Being able to access fish and other aquatic resources in inland waters for nutrition and food security is essential for rural populations in many developing countries and inland fisheries contribute significantly to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security, and the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, are tools allowing governments to strengthen governance and develop policies that secure equitable distribution of benefits and empower stakeholders. This document examines the tenure systems, rights and governance issues in the vast, diverse and complex inland fisheries of India. The objective is to highlight how inland fisheries have been changing and the associated challenges for governance and tenure. The legal and policy contexts, within which fishing in rivers, wetlands and estuaries takes place, are described as well as the diversity of fishing activities and practices in the different environments found in India, which include inland capture fisheries, culture-based fisheries and freshwater aquaculture systems. Multiple drivers of change that affect inland fisheries are discussed from within the fisheries sector and from wider social, economic and environmental contexts. The ways in which formal and informal institutional arrangements and customary access regimes interact with each other are highlighted. The potential outcomes of institutional change and emerging policies for ecological sustainability, economic equity and social justice are discussed, with a focus on capture fisheries within India’s inland fisheries.

India has abundant water resources including rivers, canals, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, upland lakes, and floodplain wetlands covering over 5. [Author]8 percent of the country. [Author] These environments harbour a rich fish fauna of 1 035 species that constitutes the basis for the inland fisheries sector, which annually produces 2 144 452 tonnes of fish – if enhanced and culture-based fisheries are included – corresponding to 21 percent of total fish production. [Author] Rivers like the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Barak, alongside floodplain wetlands, play crucial roles, especially in the east and northeast. [Author] Lakes are abundant in upland areas. [Author] Reservoirs cover over 1 percent of India's land and hold untapped potential for fisheries development. [Author] Traditionally, fishing in inland water bodies has been a small-scale or subsistence activity. [Author] Fishing practices, crafts and gear used in inland fisheries are still traditional. [Author] Cooperative societies are present in reservoirs and wetlands giving fishers better bargaining power with traders and better prices for the fish. [Author] Inland fisheries are imperative for poverty alleviation, food security, gender empowerment, cultural services, ecosystem function, and biodiversity, and are important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. [Author] Important threats to inland fisheries include water scarcity, habitat loss, pollution, climate change and invasive species. [Author] However, several major river conservation programmes have been initiated. [Author] The collection of inland fishery catch statistics remains weak and production appears to be significantly under-reported in many states. [Author] A simplified method for defining water bodies and estimating catch is proposed and all States have been advised to follow the same definition for water bodies. [Author]

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.