Integrated Assessment of Indonesian River Fishery Reserves - Part 1 AN INTEGRATED ASSESSMENT OF INDONESIAN RIVER FISHERY RESERVES. PART 1. INTRODUCTION AND STUDY DESIGN. By: Hoggarth, D.D. 1 , S. Koeshendrajana 2 , M. Aeron-Thomas 1 , C. Garaway 1 , A.S. Halls 1 , Z. Nasution 3 , Samuel 3 , and A. Sarnita 2 . Indonesian Fisheries Research Journal. Vol. 9, No.1: 1-6. 2003. ABSTRACT This paper (Part 1 of 4) introduces a series of studies undertaken in three Indonesian provinces – Jambi, South Sumatra and West Kalimantan – to identify ecological, social and institutional criteria for the selection and beneficial use of ‘harvest reserves’ in tropical river fisheries, and to develop guidelines for their management. In this DFID-funded project, investigations included initial reviews of reserves in the three provinces, 13-14 month monitoring programmes of both biological and socio-economic data at ten selected study sites, and institutional analyses at eight sites. These studies are described in the following papers. This introductory paper describes the characteristics of the study sites and explains the rationale for their selection and the design of these studies. The study sites differed ecologically, physically, socially and in the wider institutional environment under which the fisheries were managed. Comparisons between the selected reserves and ‘control’ sites thus required a qualitative, integrated, holistic approach, as used in the following Parts 2 to 4 of this paper. Keywords: protected areas, co-management, floodplain river fisheries, experimental design, survey methodologies INTRODUCTION Protected areas, reserves, parks and the like are increasingly being used as nature conservation tools in rivers and other ecosystems around the world (IUCN, 1994). In Indonesia, the provincial Fisheries Services are establishing new reserves in several river systems, hoping they will stop the decline in inland fish catches. Compared with marine ecosystems (see e.g. Alcala and Russ, 1990; Carr and Reed, 1993; Dugan and Davis, 1993; Polacheck, 1990; Roberts and Polunin, 1991 and Shackell and Willison, 1995), relatively little is known about the benefits of reserves in tropical floodplain river systems, or about the design criteria that would encourage their successful implementation. A series of research projects funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand since 1992 has investigated the dynamics of these floodplain river fishery systems. This research has promoted the increased use of ‘harvest reserves’ as one of the most promising management tools for such river fisheries, and the 'co-management' 4 of these resources by local people, government and other 1 MRAG Ltd, 47 Prince’s Gate, London SW7 2QA, U.K. 2 Central Research Institute for Fisheries (CRIFI), Jln K.S. Tubun, Petamburan VI, Jakarta 10260, Indonesia. 3 Research Station for Freshwater Fisheries (RIFF), Mariana, Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia 4 Co-management is defined as 'the sharing of responsibility and authority between the government and local fishers/community to manage a fishery or other natural resource' (Pomeroy and Williams, 1994).