Bill to protect rights of fishing communities next
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COMMENTS 
Like the Act that gives user and land rights to forest-dwelling communities, a bill guaranteeing similar rights to fishing communities is on the anvil
A bill guaranteeing traditional marine rights to fisherfolk is in the offing and the draft text has been posted on the website of the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MoEF).
Conceived along the lines of the Forest Rights Act that guarantees traditional user rights and land rights to tribals, adivasis and forest-dwellers, the provisionally titled Traditional Coastal and Marine Fisherfolk (Protection of Rights) Act will provide security of dwelling and habitation, apart from marine resources, to the 70 lakh fisherfolk living in India’s coastal areas.
The draft text proposes:
- Right to hold and live in coastal areas under individual or common occupation for habitation or for fishing for livelihood by a member or members of a fishing family.
- Right of ownership and access to areas.
- Other community rights of uses or entitlements such as fish and other products of waterbodies, and traditional seasonal resource access of nomadic or pastoralist communities.
- Rights of settlement and conversion of all villages, old habitations, unsurveyed villages and other villages in coastal areas, whether recorded, notified or not, into revenue villages.
- Right to protect, regenerate, conserve or manage any community resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use.
- Right of access to biodiversity and community rights to intellectual property and traditional knowledge related to biodiversity and cultural diversity.
- Any other traditional right customarily enjoyed by traditional fisherfolk.
- Right to in-situ rehabilitation including alternative land in cases where traditional fisherfolk have been illegally evicted or displaced from coastal land of any description without receiving their legal entitlement to rehabilitation prior to December 13, 2010.
Establishing and protecting the rights of fishing communities is also part of the recently notified Coastal Regulation Zone Rules 2011.
The National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) and Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF) do not feel, however, that the interests of the fishing community have been adequately represented in the CRZ Rules. During talks with representatives of the two organisations, the environment ministry had indicated that the provision relating to ‘roads-on-stilts’ would be dropped from the final notification as both the fishing community and environmental groups were against it. It was retained in the final notification.
The ministry had also assured fishing community organisations of fair representation in national- and state-level Coastal Zone Management Authorities (CZMAs), with at least three people on each CZMA. This is left out of the notified rules. An assurance was also given that Critically Vulnerable Coastal Areas (CVCAs) would be notified as Community Managed Coastal Reserves (CMCRs), as community-led models of management and conservation were more effective in meeting environmental and social objectives.
There is also some apprehension that the provision permitting state-level Coastal Zone Management Plans (CZMPs) to be revised every five years could be misused.
Read the draft text at: http://moef.nic.in/downloads/public-information/The%20Traditional%20Fisherfolk%20_Protection%20of%20Rights_%20Act%202009.pdf
Source: The Indian Express, January 11, 2011
The Hindu, January 10, 2011