Mapping Coastal Fishing Spaces to Promote Sustainable Community Development

Vision: To enhance the livelihoods of the fishing community and promote sustainable development in the coastal fishing villages based on scientific principles considering the dangers of natural hazards, and sea level rise due to global warming.

Objectives

y Preparation of detailed local plans for the coastal fishing villages to address long-term housing needs of coastal fishermen communities in view of expansion and other needs, provisions of basic services including sanitation, safety, and disaster preparedness. y To implement the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification and Panchayati Raj Acts., 1993 provisions to protect and sustainable use of common property resources of the fishing villages to enhance the livelihood assets by participatory planning and implementation. y Develop fishing villages as independent and sustainable habitats for fishers by co-management and de-centralized planning to achieve village Swaraj (Republic)

Stakeholders involved

Coastal and marine fishermen, Communities and Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Coastal marine fishermen community leaders, Fishing village gram Sabha and panchayats president/ward, Councilors, Relevant Government Department Officials at the block level and district level, other stakeholders of the fishing villages, NGOs, sociologists and researchers.

Implementation plan

The decentralized, integrated, micro-level fishing village planning and implementation involved the participation of all individuals of the fishing community, stakeholders, adjacent habitats, and fishing villages. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods were used for fishing village planning and implementation exercises.

Once the socio-economic development plan was formulated, this was followed by conducting stock-taking exercises to understand the present socio-economic status of the fishing village. Information about the fishing village available within the community and village panchayat was collected and a need assessment was completed to understand the challenges better.

Various infrastructure and welfare requirements of the fishing village were identified through PRA methods. Some factors that were focused on include education, banking and credit facilities, application of micro-insurance for craft and gears of fishermen, coastal security, communication networks, and fisherwomen empowerment. This was followed by defining the roles and responsibilities of individuals and groups for successful implementation.

All the different plans and proposals of the village by the village Panchayat, Union Panchayat, Zilla Panchayats, district authorities, and State and Central Governments were collected to avoid duplication of needs proposals of the fishing village. Several Government interventions and schemes in the village for infrastructure and welfare development were referred to.

This was followed by the identification of the common properties of fishing communities, including lands. Suitable vacant land areas were selected for infrastructure and welfare development activities. The land resources of fishing communities were then allocated for various regular fisheries-related activities, and other infrastructure and welfare development activities proposed. Suitable areas for fishing harbour (or) Jetties (or) landing centres (or)any hard structures were located, if necessary, or required. Factors of population growth and migration factors were considered to propose population expansion.

Geospatial technologies were used to identify various infrastructure and village-level facilities, followed by the preparation of two land use maps – one explaining the present status of resources, uses, CRZ classifications, shoreline change, HTL (High Tide Line), hazard line, and other lines, and the second highlighting proposed infrastructure and development activities. Various stipulated lines falling in the coastal areas of the fishing village were also overlaid on these maps, which apply the Land Utilization Zone (LUZ) Classifications suggested by the Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development to support uniform master planning all over India.

Disaster management and vulnerability assessment were two priority areas when it came to village-level decentralized planning, considering coastal fishermen’s villages are the most vulnerable to natural oceanic hazards. A Composite Hazard Line (CHL) map published by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) in association with the Survey of India (SOI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), based on which local-level disaster management plans were prepared.

After all these inputs and group consultations, the socio-economic and land use plans of the area were eventually finalized. All proceedings were recorded and reported to the village panchayat, Panchayat Samiti, Zilla Parishad, administrative bodies and planning authorities of the district to converge the micro and macro plans. The plans were also distributed to the District Coastal Zone Management Authorities, District Disaster Management Authorities, District Rural Development Authorities, Department of Fisheries, District Rural Development agencies, and other relevant authorities, encouraging them to consider incorporating the information in their sectoral plans. In addition, the village panchayat president and facilitator continuously monitor schemes and propose plans if relevant.

Use of Geospatial Technologies

With the help of the Geographic Information System (GIS), various spatial thematic layers of the fishing villages were mapped using ArcGIS software. These maps reflect the present and proposed activities of the fishing village. Existing maps reflect the current land use, regulatory lines (such as administrative boundaries, High Tide Line, CRZ boundaries, and zones), vulnerability status of coastal (shoreline, composite hazard line), and other existing spatial and aspatial data. Proposed maps indicate the anticipated activities superimposed with existing spatial information. These maps were prepared at a scale of 1:4,000 to indicate existing facilities available and suggest proposals for and by the fishing community. High-resolution maps of existing facilities and need assessment of fishing villages of Melamanakkudi village and Kottivakkam village have been illustrated in this study later.

Output of the program

y A guideline and resource manual to prepare decentralized micro-planning exercises in the coastal fishing villages in India y Several successful case examples emerged, that can be modelled for application across the country.

These include:

Æ Fishing village planning in Melamanakudi, a fishing village located in Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu

Æ Fishing village planning in Kottivakkam, a census town in Tambaram taluk of Kancheepuram district in Tamil Nadu. y Coastal States supported in the preparation of detailed plans for long-term housing needs of coastal fishermen communities, keeping in mind expansion and other needs, provisions of basic services including sanitation, safety, and disaster preparedness as required to address CRZ provision. y 40 fishermen trained to participate in decentralized planning initiatives. y Capacity-building activities conducted for academicians, researchers, and Government Officials to prepare and decentralize the planning of fishing villages.

Outcomes achieved

Methods for local-level decentralized plans were developed, which are helping strengthen local democracy by putting in place strong and transparent Gram Panchayats and active Gram Sabhas, thus facilitating good governance in the coastal fishing villages.

Contact Information

Name of Contact Person: Designation: Organization Name: Email: Telephone: Name of Contact Person: Designation: Organization Name: Email: Telephone: Dr. Purvaja Ramachandran

Director NCSCM, Chennai purvaja@ncscm.res.in 044 22200600

Dr. Asir Ramesh

Scientist E NSCSM, Chennai asirramesh@ncscm.res.in 044 22200600