Community Perceptions of Resources, Policy and Development, Post-Tsunami Interventions and Community Institutions

All socio-ecological interactions are collectively influenced by environmental, legal, political, cultural, psychological and societal forces. In this context, it is crucial that we understand community perceptions and perspectives of resources, state policies, law and development. The project aims to understand, document and engage with the social, economic and cultural relations of the fishing communities and their community institutions with the natural coastal resource base, livelihoods and coastal development.

Marine fisheries have always been part of the market system as it was never entirely subsistence based. In the Indian context, it has been the entire occupation of a single caste geographically located in a single village, unlike agrarian multi-caste structures. The single caste demography meant considerable autonomy and self governance and hence, the communities are highly organized and internally controlled. There is also very little anthropological and ethnographic research and documentation on fishing castes and communities in India and the roles and functioning in these fishing community institutions are very poorly understood. It is now quite clear that the fishing communities and their traditional governance institutions (especially in Nagapattinam) have shown remarkable social and socio-ecological resilience during the tsunami and subsequent rehabilitation. As these community institutions bind the community into collective fora down the coast, they are critical for any engagement, participation and representation from the community on environmental issue. Many innovative methods are emerging: community based management of natural resources; co-management, multi-stakeholder platforms, interdisciplinary approaches, adult environmental education, knowledge networking, and collective action.

Thus we aim to analyze the various community institutions, their roles and functions to provide insight into how they can be strengthened to participate in resource management, local governance and local development planning.  We also aim to document perspectives and perceptions of the community on resources, conflicts, state fisheries policies, coastal management policies and development planning on the coast.

Investigators: Sudarshan Rodriguez, Shiny, M.P and Gomathy Balasubramanian

Publications

Rodriguez, S., G. Balasubramanian, M. P. Shiny, M. Duraiswamy and P. Jaiprakash. 2008. Beyond the Tsunami: Community Perceptions of Resources, Policy and Development, Post-Tsunami Interventions and Community Institutions in Tamil Nadu, India. UNDP/UNTRS, Chennai and ATREE, Bangalore, India. p 78.   

Rodriguez, S. 2008. Review of Social and Socio-ecological Impacts and Implications of Tsunami and Rehabilitation. Paper presented at International Conference on Re-examining Disaster, Recovery and Reconstruction: Social Science Perspectives on the Tsunami at Jawaharlal Nehru University, 14th and 15th January, 2008, New Delhi. (in press)

Rodriguez, S and Mukherjee, N. 2007. Role of the World Bank in Post-Tsunami Rehabilitation and Environment /Disaster Mitigation, presented at Independent People’s Tribunal on the World Bank, 21-24tSeptember, 2007. New Delhi

Rodriguez, S. 2007. A preliminary socio-ecological review of post-tsunami ecosystem-derived Livelihoods & Rehabilitation efforts. In: Post-Tsunami Ecological and Social Impact Assessments in Mainland India.  UNDP,NCF,ATREE, and CAG. 151-191 p.