Moving Towards Effective Governance of Inland Freshwater Resources

Good governance encompasses both ecological and human well-being. Governance institutions tend to divide freshwater resource users into sectors that generally do not coordinate their use of these waters, leading to isolated decisions about water resource allocation and development with little consideration of all freshwater users. The inland freshwater fishery sector struggles to effectively communicate its contributions and value to human and ecological well-being, in part, because fisheries stakeholders throughout the world are often highly dispersed, small-scale fishers whose contributions towards food security are undervalued by the lack of data to demonstrate the high value of freshwater fishes to food security and economic prosperity.  As demand for the world's scarce freshwater resource is intense, few initiatives have successfully applied a holistic, cross-sectoral approach to their governance.  Existing governance institutions could contribute to the advancement of such collaboration by addressing existing problems and proper valuation strategies within as well as between sectors. Managers, policy makers, and ministers responsible for inland fisheries sustainability and freshwater resource allocation will need to take the first steps to engage a broader audience to develop new partners and strategies that will ensure the continued contribution of inland fisheries to livelihoods, food and nutritional security locally and globally.