Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
bearing on the nature, intensity and duration of fishing conflict. The advent of legal
pluralism in fishing has meant that conflicts, which were originally understood and
addressed through a single legal prism, now have multiple interpretations. In terms
of Rapoport (1974), they have shifted from being endogenous to exogenous conflicts.
The relations between the conflicting fishing parties, but also between the governing
actors involved, have also become asymmetrical. Trawler fishers enjoy more physical
power than small-scale fishers do, and governments ultimately overrule fisher author-
ities. The fact that governments are further removed from the scene of conflict, and
have a wider range of interests than fishing alone, affects the handling of the conflicts
that occur. Whereas fishing conflicts in the Palk Bay scarcely had repercussions beyond
its shorelines, they now reverberate at various societal scale levels. As a consequence,
there are multiple contradictory interferences that impede effective resolution.
The conflicts that occur between Indian trawl fishers and small-scale fishers in
Sri Lanka currently attract the most attention. Three types of governing interactions
address these conflicts: interactions taking place (1) between government agencies,
(2) between fishers, and (3) between fishers and government agencies. Building upon
agreements on the International Boundary Line, concluded in 1974 and 1976, the
governments of India and Sri Lanka installed a bilateral Joint Working Group (JWG)
in 2005 for the purpose of finding an answer to the issue of border crossings (Surya-
narayan 2009). Three JWG meetings have since occurred, but without any substantial
results. Foreign policy and security interests play a complicating role. So too does the
involvement of Tamil Nadu, which has other perspectives on the situation than does
the central government.
Meanwhile, starting in 2004, NGOs initiated a dialogue between the fisher parties
of India and Sri Lanka, with representatives travelling in both directions. An agreement
between trawler fishers and small-scale fishers from the two countries was actually
reached in August 2010 but not effectuated, due to a lack of governmental support.
According to the agreement, trawl fishing in Sri Lankan waters would be phased out
within a period of a year (Stephen et al. 2013).
Finally there have been repeated interactions between fisher organisations and
governments in each of the two countries about the problems at hand. However, polit-
ical equations and a strong distrust of NGOs seriously hamper this dialogue in Sri
Lanka. As the small-scale fishers of the Palk Bay belong to the Tamil minority, which
is only marginally represented in the Sri Lankan government, their voices are scarcely
heard (Scholtens et al. 2012). The discussions that occur between trawler fisher organ-
isations and government in India are distorted by public opinion that interprets the
conflicts as taking place not between fisher parties, but between Indian fishers and the
Sri Lankan navy. Recently, with the establishment of a Palk Bay Management Platform
in India that includes representatives of fishers and government, a step forward seems
to have been taken (pers. comm. V. Vivekanandan). Generally, however, pluralism and
asymmetry between parties persist, and there is little evidence that fishing conflicts are
close to an end.
In the case of South Africa, a number of trends are evident from the overview
of fisheries development over the past century. The first is that post-1940, the state
increasingly took control of the management of marine resources and supported pri-
vatisation of the marine commons. This, in turn, led to the erosion of customary
systems where these two systems were juxtaposed. However, along parts of the east
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