Prince of Songkla University’s Department of Economics, with support from EEPSEA, conducted a policy dialogue on July 29, 2014 on sustainable lake management focusing on the results of two EEPSEA-funded research projects on the sustainable management of Songkhla Lake: Pollution Control and Sustainable Fisheries Management in Southern Songkhla Lake Thailand and Response of Fishermen to Fishing Control Policies in Southern Songkhla Lake, Thailand: A Field Experiment. Representatives of policymaking government agencies and community leaders representing the interests of fishermen attended the event.
Taking off from the results of the EEPSEA-funded research, the meeting aimed to serve as a venue to further discuss appropriate solutions to the issues of pollution and fishing control in Southern Songkhla Lake. The participants supported the result of the research that the co-management option is more effective than external regulation citing a community in Ban Ta Khao in Ranod, Songkhla which sets the limit of the size of the fishnet for giant freshwater prawn fishing. The rule was found to have a strong influence because of the use of social sanction as punishment for violators.
After the dialogue, participants better appreciated the use of economic tools for environment and natural resource management, especially those who initially shared their uncertainty on how economics can input into lake management policymaking.