Improving fishers' livelihoods through integrated inland fisheries management in Nam Xouang Reservoir, Lao PDR

Reservoir fisheries connect freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem function with food security and rural livelihoods in Lao PDR. Previous work in Nam Xouang Reservoir documented habitat conservation, co-management, women's fish processing, and ecosystem-based assessment separately, but their combined biological and livelihood implications had not been synthesized. This case study integrates evidence collected during 2017-2026: catch and biological monitoring (2017-2019), participatory habitat mapping (2018), women's processing records (2019-2022), an Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management assessment with 25 stakeholders (2023), a socioeconomic survey of 48 fishing households (2025), and capacity building (2026). Monitored catches contained about 20 fish species. Deep water, year-round inundation, aquatic vegetation, and reported spawning, feeding, and nursery functions guided selection of a community-agreed no-fishing area, which was marked with 28 buoys; regulations were disseminated at 10 locations. Social, governance, and stakeholder EAFM domains were good in both districts, whereas habitat, economy, and managed fish resources remained moderate. Fisheries were the main occupation of 79.17% of surveyed households, while unstable income, limited capital, weak markets, and low diversification persisted. A 12-member processing group, including 10 women, demonstrated the potential of value addition. The evidence supports an integrated pathway combining fish and habitat monitoring, freshwater habitat protection, co-management, gender-responsive enterprise support, finance, markets, and adaptive evaluation. The findings establish management priorities rather than causal ecological impacts because the datasets were non-experimental, collected in different years, and lacked continuous limnological time series.