Meres and mosses conservation plan: Rostherne Mere

This is a report on the Conservation Plan for Rostherne Mere. The project primarly involved collating existing information from a variety of sources, supplemented by a limited amount of survey work commissioned for the project, including identification of the surface water catchment, water flows, and land use within the catchment. The section 1 outlines the physical situation of the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), its geological setting and hydrological regime. A summary of the ecological characteristics, conservation interest and objectives is provided in Section 2, and the issues affecting the site are identified in Section 3. . Operations and mechanisms for addressing the issues are suggested in Section 4, compiled from field visits, information held on file by English Nature and the Environment Agency, and English Nature. The last Section 5 provides a brief summary of the site’s condition and a discussion of the issues and operations suggested. A summary table is provided of the recommended actions for each site. Supporting information on the hydrology and aquatic ecology (where relevant) is provided in appendices.

Fish surveys on the Leven and Kent estuaries

This is the Wetland resource evaluation and the NRA's role in its conservation: Resource assessment report produced by North West Water in 1982. In this report data from a variety of sources in river Leven and Leven estuary have been examined to determine if there was any objective foundation for the allegations and for the assertion that poor fish catches were related to discharges of industrial effluent to the estuary. Catches of salmon and sea trout from the Leven did not appear to have suffered any long term declines and year to year fluctuations did not appear to be any more extreme than in other North West rivers. Fish surveys did not show any marked differences in the diversity or distribution of fish between the Kent and Leven estuaries but catches of flounders were consistently lower from the Leven estuary. Analysis of fisheries statistics of landings of fish and shellfish from Morecambe Bay did not show any evidence of localised declines in catches from the Leven estuary. Results of laboratory experiments suggested that populations of bivalve molluscs might be more at risk from the effects of discharges to the Leven estuary than resident or migratory fish.

Fishery-dependent livelihoods, conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity: the case of marine and coastal protected areas in India

The lacunae in fishing-community engagement in the management and governance of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) were discussed in the 2009 Chennai Workshop organized by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF). To continue the discussion, a second, two-day workshop to review existing legal and institutional mechanisms for implemention and monitoring of MCPAs, titled ‘Fishery-dependent Livelihoods, Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity: The Case of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in India’, was held in New Delhi during 1-2 March 2012. The objective was to understand the impact of MCPAs on fishing communities, from an environmental-justice and human-rights perspective, and make specific proposals for better conservation while securing the livelihoods of small-scale fishers. The workshop also served to underscore these issues in light of the upcoming Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to be held at Hyderabad in October 2012. This publication contains the prospectus of the workshop and a report of the proceedings. It will be useful for fishworkers, non-governmental organizations, policymakers, trade unions, researchers and others interested in natural resource management and coastal and fishing communities.