By School of Environment, Resources and Development
July 5, 2025: The School of Environment, Resources and Development (SERD) at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) proudly highlights the recent publication by Ms. Sai Tang, a master’s graduate of the Gender and Development Studies (GDS) program under the Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS), and her supervisor, Prof. Kyoko Kusakabe, Professor and an expert on gender studies. Their paper, titled “Conflict Between Conservation and Livelihood: Gender-Specific Impacts of a Fishing Ban on Erhai Lake, China,” has been published in the esteemed journal Fisheries Management and Ecology (Wiley; CiteScore: 3.9, Impact Factor: 2).
This important work stems from Ms. Sai Tang’s master’s thesis, which examined the impacts of fishing bans on the livelihoods of indigenous fishing communities around Erhai Lake in Yunnan Province, China. Currently, Ms. Sai Tang serves as a Program Officer at the Belt and Road Research Center.
Conservation Measures and Gendered Livelihood Impacts
Fishing bans are widely used across the world as regulatory tools to support fishery management and environmental conservation. However, these interventions can have profound socio-economic repercussions, particularly on resource-dependent communities. The study underscores that while conservation efforts aim to protect ecosystems, they can inadvertently marginalize vulnerable groups.
In the case of Erhai Lake—a vital water body supporting over 620,000 residents and sustaining centuries-old fishing practices by the indigenous Bai ethnic community—conservation initiatives began in the 1990s, culminating in a total fishing ban in 2017 under China’s National Sustainable Development Strategies.
Key Findings: Intersection of Gender, Poverty, and Social Stress
The research revealed the critical gender-specific impacts of the fishing ban:
- The ban led to a significant drop in household income and women were more excluded from fishing activities. This heightened women’s burden to manage family finances, especially in poorer households with fewer alternative resources.
- Men fishers often turned to mahjong gambling to cope with stress during the ban, inadvertently increasing financial and emotional pressures on women.
- Poor women faced the heaviest burdens, experiencing sharper income losses and more pronounced household stress compared to better-off women.
These insights highlight that sustainable fisheries management must go beyond ecological concerns to incorporate gendered and intersectional perspectives. The study calls for targeted support for poorer women, who are often the most vulnerable and most deeply affected by such policies.
Championing Gender Analysis for Sustainable Development
Prof. Kyoko Kusakabe emphasized the importance of integrating gender-specific and intersectional analyses into fisheries policies to ensure that conservation does not come at the cost of marginalized groups’ well-being.
This work adds to SERD’s strong portfolio in advancing research on gender and natural resource management, reinforcing AIT’s role in contributing practical, socially inclusive solutions to global sustainability challenges.
Read the full paper here:
https://doi.org/10.1111/fme.70000
