Navigating customary law and state fishing legislation to create effective fisheries governance in India (original) (raw)
Related papers
2010
This version woefully remains a work in progress. I had hoped that the information presented here would be supplemented with detailed analyses. Unfortunately, time and poor health have impeded my work. Regardless, I have decided to make the information in the report available for a number of reasons. The context is rapidly changing in East Godavari. It may be useful for other researchers to have some comparative information. The website for IDPAD no longer exists which means that the original report is no longer available. My main objective is to give a voice the fishers' problems, as they see them.
Marine Fisheries: Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India
The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India, 2024
India’s marine fisheries laws are challenged by complex and dynamic fishers, fishing practices and the marine environment. The country has done well to simultaneously oversee different spaces at the state and national levels, but research on the ground demonstrates that further legal stratification is needed. Laws in India which concern the oceans are oriented towards capitalists furthering the economic growth of the country, while small-scale fishers who are the majority users of the oceans, function as communities interested in their livelihoods and ecological sustainability. These deep disconnects have given rise to communities taking to forming informal legal institutions at the village level, which address their concerns and make sense to them. India’s legal machinery requires a considerable shift to promote the concerns of its fishing citizens, and meet global concerns about climate change, ecological sustainability and providing livelihoods to those living in poverty.
Inter-Sectoral Fisheries Governance Issues and Solutions on the Cauvery River, India
2016
Home to some of the world’s most iconic rivers and large numbers of lakes, ponds, wetlands and canals, India is the third largest producer of inland fish in the world. The freshwater resources of India feature high biodiversity and endemism, collectively threatened by increasing numbers of invasive species, pollution, water diversion, fragmentation, and habitat loss. Fishers and local communities that rely on inland water resources in India represent an equally wide-ranging human landscape, speaking over 300 languages and coming from diverse religious, economic, and social backgrounds. These communities face severe challenges regarding resource access and livelihood security in a complex governance system. In South India, numerous fishing communities manage to combine traditional and formal management techniques in various ways, including through panchayat-style decision-making processes, government programs, and community cooperatives. We discuss the fishery characteristics, govern...
Natural Resources Forum, 2007
This article attempts to analyse the social interface between formal institutions and local fishing communities along the Pamba-Achankovil River Basin in Kerala, India. It examines primarily the nature of the relationship between state agencies and traditional fishing communities in the context of (i) enforcing certain formal regulations of resource use and (ii) implementing resource enhancement programmes. The article also analyses the nature of social interfaces that emerge when local level formal organizations, such as cooperatives and gram panchayats, take up resource management or community welfare schemes on behalf of the traditional fisherfolk in the study region. Social interfaces can be understood in terms of social processes, such as cooperation, accommodation and conflicts between various actors involved in fisheries management. The article is based on ethnographic fieldwork. Interview guides and focus group discussions were the primary tools of data collection. The findings show that the relationships between formal institutions and traditional riverine fishing communities lack mutual trust. Conflicts between fishing communities and state agencies emerge when the formal institutions threaten or contradict those elements of local culture that sustain livelihood needs. Conflicts and discontent with a particular formal institution can also lead to the modification or violation of coexisting institutional arrangements.
As a commons institution, the padu system in Vallarpadam Island, Cochin, Kerala, defines the group of rights holders and resource boundaries and fishing sites. It is caste-specific, gear-specific (stake-nets) and species specific (shrimp). As used in Vallarpadam, and elsewhere in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, padu is characterized by the use of lottery for rotational access. The institution functions in providing equitable access, collective social responsibility, and rule-making and conflict resolution. The emergence of the institution in the study area is a response to change in markets and legislation in the 1970s. It may also be seen a response of fishing communities to keep their options open, that is, to be resilient. r
Understanding fisheries conflicts in the southa legal pluralist perspective
Society and Natural Resources, 2005
Fifty years after the launching of a blue revolution in the capture fisheries of developing countries, conflicts between small-scale and industrialized fishers continue to be vehement. Our understanding of backgrounds, however, lags behind. This article seeks to give content to the issue of conflict in the context of marine capture fisheries. By connecting the conflicts that are taking place to the livelihoods of smallscale and industrialized fishers and to their varied social and legal systems, a deeper understanding of the problem is achieved. According to the legal pluralist perspective, conflicts of the kind considered are related to the fact that participants adhere to different sea tenure systems, the tenets of which vary substantially. The perspective is illustrated by means of an example from the Coromandel Coast, India.
Development and Change, 2003
The spatial dimension of law is a neglected field of study. This article responds to suggestions that have been made to develop a 'geography of law', and investigates expressions of State-centred law regarding common pool natural resources. It asks how variations in law between lower-level territorial units are to be explained in situations where patterns of resource exploitation are similar and the overarching State proclaims an even approach. To explore these issues, the article focuses on a case study of Tamil Nadu marine fisheries. Comparing the reality of State regulation in different coastal districts, the author argues that the State occupies a relatively weak position vis-a`-vis user groups, and strives to maximize its legitimacy by adapting to local political circumstances. The end result is a legal patchwork with strong spatial connotations. A first version of this article was presented to the 13th International Congress of the Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism in Chiang Mai, 7-10 April 2002. It is based on fieldwork carried out in India from 1994 to 1996, and on subsequent field visits. I would like to thank S. Sanmuganantham, who made an important contribution to the research; Derek Johnson and two anonymous referees of Development and Change for their useful comments on a previous version; and UvA Kaartenmakers (the University of Amsterdam cartographers) for drawing the map.
Governance of marine fisheries in India: Special reference to Tamil Nadu
2016
Fisheries contribute significantly to India’s national economy (1.21 % of total GDP and 5.3 % of agricultural GDP) and provide a livelihood to an estimated 10 million people. Marine fisheries has undergone a perceptible change due to continuous increase in fishing activities involving introduction of different advanced fishing technologies, gears and fishing fleets. This sustained increase in fishing activities coupled with industrialization has further attributed to the profound impact on the fishery resources affecting the sustainability of the same. This paper attempts to critically analyze the marine fisheries of India with special reference to Tamil Nadu, with an aim to explore appropriate management options for ensuring ecological integrity, better conservation and sustainability of the resources and also livelihood security for the coastal fisher folk. International issues like crossing maritime border (Indo-Srilankan border) have also been discussed.
Protections for small-scale fisheries in India: A study of India's monsoon fishing ban
The Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines: Global Implementation, 2017
In India, fisheries governance suffers from weak regulation and poor compliance, with a primary exception – a collection of coastal seasonal fishing bans or closures. Much other fisheries policy (e.g., fuel subsidies or incentives for deep-sea fishing) promotes increasing production over conservation. The benefits of such measures have generally accrued to owners of industrial and semi-industrial operations , often at the expense of the small-scale fisheries sector. Viewed critically, Indian fisheries governance can be described as out of compliance with the FAO's new Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (the SSF Guidelines). In this chapter, we analyze the coastal seasonal fishing bans in light of the SSF Guidelines and, in particular, the provisions for sustainable resource management (Section 5b of the Guidelines). Details of the monsoon bans have varied by time and place, but a diverse group of stakeholders have generally accepted the principle of a seasonal ban. However, there remains a complicated history of policy, legal, and social contestations – in short, politics – around the particulars of the bans, which we review. We also consider the specific case of Karnataka state. We find that weak scientific arguments generate a contested ecological justification and reduced support for seasonal closures. We suggest the monsoon bans are better justified when framed as safeguards for the small-scale fisheries sector. The SSF Guidelines provide a normative foundation for strengthening the monsoon fishing bans as part of dynamic fisheries management to privilege and protect India's small-scale fisher communities.
Journal of Legal Pluralism, 2019
The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF Guidelines) introduce a human rights framework for fisheries management and development, suggesting an inclusive approach that embraces a range of rights, regimes and interests. These reflect diverse systems of law, values and norms, straddling both customary and statutory systems of governance and tenure. The interface between these different systems poses questions about the extent to which they are reconcilable with a human rights-based approach. The latter originates in the domain of transnational law, which has been increasing in scope and importance in recent decades. How transnational law interacts with and affects various law systems is an empirical question, to which much scholarly attention has gone. The normative question that emerges, however, is how to balance the recognition of universal human rights with respect for historically-evolved and locally legitimate, customary law in case of conflicts between them. This paper investigates some of the tensions and opportunities that arise in the meeting of the SSF Guidelines and customary sociolegal systems, paying special attention to four important fields of overlap and possibly contention: tenure, gender, child labour and markets. Co-management platforms are suggested to be the ideal meeting ground for negotiating acceptable hybrids and designing so-called interlegalities.