Many a fathom below

 

 

Richard Page

Greenpeace International

Head, Ocean campaign Recently, I was in New Delhi to attend a symposium on ‘Oceans’. It was attended by all the stake holders such as fishermen, government officials and conservationists. It gave me the opportunity to understand the Indian marine climate and its problems in depth. The three day symposium addressed almost all the issues pertaining to marine ecosystem in India. It was historic in a way that it was perhaps the first time that issues were discussed threadbare with all the stake holders. Oceans are very important from the point of view of environment. Marine ecosystems are the spawning and breeding grounds for a wide variety of commercially fished species. Marine reserves are areas that are off-limits to all extractive uses, including fishing. Experiences from other parts of the words, including countries with similar social-economic systems and ecosystem conditions as India, such as St Lucia, the Philippines, Belize and Fiji, have shown that fully protected marine reserves have positive impact on fisheries in surrounding areas, with increase in the number, size and diversity of space in the adjacent to the reserves. Marine reserves established in Egypt’s Red Sea led to a 60% increase in the catch per unit effort in surrounding fisheries after five years of production. At present, coastal marine reserves in St Lucia resulted in catch increases between 46-90% within five years, in areas outside the reserves.

Marine reserves allow exploited species to recover and reproduce, thus benefiting fisheries in adjacent areas through the spill-over effect. Marine reserves are powerful tools for the conservation of marine life, as they take into account the entire ecosystem. Most studies agree that between 20-50 % of the sea should be protected in order to achieve conservation of viable population.

We put a lot of emphasis on India because of its very long coastline that stretches 8000 kilometers. However, it is less than 4% of the ‘Protected Area Network’ and less than 0.3% of Indian Exclusive Economic Zone. The exclusion of local people from Marine Protected Area can cause resentment. On the other hand, the forest department is more accustomed to terrestrial operations and often demonstrates its lack of understanding of marine dynamics, leading to further mistrust and alienation. In India, the lives of millions of people, directly or indirectly, depend on fishing and allied activities. However, due to overexploitation of marine resources, many coastal states are witnessing ‘Fish Famine’. The threat on the Indian Marine Ecosystem is even larger and it is intertwined with many more complicated issues such as threat to fishery, threat to bio-diversity and threat to oceanic ecosystems.

We can understand this by the example of Gulf of Cambay, which is an important marine reserve that is in danger due to manmade mistakes. This marine area is very important for the Indian Ecosystem and its degradation will affect millions of people. In India, many oceanic habitats are being ruthlessly plundered for fishing or some other reasons. This is not sustainable in the long run as the resources will deplete. If we want to preserve our oceans for our children, we will have to stop this process and adopt other, more sustainable, ways.

One of the key lessons to be learnt from other countries is that building a network of many small marine reserves in the coastal zone will result in the benefits being fairly spread amongst fishing communities all along the coast. The alternative approach, establishing few large reserves, will result in the alienation of coastal people, as some communities will lose their fishing altogether. In places where creating areas closed to all fishing is not possible, a system to restrict fishing efforts and keeping out destructive fishing techniques may be some of the options.

There is a misplaced notion that development and environment cannot go hand in hand. But I say, they have to go hand in hand. The two things must be in synchronisation. It is ironic to know that a country surrounded by oceans on three sides, does not have marine legislation to deal with conservation of sea resources. India has forest conservation laws which cover certain aspect of marine conservation. But this is not sufficient as the marine ecosystem is very different from the forest and has different dynamics as well. It needs a different set of legislation to deal with different set of problems. In many countries, there is already a very progressive legislation. It is high time India got one too.