Suchergebnisse

Source at https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10216-230331. ; We analyze the efforts of an international consortium of academics and activists to understand and address a transnational fisheries conflict in South Asia. The so-called REINCORPFISH project (2010–2016) focused on an asymmetrical conflict between trawler fishers from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu who frequently transgress into Sri Lankan waters and northern Sri Lankan fishers, whose livelihoods are affected by these intrusions as well as by a long history of civil war. Guided by notions of bottom-up governance and empowerment, the consortium engaged in action research focusing on three types of remedial activities: (a) facilitating dialogues between fishers from both countries, (b) supporting the creation of a unified fisher organization in northern Sri Lanka, and (c) engaging in an advocacy program promoting assistance for the northern Sri Lankan fishers. Although the consortium succeeded in creating widespread attention of the problem, we analyze how the project's rationale of bottom-up governance was thoroughly challenged by divisive national and transboundary politics. The fisheries conflict intertwined with geopolitical power play, military bluster, and ethnic tension, as well as with governmental suspicion toward NGO activity of any kind, marginalized civil society and compromised its assumed role as an agent of change. We therefore demonstrate how supporting marginalized resource users through action research requires handling a multiplicity of coexisting conflicts (resource, ethnic, and geopolitical) and that studying or dealing with such conflicts in isolation is both conceptually and practically flawed.

Source at https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10461-230427 . ; The industrialization of fisheries and the growth of a capitalist sector within fisheries have received considerable scholarly attention. For the most part, scholars have emphasized how capitalism has led to privatization of the commons, forced small-scale resource users into wage labor, and marginalized the sector. This analysis does not, however, explain the continued presence of such a vibrant and important small-scale sector in fisheries throughout the world. Drawing on the notion of Foucauldian governmentality, other scholars have argued that the small-scale sector or what they term the "need economy" is a product of primitive accumulation. The state must, in conditions of democracy, address the welfare needs of all those who have been dispossessed in order to govern. We engage with this theorization in the context of fisheries and argue that seeing small-scale fisheries only as a product of primitive accumulation and Foucauldian governmentality ignores the moral economies of these fisheries. By analyzing capitalist transformation of fisheries in two "democratic" countries, South Africa and India, we highlight how small-scale fishers resist increasing marginalization and how governments have afforded a measure of protection to this sector, and confirm the importance of their moral economies to sustainable and equitable fisheries in the future.

Conventional 'people-free' conservation often fails to deliver both social and ecological outcomes. Communitybased conservation (CBC) – which is underpinned by local community participation, knowledge and priorities – offers a viable alternative in certain contexts. We explore the applicability of established 'commons' design principles, and factors enabling community-based conservation, to community-based coastal and marine conservation initiatives in South Africa. An extensive review of relevant South African literature, complemented by interviews conducted with diverse conservation actors, operating within wildlife, forestry and coastal and marine contexts in the country, identified common social and institutional 'constraints' and 'enablers' that affected these conservation initiatives. Key constraints include slow and complex institutional processes (particularly associated with land restitution in protected areas), a lack of political will and limited local community participation in planning and decision-making, all of which affect required collaboration. Key enablers include greater understanding and alignment of initiatives with social and ecological contexts and priorities, formalized and improved community participation, and increased partner support, as well as the presence of local champions to inform, motivate, and facilitate the implementation and management of CBC initiatives. While the objective is to provide an updated list of 'enablers' informing the South African coastal and marine CBC context, insights gained should be relevant to other national sectors, as well as regional and global conservation actors attempting to translate 'people-centred' conservation policies into practice, particularly those fulfilling obligations to the Convention on Biological Diversity's Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

Source at https://doi.org/10.1186/s40152-017-0062-8 . ; "Coastal grab" refers to the contested appropriation of coastal (shore and inshore) space and resources by outside interests. This paper explores the phenomenon of coastal grabbing and the effects of such appropriation on community-based conservation of local resources and environment. The approach combines social-ecological systems analysis with socio-legal property rights studies. Evidence of coastal grab is provided from four country settings (Canada, Brazil, India and South Africa), distinguishing the identity of the 'grabbers' (industry, government) and 'victims', the scale and intensity of the process, and the resultant 'booty'. The paper also considers the responses of the communities. While emphasizing the scale of coastal grab and its deleterious consequences for local communities and their conservation efforts, the paper also recognizes the strength of community responses, and the alliances/partnerships with academia and civil society, which assist in countering some of the negative effects.