A collective floodplain aquaculture (FPA) management approach, developed in the Daudkandi sub-district of Bangladesh, has become popular among local landowners of floodplains for managing aquacultural operation in their lands. Taking inspiration from a small-scale FPA formed by landowners, an NGO modernized the approach when it collaborated with the community in applying the management approach in a larger floodplain in 1996. Since then, the success of the early FPA resulted in proliferation of more NGO-collaborated FPAs and independently-formed FPAs. In this paper, we try to find how this management system has evolved over time in both types of FPAs. By studying 15 FPAs selected from five districts, we tried to identify the modifications in organizational and operational aspects of these FPAs. In the Daudkandi region, we observed that, as the realization of profitability increased among the landowners, they not only formed new FPAs by themselves but also, in some FPAs, tried to confine the rising benefits among themselves by excluding non-landowners' participants. We also found the emergence of professional aquacultural managers who man-250 Yamin Bayazid et al. age the aquacultural operation of an FPA by leasing it from FPA's management committee. We conclude that, in the Daudkandi sub-district, the FPAs evolved along the way as users adaptively responded to the problem of lower profits by innovating lease-based management. In other parts of the country, where the FPA trend is relatively new and the FPA management committees were found to be still running the aquacultural operation instead of leasing it, the direction of the evolution should be carefully examined in the context of the community resource management.

This study measures efficiency of collective floodplain aquaculture enterprises (FPAs) practiced in the floodplains composed of private lands in Bangladesh using data envelopment analysis (DEA). We concentrate on a management system that was initially developed by landowners in the Daudkandi sub-district in 1984. With gradual spread of this management system two important internal variations have emerged in terms of (1) organizational composition that resulted from the investment-based participation of an NGO, and (2) mode of managing aquaculture operation that resulted from leasing out the aquaculture operation instead managing it by themselves in some FPAs. Taking consideration of these two variations, and using four inputs and one output, we measure the technical, scale, mix and overall efficiency of 15 FPAs selected from five districts. While 11 FPAs are technically efficient, only six are overall efficient.On average, NGO-collaborated FPAs (NFPAs) are more efficient (78.27%) than landownersmanaged independent FPAs (IFPAs) (75.96%). However, IFPAs are only found in the Daudkandi region, where there are more efficient IFPAs than NFPAs. On the other hand, while lease-based operations show better average efficiency (79.56%), self-managed operations have more efficient units. We also find that the intensive use of inputs in most older FPAs does not make them more efficient, despite their higher fish yield, than relatively newer FPAs. Given the poverty, food security and nutrition linkage of floodplain aquaculture and continuous attempts to increase fish yield, the FPAs along with development partners and government agencies, should take account of efficiency-related aspects in policies and practice.

Water policy-making requires the dedicated involvement of all stakeholders, but difficulties remain for the community sector. This study aims to examine the critical challenges of community involvement in water policy decision-making in Thailand. Both qualitative and quantitative methods used in this research project consisted of 39 interviews with informants from a variety of interested parties and 403 community members from around the East Coast River Basin in Thailand completing a survey questionnaire. The results have shown that although mechanisms to enable community involvement in decision-making, such as public consultation and water-related committees, exist, problems remain within the community sector. The critical challenges lie in the opportunities of being consulted and the sharing of power in water policy-making. Although the networks are important, at the same time, they are also obstructing the community sectors in linking their requirements to a final decision, as well as dealing with politics, policy-makers, and staff who organized the process. Therefore, the government should further develop water committee mechanisms by setting up a comprehensive yet practically easy consultation process so that new or inexperienced community members get an opportunity to practice and learn the vital elements necessary in water policy-making. Further research should be conducted in order to compare the opportunities in water decision-making between communities in rural and urban areas. Studies at the local government level should be carried out, with results used as a mechanism to enable community involvement at higher levels of water policy decision-making.

Water policy decision-making is hindered by limited involvement and understanding of the issues by the affected community members. This study demonstrates that implementing a serious game concept to explain Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) can improve a community’s knowledge and skill in water policy decision-making. The authors developed a tool called SEA Game and Simulation using the MIT App Inventor and participatory techniques. The developed tool was implemented among 39 community members in the East Coast River Basin of Thailand. Key findings indicated a significant improvement in the participants’ knowledge of SEA and skill in water policy decision-making. Results from implementing the tool were dependent on the background of the participants and the context of the events. Further studies related to developing sustainable measures from SEA in community sectors should be considered.

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