Strengthening community participation in coastal governance in the Andaman and Nicobar islands

Marianne Manuel, Aarthi Sridhar, Naveen Namboothri

The Island Protection Zone Notification 2011 (IPZ 2011) is the first notification published by the Ministry of Environmental and Climate Change of the Government of India, covering the archipelagos of the Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands. This notification reconciles three objectives namely 1) protection of the livelihoods of traditional fisher communities 2) preservation of coastal ecosystems and biodiversity and 3) promotion of economic activities that necessarily have to be located in coastal areas.

In Jan 2016, Dakshin initiated discussions with the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) administration on the IPZ 2011 and the need to collaborate with different stakeholder groups in the implementation of the directives of the the notification. In partnership with the Forest Department, the chief nodal agency in charge of IPZ 2011 implementation in ANI, Dakshin has been requested to conduct training workshops for the various interest groups and government departments with stakes in the coastal stretches of the Islands.

Towards this goal, Dakshin has created and printed outreach material for use in capacity building workshops in the ANI and is preparing to conduct similar discussions and outreach in the Lakshadweep Islands.