By Papri Sri Raman, IANS
Chennai : Fishing communities in India’s coastal areas are upset by the ministry of environment and forests’ call for experts to help prepare an Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) scheme under World Bank guidelines.
The government of India has, through the ministry’s website, invited “eligible consultant/s to register their interest in one or more components to support the preparation of the World Bank-assisted ICZM project”.
The fishing communities say they have been largely left out of the consultation process and were “not invited” at a yearend Mumbai meeting, and only compliant villages were allowed to attend.
“It is time we mounted a national level protest, questioning the legitimacy of supporting such a project when the idea of ‘management’ is being promoted by the World Bank,” says Gilbert Rodrigo of the Tamil Nadu, Puducherry Fisher People’s Federation (TPFF) from the southern districts.
According to a government survey in 2005, there are 3,200 recognised fishing villages, each with more than a thousand people involved in fisheries, all along India’s 7,600-km coastline.
More than a 10 million people work in the fishing industry, generating exports worth Rs.80 billion every year.
But only about 86 people were called to the Mumbai meet, of which 69 came from Tamil Nadu, with the ministry being in the hands of leaders of the DMK, which rules in the southern state and is a coalition partner of the central government. The charges are they were from villages that benefited from the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation’s activities.
Bangalore-based Kalpavriksh was not invited, neither was Equations, another NGO active among fishing communities.
Harekrishna Debnath, convenor of the National Coastal Protection Campaign, says: “In spite of being the chairman of the National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF), I was not invited. Even from Tamil Nadu, the South Indian Federation of Fishermen’s Societies and the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) were left out.”
Other states that enjoy a long coastline like Gujarat, West Bengal and Goa were left out or were insignificantly represented.
Asks an agitated N.D. Koli, general secretary, NFF: “How was this a national level discussion then?”
The NFF, which has been spearheading the protest against the change to ICZM from the existing Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ set up in 1991) since August 2007, says it is a government attempt to “remove fishermen from traditional livelihood territories and bring in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), tourist resorts and ports all along India’s coastline”.
The ministry has now invited “experts and organisations” to chalk out “methodology for identification and mapping of the ecologically sensitive areas in the coastal zones and for national institution building and capacity strengthening on ICZM”.
The ministry has called for expertise “for development of procurement and financial management systems for the ICZM project within (the framework of the) MoEF and the state agencies”.
It has also called for consultants on the “development of a communication strategy for the ICZM project”, for the “development of an environment and social management framework” and for experts to monitor the “management effectiveness of coastal zone environment projects”.
The selection of consultants will be done in accordance with the accepted procedures and guidelines of the World Bank and/or the government of India, the advertisement says.
Fishing communities are especially worried by a new ICZM concept, the”setback line” which could be drawn anywhere on the shoreline and bypass earlier norms that restricted activities within 1,000 m of shoreline even while allowing traditional fishing.
The ICZM has been drafted on the basis of recommendations made by an experts’ panel headed by agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan that do not give any place to traditional fishing rights.