This paper is concerned specifically with the problems of river fisheries and associated management issues. It deals in particular with the scope for building on traditional practices, through the participation of traditional fishing communities, as a means of improving the quality of river fishery management. The paper reviews the most frequently encountered problems of riverine fisheries such as over-fishing due to population pressure or migration, and artifically induced environmental factors such as dams, pollution and deforestation. It lays stress on the importance of studying fishing communities, as well as strictly biological factors, and presents a four-stage analysis of the evolution of traditional riverine fisheries. Several undesirable consequences of this typical evolution, both on the resource itself and on traditional fishing communities, are identified and illustrated by case studies from the Amazon and the Zambesi. Certain types of traditional management strategies are examined and assessed for their future utility. The current ineffectiveness of many existing government river fisheries management policies is noted, either as a result of lack of resources or because they are inappropriate, often rooted in outdated colonial legislation. The lack of both limited access measures and of participation by local fishing communities are highlighted as major deficiencies. The paper concludes by linking these two features as crucial components of durable river management strategies for the future, although other possibilities for management are also reviewed and assessed. The paper contains a comprehensive bibliography for further reading.

In this edited work, international experts in fisheries management and ecology review and appraise the status of river fisheries, assessment methodology, constraints on development, issues and options regarding management and associated problems in both temperate and tropical countries. Recommendations are made to improve management and an attempt is made to provide guidelines for formulating policy, for planning methodology and for evaluating future activities. Assessment of fish community structure and dynamics. Factors constraining stock recruitment. Fish habitat requirements. Instream flow needs. Impact of water resource schemes. Rehabilitation of river fisheries. Enhancement of fish stocks. Exploitation of stocks. Management of migratory fish stocks. Conservation of endangered species. Integrated river management. Bioeconomic issues. Legislation. Multinational management of rivers. Case studies.

"The book covers fishery assessments, habitat and community manipulations, and common practices for managing stream, river, lake, and anadromous fisheries. Chapters on history; ecosystem management; management processes; communications with the public; introduced, undesirable, and endangered species; and the legal and regulatory frameworks provide the context for modern fisheries management." From fisheries.org.

Little attention has been paid to rivers and it is only recently that a general awareness has developed of the importance of river systems to fisheries throughout the world. While rivers were relatively unaltered, the fish they produced was taken for granted, but with increasing competition for water for agricultural, industrial and domestic uses, fisheries usually have been given a secondary role among the range of users. The river systems themselves are being increasingly modified both in their form and in their flood characteristics. As a consequence, fish populations are being altered and productive capacities lowered. FAO is now called upon to advise countries on the ways in which such fisheries can be managed, both on their own and in harmony with such activities as irrigation, flood control or power generation. In trying to fulfil this task, we are limited by the comparative lack of knowledge about the systems under consideration. A meeting of experts was convened in an attempt to define the methodologies for the assessment of fishery resources in rivers and the use of these methodologies in evaluating the impacts of fisheries and other uses of the aquatic environment on the fishery.

This open access book surveys the frontier of scientific river research and provides examples to guide management towards a sustainable future of riverine ecosystems. Principal structures and functions of the biogeosphere of rivers are explained; key threats are identified, and effective solutions for restoration and mitigation are provided. Rivers are among the most threatened ecosystems of the world. They increasingly suffer from pollution, water abstraction, river channelisation and damming. Fundamental knowledge of ecosystem structure and function is necessary to understand how human acitivities interfere with natural processes and which interventions are feasible to rectify this. Modern water legislation strives for sustainable water resource management and protection of important habitats and species. However, decision makers would benefit from more profound understanding of ecosystem degradation processes and of innovative methodologies and tools for efficient mitigation and restoration. The book provides best-practice examples of sustainable river management from on-site studies, European-wide analyses and case studies from other parts of the world. This book will be of interest to researchers in the field of aquatic ecology, river system functioning, conservation and restoration, to postgraduate students, to institutions involved in water management, and to water related industries.