Sustainable Fisheries and Community Management Systems

Sustainable Fisheries and Community Management Systems - Transcript

Based on a field study conducted in May June 2004
BA Hon Economics Shriram College of Commerce and Economics University of Delhi India

Sustainable Fisheries and Community Management Systems
Ragupathy Venkatachalam

Introduction
Depletion of fisheries resources Trawler fishing technique and associated social costs Government solution 45 day ban on trawler fishing Critical evaluation of the ban fallacy of one size fitsall approach to resource conservation
ALTERNATIVE MODEL
Creating licenses for fishing Community management of resources

W hat is m echanised t rawling
Usage of t rawler boat s and act ive fishing gears I ndiscrim inat e Poses ext rem ely high pot ent ial danger t o t he m arine environm ent High risk and incidence of accident s involving large t rawlers

History of Mechanised Trawling
1890 Development of Trawler technology in Europe Mid 1900s Transfer of technology to India Indo Norwegian project and government assistance for mechanization Transformation of fisheries industry into an export oriented industry Result Conflicts between the traditional and mechanized sector due to massive differences in fishing capacity

Environmental hazards of trawling techniques

Inter sectoral conflict

Government Intervention Tamil Nadu Marine Fisheries Act 1983
Three basic intentions

Fisheries Management
1 Protect interest of different sections of fishermen particularly traditional fishermen 2 To conserve fish and regulate fishing on scientific basis Informal Local Formal Agreeements 3 The need to maintain law and order Agreements in the Government Tamil sea
Panchayats Nadu Marine Fisheries Act 1983 Resource conservation through time and

zonal restrictions for mechanised trawlers

Tuticorin A case study conducted during summer 2004
Tuticorin district TGulf of Mannar uticorin Southern Tamil Nadu between India and Sri Lanka

Traditional Mechanised Rich in fish in comparison to the Coromandel Sector Sector

Coast and Palk Strait regions single richest coastal area Vallams of fish diversity UNDP Vessels in terms Vessels Small and 1999 Motorised as well Medium Trawlers Catamarans Approximately 450 of the 2200 species of fish Gear Trawling nets found in India That is nearly 20 percent of the Gear Gillnets Hook Active gear total fish species in India and Line and other passive gears

Sustainability and Trawling Is There a Trade Off
Sivasubramaniam 1990 50 percent of the by catch samples were immature fish that had no chance of spawning even once Salagrama 2002 Sujatha 1996 found by catch in Vishakapatnam by small trawlers amounted from 66 94 of juveniles Reasons small mesh size at the cod end design of the cod ends Vijayan Ravindran and Edwin 2000 According a recent study Raghavan 2002 the finfish and shrimp resources in this region are in a stage of over exploitation Various studies conducted by ICSF show that there has been a definite and steady decline of the marine fishery in this region after it reached its peak in 1989

Heterogenous Management Systems
Loca l a gr e e m e nt s sem i officia l t r a dit iona l e v e n or a l

Ex a m ple s
Ve m b a r During t he non closed season boat s leave t he shore at 1 am and ret urn at 5 pm during June and from august onwards leave at 5 30 am and ret urn at m idnight Tha r u va ik u la m Fisherm en do not use t rawling m et hods t o fish albeit t he possession of m echanised vessels Use only passive gear s like gill net s Llocal agreem ent bet w een t he m echanised and t radit ional sect or s which prohibit s bot t om t raw ling under any circum st ance

4 5 da y u n ifor m ba n on t r aw ler fish ing Policy t ool for r e sou r ce con ser va t ion

How valid

Does it meet the intended objectives
What does the government do to ensure that the economic problems associated with the ban are addressed What are the problems with ban in the eyes of fishermen scientists

Are there any alternative means to achieve the same goal

Critical assessment of the ban
Tamil Nadu is mostly affected by the North East monsoon October November rather than South West monsoon unlike rest of the East Coast Socio economic impacts 45 days of no income for the sizeable population in the mechanised sector No alternative employment opportunities due to unsuited conditions for agriculture Problems with the timing of the ban due to rough season in November December Inadequate government assistance

R e sou r ce Conse r v a t ion in Com m unit y M a n a ge d Sy st e m s A ca se st udy of Tha ruv a ik ula m

A community aware of the need for conservation


Self imposed ban on active gear fishing such as trawling


State or Community

Alternative Model Such a model must incorporate Effective restriction mechanism for number of trawlers which must be compatible with zonal and time restrictions Minimal social cost Reliable estimation of total available resource and maximum permissible catch maximum sustainable yield

Fishing quotas based on historical catch model Fishing quotas Provide quotas only to families in traditional communities Distribute according to the family s historical catch This allows for purchase of quotas by fishing companies Not applicable if there is no historical catch data example India

Egalitarian Quota Distribution Model Alternative based on egalitarian distribution of fishing rights as a percentage of MSY on an annual basis All families are given equal MSY percentage quotas Communities form cooperatives to monitor and enforce the legal quotas These quotas are transferable Precarious to implement Very socially unsustainable

Alternative Model
Ent r y Lim it ing m e a sur e s


Fishing licenses for t rawlers Careful est im at ion of t he t ot al available resource X and


t he r efor e w orking backwards the m axim um possible cat ch by t he single t rawler in a day is est im at ed Y


Num ber of licenses issued N should be such t hat N Y MPC pr ovided MPC X

Cr e a t e a M a r k e t for t he Ex t e r na lit y

Auct ion Re v e nue s t o t he com m u nit y t o be use d for w e lfa r e w or k

Strengths of the model
Highly suited to communities that are normally small Easy to implement Adheres to a market oriented efficient solution Minimal social cost in comparison to other models Decentralised Monitoring Incentive for participants to monitor others fishing Positive possibility Quotas allow for indirectly more accurate tax therefore more revenue to the community
in comparison to asking people to reveal how much fish they ve caught







Working of the Model
Puts onus of quota design and allocation on the community Easier to implement Socially sustainable

How does it work

MSY allocation between traditional and mechanised sectors Uses existing cooperative structures Panchayat etc

Trawler fishing limits and their allocation

Overfishing Monitoring via License auction

Conclusion
Syst e m a t ic fa ilur e of one size fit s a ll 4 5 da y ba n on t h e Ea st Coa st

Com m on Resource pools like fisher ies m anaged by t he com m unit y which m ak es decisions r egarding t he r esource exploit at ion is a super ior opt ion t o open access as w ell as governm ent and pr ivat e ownership of t he resource Ost orm 1999 Communities will have the right to restrict access and will create enough incentives for users to invest in it rather than overexploit it

Re qu ir e d Decent ralised com m unit y m anagem ent syst em s cust om ised t o m eet local needs t o t ack le t he problem s t hat w ill be faced by t he fishing com m unit y in t he near fut ure