Wednesday, 12 September 2012

Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in India

NFF Press Release on Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in India

A two day workshop titled Fishery-Dependent Livelihoods, Conservation
and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity: The Case of Marine and Coastal
Protected Areas in India was organised on March 1-2, 2012
by the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF).

The workshop provided a good opportunity for dialogue between
government agencies, fishing community representatives, non-
governmental organisations, environmental groups and scientists. The
fishing community representatives reported severe loss of livelihood
in protected areas (PAs) like Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, Gahirmata
(Marine) Wildlife Sanctuary and Gulf of Mannar (Marine) National Park
and Biosphere Reserve. It was further observed that the small and
traditional fishing communities are being increasingly marginalised
due to exclusionist conservation measures in the protected areas and
the destructive developmental activities all over the coast.
Discussions led to an consensus on the need to balance conservation
and livelihoods based on sustainable use of resources.

Based on the discussions at the workshop, NFF seeks the following
actions:

Restoration of fishing rights in marine and coastal national parks and
sanctuaries (PAs) established under the Wildlife (Protection) Act
(WLPA), 1972

Legal recognition of the rights of fishing communities to marine and
coastal natural resources and to protect and manage them along the
lines of the Forest Rights Act

Clear guidelines on operationalising the provisions in the WLPA
related to protecting the occupational interests of fishermen and on
the right to innocent passage in PAs till all fishing rights are
recognised and restored under the WLPA

All future Marine and Coastal PAs not to be declared under present
WLPA in view of its inappropriateness for the purpose and to consider
other suitable legal instruments

Establishment of a formal coordination mechanism between the
environment and agriculture ministries to ensure livelihood interests
of fishing communities are protected in national parks and
sanctuaries

A review by the environment ministry of the extent to which marine and
coastal PAs are consistent with the Programme of Work on Protected
Areas (PoWPA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in
particular provisions related to governance, participation, equity and
benefit sharing, prior to CoP 11 in Hyderabad in October 2012

Putting in place, through a consultative process, an integrated,
holistic framework for conservation of marine and coastal biodiversity
that regulates particularly the large-scale environmental impact
of ports, power plants, oil and gas exploration, tourism etc


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