State and Tanintharyi Region in Myanmar to help improve the lives of local fishermen and conserve marine resources, according to officials.
The project is expected to start in early 2017, and will take place in five communities in Rakhine State and five in Tanintharyi Region, said U Soe Thet, an official from the Dawei Fisheries Department.
The central Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock is still working on the design, and the Myanmar government and Danish authorities must give their final approval, he added.
Fishing is the second-largest contributor to employment opportunities and income in the primary sector after agriculture, providing direct employment to millions of people, said Henning Nohr, development counsellor at the Danish embassy in Yangon.
Small-scale artisanal fishermen and their families are among the country’s poorest and most vulnerable groups, Mr Nohr said. The sector generates employment opportunities among women and in several predominantly ethnic areas [which we] also identified as key areas for Danish support.
Large-scale offshore operators and small-scale inshore fisheries are putting the fishing sector under increasing pressure, he added.
The current practice of increasingly intensive fishing is unsustainable, and will not solve the challenge of improving livelihoods in coastal communities, Mr Nohr said. U Soe Thet said the Danish-funded project’s focus was less on investment and more on raising awareness among fishermen. This would help improve guidelines on conversation and sustainability to international standard, he said.
Though the Department of Fisheries has already improved conservation in some areas and implemented restrictions for fishing, we need to check whether the people on ground are following [these regulations] across different areas and seasons, he said.
The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock or regional fisheries departments set regulations on restricted fishing areas, but the project aims to allow local fishermen to set their own regulations which fisheries departments can then approve, said U Soe Thet.
It will also help local communities improve how their fishing industry functions. This will include working on handling, processing and transport, which in turn will improve the quality of goods and mean better prices for middlemen and local markets, said Mr Nohr.
The project will work with the local private sector on quality assurance and access to national, regional and international markets, he added, and where possible will link up with existing or planned national efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
2016 The Myanmar Times