Impact of destructive fishing practices on fishermen livelihoods in District Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan

Abstract

This study attempted to find out the impact of destructive fishing practices on livelihoods of smallscale inland fishers for the years 2001 and 2016, in district Charsadda, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Three types of fishers were selected for the study i.e. farming fishers, fishing farmers and occasional fishers, through two stage cluster sampling. Livelihoods asset pentagons were used for the analysis. Considerable decline in physical and economic assets were noted among all the three types of fishers, whereas the total value of livelihood assets for farming fishers deteriorated from 0.40 in 2001 to 0.33 in 2016. The study recommends that concerned authorities should take initiative to create awareness regarding conservation of fishes and observe strict implementation of the fishery laws and regulations.