A social science perspective on stock enhancement outcomes: Lessons learned from inland fisheries in southern Lao PDR

Stock enhancement initiatives have become an increasingly popular intervention in inland rural fisheries development over the past two decades, with stocking being a high priority on inland fisheries development agendas in Southeast Asia. However, stock enhancement initiatives have shown that whilst releases of cultured juveniles have the potential to yield substantial benefits, the actual outcomes, in terms of yields, distribution of benefits and institutional sustainability, are often different from those initially expected. One reason for this is the complexity of the environments into which enhancements are introduced, involving dynamic interactions between the biological characteristics of the resource, the technical intervention of enhancement and, crucially, the people who use and manage it. The introduction of people as a major factor affecting outcomes distinguishes stock enhancement from aquaculture. It also makes the need for interdisciplinary and social science research increasingly evident. This paper highlights lessons learned from long-term interdisciplinary research on stock enhancement of small waterbodies in Lao PDR. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we sought to understand when enhancement would be taken up by resource users, what factors affected the nature and distribution of enhancement benefits, and what affect resource users had on those biological outcomes that were achievable in the first instance. The responses to enhancement varied. Factors facilitating uptake included strong leadership, direct observation of benefits and an ability to adapt technology to suit requirements. When taken up, stock enhancement catalysed institutional change that affected both the nature and distribution of benefits among resource users. Who this benefited, and to what extent, was highly context specific and dependant on the wider social, political and institutional environment surrounding the enhanced fishery. Finally, interdisciplinary research demonstrated that an increase in production potential did not automatically lead to an increase in yields. Rather, it depended on the characteristics of the user community and the way they chose to manage and use the resource. Resource users were crucial in determining all the outcomes of stock enhancement. They were not only recipients, but also drivers, of enhancement technology. This has fundamental implications for how stock enhancement research and development is conducted. In particular, it requires increased participation of resource users in the research process, serious inter-disciplinary study, and the need to recognise and deal with uncertainty.