fishing-for-influence-fisheries-science-and-evidence-i

This paper examines the models and assumptions of policy influence that have underpinned the research effort on Mekong capture fisheries, and presents alternative approaches for fisheries science to better engage in influencing policy. During the last decade there has been a concerted effort to research Mekong basin capture fisheries in an attempt to influence policy. Yet water management agendas have not changed, and the pace of hydropower development has accelerated. This presents a dilemma for fisheries science and research in its efforts to influence policy. The paper argues that addressing the neglect of capture fisheries in the Mekong is fundamentally a governance challenge of setting development values and pathways. Meeting such a challenge requires a democratising and civic science that broadens the decision‐making arena as much as it produces new evidence and arguments.