2021-03-31-accounts - The Mahseer Trust

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Trustees’ Annual Report for the period

		Period start date	Period start date	Period start date			Period end date	Period end date	Period end date
From					To
	1st		April	2020		31st		March	2021

SECTION A: REFERENCE AND ADMINSTRATION DETAILS

Charity name	Charity name	The Mahseer Trust	The Mahseer Trust	The Mahseer Trust
Other names charity is known by		N/A
Registered charity number (if any)		1167056
Charity’s principal address		C/O Freshwater Biological Association
		River Laboratory, East Stoke
		Wareham
		Dorset, United Kingdom
		BH20 6BB

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
Trustee name	Office (if any)			Dates acted, if not for the whole year	Mechanism of appointment
Ian Pett	Chair (01/04/2020 – 31/07/2020) Treasurer (08/10/2020 – Present)			Whole year	Majority vote of trustees
Adrian Pinder	Dir of Research (01/04/2020 – 31/07/2020) Acting Chair (01/08/2020 – 07/10/2020) Chair (08/10/2020 – Present)			Whole year	Majority vote of trustees
Derek D’Souza	India Regional Lead			Whole year	Majority vote of trustees
Andrew Harrison	Dir of Marketing and Comms / Acting Treasurer (01/04/2020 – 07/10/2020) Secretary (08/10/2020 – Present)			Whole year	Majority vote of trustees

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any (For example, any custodian trustees)
Name			Dates acted, if not for the whole year
N/A

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Names and addresses of advisors (Optional information)
Type of advisor Name	Address
Freshwater ecosystem services Dr Mark Everard	Associate Professor of Ecosystem Services, Universityof the West of England(UWE Bristol)

Name of Chief Executive or names of senior staff members	(Optional information)
Steve Lockett (08/10/2020 – Present)

SECTION B: STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT


Names and addresses of advisors (Optional information)
Type of advisor		Name		Address
Freshwater ecosystem services		Dr Mark Everard		Associate Professor of Ecosystem Services, Universityof the West of England(UWE Bristol)

Name of Chief Executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Steve Lockett (08/10/2020 – Present)

SECTION B:	STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Description of the charity’s trusts
Type of governing document (e.g. Trust Deed, Constitution)			Constitution, last amended 12/05/2016
How the charity is constituted (e.g. Trust, Association, Company)			Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO)
Trustee selection methods (e.g. appointed by, elected by)			Majority vote by existing trustees

Additional governance issues (Optional information)
Youmay chooseto include additional information, where relevant, about: ● policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees; ● the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works; ● relationship with any related parties; ● trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.			The charity is run entirely on a voluntary basis, with no paid employees. The organisational structure comprises a number of positions: ● Trustees(‘Members’ of the CIO) Responsible for management of the charity and all decisions. Only trustees having voting rights at board level. ● Officers Support the charity’s objectives and closely involved with planning, but no voting rights at board level. ● Advisors Support the charity’s objectives and provide advice on planning and other matters, but no voting rights at board level. ● Patrons Support the charity’s objectives and assist with raising the profile of Mahseer Trust, but no voting rights at board level. ● Honorary Members Formally recognised by the trustees as contributing significantly to the charity’s objectives, but no voting rights at board level. ● Supporters Individuals who pay an annual or one-off (lifetime) subscription to the charity to support the charity’s objectives, but no voting rights at board level. Trustees receive a ‘Trustee Induction Pack’, including: ● MT Governing Document

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● MT Data Protection Policy ● MT Policy on the Acceptance and Refusal of Gifts and Donations ● MT Trustee Code of Governance ● MT Conflict of Interest Policy ● MT Vulnerable People Policy ● Charity Commission ‘The Essential Trustee’ ● Charity Commission guidance on Public Benefit ● MT Trustee Declaration (Sign and return) ● MT Trustee Induction Table (Sign and return)

SECTION C:	OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES	OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

Summary of the Objects of the charity set out in its Governing Document.		The Objects of the CIO are, for the public benefit, to advance education, and environmental protection and improvement; (a) in countries where mahseer species are present by promoting, sustaining and increasing individual and collective knowledge and understanding of mahseer species, and skills and expertise in conservation and aquaculture; (b) in the wider world, to carry out and contribute to research to add to the collective knowledge and understanding of the mahseer species, their life cycle, habitat and their conservation; (c) to contribute to the education and development of young people by training them in conservation; (d) to contribute to the conservation of mahseer species in their natural environment and to encourage and assist international knowledge transfer.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these Objects.		With reference to the key objectives defined above: Capacity building ● April 2020: Special Board Meeting to discuss 'way ahead' for Mahseer Trust following discussions between Steve Lockett (MT Officer), Adrian Pinder and Ian Pett. Considering ways to streamline operations and involve more from within mahseer range countries. ● October 2020: Board approved the creation of the post of Executive Director and appointed Steve Lockett to the post. ● March 2021: Appointed Paromita Ray as Communications Officer. ● Ongoing: Discussions with interested parties to reinvigorate Mahseer Trust India and establish Mahseer Trust Nepal. Research ● December 2020 (ongoing): Discussions with local field researchers in Goa, and other neighbouring regions of south

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India, to study the fragile Western Ghats hill streams, formulate a project to conserve mahseer habitat (and for multiple freshwater species), and establish an education centre.

January 2021 (ongoing): Hump-backed mahseer field studies in Kerala, India.
Education and outreach
September - December 2020: Steve Lockett worked in partnership with Gopakumar Menon of Nityata River Otter Conservancy and Sneha Dharwadkar and Anuja Mital of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises of India to create an online education forum.
Throughout the year, Steve Lockett as MT Officer continued to post updates and news on social media platforms, send newsletters to those with interest and worked with Wikipedia, India Biodiversity Portal and Fishbase to update listings on mahseer species’ identities, distributions and threats.
● With remote conferencing to the fore due to the pandemic, team members gave keynote, closing or commentary talks at the following webinars: o Zoological Survey of India freshwater invasive species o Nepal Hydroengineering College fish passes o Nepal National Conference on Zoology o Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research (India) o Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies biodiversity
o St Albert's College (Kochi, India) freshwater biodiversity o Pokhara Forestry College World Otter Day o Kerala University biodiversity on World Fisheries Day o World Fish Migration Day (multiple events) o UN Economic Commission transboundary rivers o Mekong sedimentation and pollution o Indian National Biodiversity Conference o Centre for Education and Environment (India) water policy

International knowledge transfer

April and May 2020: Steve Lockett and Adrian Pinder co-hosted a series of virtual meetings to discuss the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions upon river habitats and associated

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	biodiversity. Attendees represented and presented on issues from: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (report via Malaysia), India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, plus a report from Vietnam. ● May 2020: Meeting to discuss investigation of mahseer species and distribution in Myanmar, and how to create a template for studies across all range countries. Attended by Steve Lockett, Adrian Pinder and Mark Everard from MT, along with representatives of Flora and Fauna International, Myanmar Fly Fishing Project and WWF-Myanmar. ● May 2020 (ongoing): Working with Fisheries Conservation Foundation to create International Joint Partnerships for Mahseer Conservation (IJPMCs). Bodies with expertise across a range of fields to discuss how to approach common issues across Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand. We confirm the Trustees have had regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on Public Benefit

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
Youmay chooseto include further statements, where relevant, about: ● policy on grant making; ● policy programme related investment; ● contribution made by volunteers.	N/A

SECTION D: ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

	Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year	Scientific papers ● Adrian C. Pinder, Rajeev Raghavan, J. Robert Britton, Steven J. Cooke. (2020)COVID-19 and biodiversity: The paradox of cleaner rivers and elevated extinction risk to iconic fish species. Aquatic Conservation 30(6), 1061 – 1062. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aqc.3416 ● Adrian C. Pinder, Rajeev Raghavan, Shannon D. Bower, J. Robert Britton. (2020)Length-weight relationships of two conservation- concern mahseers (Teleostei: Cyprinidae: Tor) of the river Cauvery, Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 12 (10). https://threatenedtaxa.org/index.php/JoTT/article/view/6201/6 913

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		● Adrian C. Pinder, Rajeev Raghavan, J. Robert Britton. (September 2020)From scientific obscurity to conservation priority: Research on angler catch rates is the catalyst for saving the hump-backed mahseerTor remadevii from extinction.Aquatic Conservation 30(9), 1809 - 1815. https://doi.org/10.1002/aqc.3335 ● WWF Forgotten Fishes (February 2021) https://wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/world_s_forgot ten_fishes__report_final__1.pdf

SECTION E:	FINANCIAL REVIEW

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves.		The Mahseer Trust maintains an operational reserve of £5,000 (five thousand pounds), which is deemed sufficient to meet any terminal liabilities that might arise on the closure of the Trust. These funds are held in a bank account. Future levels of reserves will be determined in accordance with any changes in the Trust's liabilities arising from changes in its levels of activity and expenditure.
Details of any funds materially in deficit		N/A

Further financial review details (Optional		information)
Youmay chooseto include additional information, where relevant about: ● the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising); ● how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity; ● investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.		Both income and expenditure on activities were limited in 2020-21 by the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The CIO’s income for the year totalled £742, with £420 coming from new Support Subscriptions and £322 claimed as Gift Aid on Subscriptions and Donations made in this and previous years. Expenditure totalled £6,206. £4,823 was spent on Conservation projects in India, and £1,075 on Outreach activities in India. £308 was spent on Administration and Miscellaneous activities. Funds held at the end of the reporting year totalled £24,037, well above our operational reserve.

SECTION F:	OTHER OPTIONAL INFORMATION

N/A

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SECTION G: DECLARATION

The trustees below declare that they have approved the trustees report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees.

The trustees below declare that they have approved the trustees report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees.	The trustees below declare that they have approved the trustees report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees.	The trustees below declare that they have approved the trustees report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees.
	Trustee 1	Trustee 2
Signatures
Full names	Dr Andrew Harrison	Dr Adrian Pinder
Position	Secretary	Chair
Date	14/01/2022	14/01/2022

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Charity Name No (if any) The Mahseer Trust 1167056 Receipts and Payments Accounts CC16a Period start date Period end date For the period from To 01/04/2020 31/03/2021

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Section A Receipts and Payments
Unrestricted Endowment
Restricted funds Total funds Last year
funds funds
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Donations - - - - 1,686
Supporter subscriptions 420 - - 420 19
Reimbursement 322 - - 322 -
Income - - - - 10,532
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total (Gross income for AR) 742 - - 742 12,237
A2 Asset and investment sales
- - - -
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total receipts 742 - - 742 12,237
A3 Payments
Marketing - - - - -
Administration 270 - - 270 -
Conservation 4,823 - - 4,823 3,649
Outreach 1,075 - - 1,075 397
Miscellaneous 38 - - 38 -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
Sub total 6,206 - - 6,206 4,046
A4 Asset and investment purchases
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - - -
Total payments 6,206 - - 6,206 4,046
Net of receipts/(payments) - 5,464 - - - 5,464 8,191
A5 Transfers between funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 29,501 - - 29,501 21,310
Cash funds this year end 24,037 - - 24,037 29,501
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

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Unrestricted Endowment
Categories Details Restricted funds
funds funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Lloyds Bank 23,513 - -
PayPal 524 - -
- - -
Total cash funds 24,037 - -
(Agree balances with R&P account(s)) OK OK OK
Unrestricted Restricted funds Endowment
funds funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Fund to which asset Current value
Details belongs Cost (optional) (optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which asset Current value
Details belongs Cost (optional) (optional)
B4 Assets retained for the - -
charity’s own use - -
- -
- -
- -
Fund to which Amount due When due (optional)
Details liability relates (optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
-
-
Signature Print Name Date of approval
Ian Pett
16/07/2021
(Treasurer)
Signed by two trustees on behalf of all
the trustees
Adrian Pinder
20/07/2021
(Chair)
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