ABSTRACT
Modification of rivers dates from the earliest days of human settlement on the floodplains of the Nile, Indus, and Mesopotamian river systems and has increased steadily throughout history with the occupation of the valleys of most great rivers. Modifications have also occurred in tropical floodplains where removal of gallery forest, even from equatorial rainforest rivers such as the Amazon or the Zaire, has altered the structure and ecology of the aquatic system. Fisheries on unmodified floodplains tend to be associated more with poorer economies and thus with food production. This chapter addresses fishing practices as they have evolved in floodplain rivers. Fisheries management in rivers therefore requires a compromise whereby present trends toward the reduction of system diversity and quality are reversed while conserving the rights of other industrial, domestic, and agricultural users. This implies an alternative approach to eco-development such as that termed reform sustainable redevelopment by H. A. Regier and their group.
