Report of the Marine Protected Areas Working Group meeting, Penang, Malaysia, 11-12 February, 2014

The objectives of the workshop were to review and update Marine Protected Area (MPA) data, finalise policy briefs for each country and recommend future actions and policies for sustainable management of MPAs.

Biodiversity and socio-economic information of selected areas of Sri Lankan side of the Gulf of Mannar

Rapid biodiversity and socio-economic studies of the Gulf of Mannar were required as part of the process to propose the Sri Lankan side as a Biosphere Reserve. These included livelihoods; land use; infrastructure; biodiversity; agriculture; fisheries; archaeological and cultural significance; and development and environmental issues.

Management of mangrove areas

The article discusses the management of mangrove areas in the Philippines to prevent further negative effects of mangrove depletion on the income of coastal fishers. The article suggests that the conversion of mangrove areas should be regulated by means of land lease.

Report of the training in database and spatial analysis for Marine Protected Areas staff in Indonesia's BOBLME region, Medan, Indonesia, 30 June-4 July, 2015

Training included: Geographic Information System (GIS)concept and software; Global Positioning System (GPS); Ecological Gap Analysis and Marine Protected Area (MPA) design using Marine Reserve Design using Spatially Explicit Annealing (MARXAN); and cartography.

An analysis of the 1970 commercial fish catch in three areas of the Kafue Floodplain

The commercial landings of fish in three areas of the Kafue Floodplain were examined in regard to thhing technique used, catch per unit effort, and species composition and length size. Gillnets were used throughout the year although predominantly in the wet season, and drawnets (similar to beach seines) were used at periods of low water level. Fishermen used a varying number of gillnets in each area, and the catehes also varied according to month. Principal species caught on the floodplain were clarias gariepinus and Tilapia andersoni. There are indications that, whereas the catch per gillnet in the year's 1965-1970 may be lower than in the 1950s. The drawnet calch per unit of effort of these later years is higher than in the 1950s.