Freshwater fish provide the primary source of protein for more than 60 million residents of the Lower Mekong. Much of this resource derives not from the main stem of the Mekong River but from the thousands of far smaller water bodies that traverse the region. Smaller water bodies are essential for fisheries production, providing breeding and nursery habitat for a large proportion of artisanal and commercial fisheries. These water bodies are becoming increasingly fragmented by weirs, dikes, dams, road prisms, and associated water management structures, mostly associated with agricultural development and local flood control activities. These development activities provide productivity boosts for rice farmers but are impacting fisheries production, adversely impacting the communities reliant upon them for income and nutrition. Based on Strategy I) Securing the sustainability of fisheries to contribute to food security, poverty alleviation, and livelihood of people in the region; referred to the Strategy II) Supporting the sustainable growth of aquaculture to complement fisheries and contribute to food security, poverty alleviation, and livelihood of people in the region; Strategy III) Ensuring the food safety and quality of fish and fishery products for the Southeast Asian region, and VI) Empowering SEAFDEC to strengthen its roles in the region and to improve its services to Member Countries.

The November 2016 SIM provided funding support to Lower Mekong Fish Passage Conference in Vientiane, Lao PDR focused on the challenges of addressing fish passage at the planned Mekong River and major tributary hydropower facilities across the region (Myanmar, Viet Nam, and Cambodia). However, a consistent theme voiced by the more than 160 conference participants from 15 nations was the need to expand the inventory, restoration prioritization, and restorative of the thousands of existing barriers that fragment fish populations and, by extension, threaten local food security, across the Region. There was also a demonstrated need to establish fish passage demonstration sites in other countries to build regional momentum that can help to recover fisheries productivity on a broader catchment scale.

Established techniques exist to restore passage at many of these barriers, largely developed in Lao PDR. However, government agencies throughout the region have very limited technical capacity to conduct many of these activities. This Project supports the broader SIM effort to transfer knowledge to five Lower Mekong nations (Burma, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, and Thailand) regarding fish passage barrier inventory and prioritization processes, low-head fish passage design and construction, and post-construction fish passage facility monitoring.

On August 15, 2013, the DOI-International Technical Assistance Program (ITAP) entered into an Interagency Agreement (IAA) with USAID/RDMA, the stated purpose of which is for DOI-ITAP to “implement technical assistance activities that support Presidential Initiatives in global climate change (adaptation, clean energy, sustainable landscapes, and low emission development strategy), food security, and global health. DOI may also work in priority program areas of biodiversity, science and technology exchange, public-private partnerships, disaster assistance and risk reduction, economic growth, and good governance.”

DOI is a world leader in the management of natural resources. With its depth of applied knowledge, through the ITAP program, DOI provides technical assistance to countries around the globe in the areas of protected area management and conservation, fisheries, and water resource management. At the request of USAID/RDMA, DOI’s technical assistance enables the government-to-government capacity building of SEAFDEC (an intergovernmental organization) and the ASEAN Member States (AMSs).

The Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) is a non-profit intergovernmental organization established in 1967 to promote sustainable fisheries development in the Southeast Asian region. SEAFDEC currently comprises 11 Member Countries: Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. For almost 50 years SEAFDEC has been implementing activities to support its Member Countries in Southeast Asia as follows; 1) exploration of marine fishery resources and their utilization, 2) conservation and management of aquatic species under international concern, 3) sustainable aquaculture development, 4) fisheries post-harvest and safety of fish and fishery products, 5) promoting management for sustainable fisheries and addressing emerging international fisheries-related issues.

With reference to the 45^th Program Committee Meeting of SEAFDEC (45PCM), the project has already completed the Closed-out activities by inviting the participating countries related to Implementing the Lower Mekong Fish Passage Initiative in Cambodia, Thailand, and Viet Nam to attend the meeting and present on the progress in 2022. SEAFDEC agreed with the DOI-International Technical Assistance Program (ITAP) to conduct the activities in 2023–2024 with an unspent budget, which aims to enhance the human resources capacity of project participating counties to monitor the effectiveness of the fish passage system.

The ultimate outcomes of the project are:

1. Appropriate construction site selection for demonstration fish passage in Cambodia, Thailand, and Viet Nam
2. Demonstration of fish passage construction in Cambodia, Thailand, and Viet Nam
3. Distribution of demonstration fish passage technical information

The overall project outputs include:

1. Report of fish passage barrier inventories in Cambodia, Thailand, and Viet Nam.
2. Enhance the capacity of participants on GIS approaches to fish passage barrier inventory and Engineering design and construction procedures for Low-head fish passage.
3. Dissemination of project activities document in SEAFDEC publications and other media

The expected outputs of the activities in 2023–2024:

1. Skill and experience of inland fisheries researchers in the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of the fish passage system.
2. Baseline biology information, e.g., fish species, number and weight of fish size, fish egg sampled from fish passage.
3. Reference of the monitoring and evaluation report on the effectiveness of the fish passage system.
4. Information extension and communication materials including scientific reports, VDO clips, etc., disseminated to SEAFDEC Member Countries.

The overall description/framework of the project is referred to the report of the 45PCM. The framework in 2023 and 2024 is the collaborative activities with project participating countries to follow up activities to monitor the implementation of the fish passage by monitoring and gathering information. This follow-up activity was carried out in Thailand, Cambodia, and Viet Nam on the Monitoring and Evaluation of Fish Passage Efficiency to disseminate the result of follow-up activities to monitor the implementation of the fish passages in Thailand, Cambodia, and Viet Nam.

SEAFDEC/TD collaborated with the Department of Fisheries Thailand to conduct the Follow-up research activities to monitor the implementation of the fish passages in Thailand. The activity aims to follow up and monitor the post-construction of the fish passages in Huay Wang Chang weir, Sang Khom district, Udonthani province, Thailand. Researchers from the Department of Fisheries, Thailand, and SEAFDEC engineers collect data on the biological, environmental conditions, and socioeconomic of local fishers around the weir. The evaluation of fish passage efficiency focuses on maintaining low-head fish passes to restore fisheries connectivity at irrigation facilities, and weirs to facilitate the migration various of fish species to journey up and down in the lower Mekong basin in the initiative area will be reported.

SEAFDEC/TD collaborated with the Fisheries Administration, Cambodia to conduct the Site-visit activities to monitor the implementation of the fish passages in Cambodia. The activity aims to follow up and monitor the post-construction of four (4) fish passages in Cambodia, namely, 1) Kbal Hong fish passage (Stung Pursat province); 2) Srei Snom fish passage (Siem Reap province); 3) and 4) Romlech I and Romlech II fish passages (Pursat province). The main activities during the survey were observation and interviews with the local authorities regarding the present status of the fish passages utilization and monitoring, still images recording, and aerial view observations and recordings by a drone.

SEAFDEC/TD collaborated with the Department of Fisheries, Viet Nam to conduct the Site-visit activities to monitor the implementation of the fish passages in Viet Nam. The activity aims to follow up and monitor the post-construction of fish passages in Dak Lak and Kon Tum provinces, of Viet Nam. The main activities during the survey were observation and interviews with the local authorities regarding the present status of the fish passages utilization and monitoring, and still image recording. Aerial view observations and recordings by a drone, plans to be implemented under approval by the Department of Fisheries Viet Nam.

Follow-up activities to monitor the implementation of the post-construction of the fish passage in
Thailand:

Sub Act. 1.1: Meeting to develop a work plan with DOF Thailand (26 April 2023)

Sub Act. 1.2: The Preliminary survey to monitor implementation of the fish passages in Thailand (10–13 May 2023)

Sub Act. 1.3: The 1^st follow-up survey to monitor the function of the fish passage in Thailand (1–7 July 2023)

Sub Act. 1.4: The 2^nd follow-up survey to monitor the function of the fish passage in Thailand (Migratory fish sampling activity and Promotional materials production) (5–11 August 2023)

Follow-up activities to monitor the implementation of post-construction of the fish passages in
Cambodia

Sub Act. 2.1: Follow-up activities to monitor the functions of the fish passages in Cambodia (Promotional materials production) (25–29 July 2023)