Village-level capture fisheries are widely recognized as vital components in rural economies and represent a vital part of food-security for subsistence-oriented rural dwellers in Lao PDR. Almost no temporary, or permanent, water body remains isolated from invasion by aquatic organisms including hundred's of different fish species, crabs, snails, prawns, frogs and aquatic insects. With an often detailed indigenous knowledge of seasonal movements, spawning locations and feeding requirements, Lao villagers target aquatic organisms in their various habitats using a diverse range of home-made and purchased fishing gears. Aquatic products form essential ingredients in many traditional rural food preparations and are often preserved by fermenting or drying during periods of excess harvest.

• Fishing Gears
• Fish abundance and declines
• Disposal of the fish
• Anecdotal evidence on basic fish ecology
• Diversity of livelihoods
• Fisher movement outside village area
• Subsistence and commercial fishing

As with other SE Asian countries, in recent times the various aquatic ecosystems of the Lao PDR have been placed under increasing pressures from both endogenous and exogenous sources. Prominent among the endogenous pressures has been an expansion of the rural population, accompanied by an inevitable intensification of capture fishery activities. Although subsistence level fishing still remains the preserve of many rural Lao, semi-commercial and commercial fishing groups are becoming increasingly common in some areas. Better transport facilities, and the availability of ice to reduce product spoilage, have opened up both internal and export marketing possibilities. Modern fishing gears such as monofilament gillnets have improved fishing efficiency, and the occasional use of destructive methods such as fishing with bombs or poisons have undoubtedly contributed to an overall decline in the resource.

In parallel with endogenous impacts have been the various exogenous factors that have placed pressures on indigenous fishery resources. The regulation of natural waterways, and other massive manipulations of the environment for irrigation and hydropower generation, have brought about irreversible alterations to many aquatic habitats, blocked migratory pathways to historical spawning and feeding grounds and caused dramatic shifts in comparatively stable species compositions. Changes in upland and lowland agricultural patterns, a reduction in dry-season stream flows, caused partly by the logging of remote catchment areas, have also negatively impacted on indigenous fish populations.