Assam is endowed with copious aquatic wealth in the form of beels, swamps, ponds and rivers. The floodplain wetlands (beels) extending over one lakh hectare, constitute the most important fishery resource of the state. The beels are considered as one of the most productive ecosystems owing to their characteristic interactions between land and water system. These wetlands are the common property resource and under different management regimes. Livelihood of fishers’ family from time immemorial is dependent upon fishing in floodplain wetlands. Fishers include the actual fishermen belonging to the Schedule castes and the Maimal community of the district of Cachar. Apart from these communities other community and tribes also doing fishing in open access beel. There are about 1392 listed beels in Assam of which 423 are registered and remaining 969 are unregistered. Registered beel are under the administrative control of state mainly under revenue department, Assam Fisheries Development Corporation, local Panchayats. The management rights of registered beels were given on lease to the highest bidder (either individual or Fishermen Cooperative society). A large number of stakeholders are associated directly and indirectly with the beel, these include fishers, lessees, various state government departments, AFDC, financial institutions, research institutes, NGO’s etc. These wetlands are under various management regimes, i.e., private management (individuals and groups), fishers cooperative management, Community-based fisheries management (decentralized management, Government works as facilitator) and open access. Most of the unregistered beels are under open access. The adoption of conservation measures and sustainable production practices are embedded in Assam fishery rules 1953 (with amendments in 2005), which controls the beel fishery. This communication describes fisheries governance in the frame work of stakeholders’ mechanism of access to utilize the floodplain wetland resources for outcomes (positive or negative). This communication also discuss about the sharing arrangement in the private managed wetlands
