STREAM - a new conduit for aquaculture

credit: Graham Haylor

STREAM, (Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management) is a new initiative for better understanding poor people's livelihoods and utilising relevant existing and emerging information more effectively, in order to enable them to exert greater influence over the policies and processes that impact on their lives. STREAM is to involve 15 countries in Asia and the Pacific, a region that accounts for 90% of the world's aquaculture production, and where aquatic resources play a vital role in the health, nutrition and overall food security of marginalized people in rural areas. Many villagers, for instance, derive benefits not only from individual fishing, foraging for aquatic resources, culturing fish, and processing but from supplying commodities to fish farmers and distributing and selling products (see Focus On Aquaculture 01-3).

STREAM has several founding partners: NACA (the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific), DFID, FAO and VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas). Within an initial 5-year programme, the partners will undertake specific but interlinked roles in supporting existing agencies and networks to encourage the development of appropriate policies and to build capacity nationally and regionally to improve the lot of the great majority of rural people, who depend on aquaculture and fish capture for their livelihood. Initially, in 2002, STREAM will pilot the programme in Cambodia and Vietnam and will extend it to other NACA member countries over successive years on the basis of lessons learned.

Communication the key

Communication will be an important element of this programme and STREAM's communication strategy will both help to gather and disseminate information and strengthen the capacity of existing media and other communication channels with the aim of sharing knowledge and utilizing learning. Disadvantaged aquatic resource users will also be helped to document their experiences so that these experiences may be shared more widely. Furthermore, STREAM will support a number of small-scale community-based learning initiatives, the practical outcome of which will be combined with lessons learned from existing case studies to influence aquaculture policy and practice in the region.

credit: Graham Haylor

Although there is a wealth of aquatic resource-related information in the region, it is not always readily available in appropriate languages or formats. Much is written in English and presented in terms suited to the educated scientist, technician or extension officer, rather than the ultimate stakeholder, who still depends on and prefers aural and visual communication. Adaptation and translation of information will be necessary, and the experience of stakeholders incorporated. All possible communication channels will be considered to achieve widespread dissemination rapidly, reliably and at low cost. This will include access to digital information and use of the internet, telephone, printed documentation and national and regional meetings.

In addition to technology-transfer, there is recognition of the importance of the socio-economic issues that are associated with the management of marginalized users of aquatic resources and that any policy-making process must involve the participation of the resource users. The major reforms of aquatic resource governance and the provision of services required undoubtedly present a formidable challenge; the constraints are numerous, complex and inter-related. However, STREAM is ambitious and aims to address the key issue of limited communication between stakeholders by facilitating a change in approach, in which inclusion of the poor is a development objective in itself. Fortuitously, there are undoubted on-going changes in the region that provide opportunities for STREAM to facilitate reforms that can spread the benefits of aquatic resources more widely, and provide greater livelihood opportunities for the rural poor.

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