Fisheries in Chilika lake: how community access and control impacts their management

The status of fisheries in Chilika lake on the east coast of India is in a critical state. Local fishing communities feel that catches have reduced significantly and they face more hardships now to sustain their livelihoods. The study presents findings from field research and argues that notions of access are linked to community perceptions of the resource, the extent of authority they have to make decisions related to access and use rights and the traditional management strategies. State interventions through mechanization and new regulations have undermined the traditional management strategies leading to conflicts between different stakeholders and decline in traditional fisheries. There is a growing realization that without traditional fishing community's participation it is not possible to ensure sustainable use of the lake resources. Legitimizing community access and use rights is one of the key factors for successful management of fisheries.     

Local people's attitudes towards conservation and wildlife tourism around Sariska Tiger Reserve, India

Conservationists in the recent years view local peoples' support for protected areas management as an important element of biodiversity conservation. This is often linked to the direct benefits, which local communities get from the protected areas. These benefits could be in the form of biomass resources, park funds diverted to local villages by state agencies and revenue from wildlife tourism. There are a very few studies which have attempted to study the direct relationship between benefits from wildlife tourism and local support for conservation. In India, wildlife tourism is restricted, and mostly controlled by state and private agencies. Wildlife conservation policy does not view tourism in protected areas as a source of revenue for the local communities. The present study examines the local people's attitudes towards wildlife tourism and the impact of benefits from tourism on the local support for Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), India. STR is a flagship for tourism where protected areas are increasingly being visited and where local support for wildlife tourism has not been studied adequately. Results indicate that two-thirds of the respondents were positive towards tourism and support for conservation. The respondents were aware that more tourism benefits are possible from a well-conserved protected area. There appears to be correlation between benefits obtained by local people from wildlife tourism and other sources, and support for protected area existence, suggesting that benefits impact people's attitudes towards conservation. Some of the main problems are the unequal distribution of tourism benefits, lack of locals' involvement in tourism and development. There is a need to clearly address these issues, so that protected areas may get the support of local people, which may lead to sustainable development.     

Decentralized Natural Resource Management: From State to Co-management in India

In India, as in many parts of the developing world, the dominant view has been that local people are causing natural resource degradation. New thinking in the natural resource management domain is gradually replacing the older views blaming local people for decline of natural resources. The new approach advocates decentralization of natural resource management. This is discussed in this paper in relation to the ongoing decentralization reforms in India. The centralized approach dominated natural resource management in India during the colonial period. The government after independence conveniently adopted the same approach, excluding local people from forests. Recent research and resistance from grassroot movements led to a paradigm shift towards decentralization at the policy level in natural resource management. It is not clear whether the new Joint Forest Management (JFM) policy in India is an attempt to institutionalize state dominance, or if it will lead to real decentralization. The data from several villages adjacent to the Sariska Tiger Reserve (STR), Rajasthan, India show that state dominance is still prevalent, despite constraints. The real challenge lies in providing flexibility within the JFM policy to adapt to local conditions in natural resource management.     

Social Capital and Fisheries Management: The Case of Chilika Lake in India

This article shows how social capital impacts fisheries management at the local level in Chilika Lake, located in the state of Orissa in India. In Chilika, the different fishing groups established norms and “rules of the game” including, but not limited to, spatial limits that determine who can fish and in what areas, temporal restrictions about when and for how long people may fish, gear constraints about what harvesting gear may be used by each group, and physical controls on size and other characteristics of fish that may be harvested. A survey of the members of fishing groups has shown that the bonding social capital is strong within the Chilika fishing groups. Bonding and bridging social capital keeps the fishers together in times of resource scarcity, checks violations of community rules and sanctions, and strengthens the community fisheries management. In contrast, linking social capital in Chilika appears to be weak, as is evident from the lack of trust in external agencies, seeking the help of formal institutions for legal support, and increasing conflicts. Trust and cooperation among fishers is crucial in helping to build the social capital. A social capital perspective on fisheries governance suggests that there should be a rethinking of priorities and funding mechanisms, from “top-down” fisheries management towards “co-management” with a focus on engendering rights and responsibilities for fishers and their communities.