Engaging Communities and Cooperatives in Fisheries Governance: Emerging Challenges and Pathways in Kerala, India

Abstract

"Among the varieties of systems experimented for good fisheries governance, there has been no consensus on the choice of partners and their positions in fisheries management even today. The most difficult task has been to engage local communities in fisheries management. Although cooperatives have a long history of existence, their performance varied widely across nations depending on the structure of local communities, government policies and influence of modern markets. In India, the process of establishing partnerships for management has been complicated due to diversity of resources, ecological services, communities, institutions and political interference. Moreover, cooperatives failed to acquire reputation and confidence in policy making circles to formally hand over the responsibility of fisheries management. However, the cooperatives have been informally engaged in fisheries management relying on their indigenous knowledge systems and political networking. Under these circumstances, the paper critically examines the challenges of engaging communities and cooperatives in modern fisheries governance in Kerala India. The paper also identifies a number of constraints that make their engagement difficult and suggests that informal networks of organizations representing civil society, political parties and the state at multiple levels are essential to guarantee a robust interactive fisheries governance regime."