Plea to protect livelihood of traditional fisherfolk. . . .

Thiruvananthapuram:The Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation has urged the Central Government to withdraw from the move to earmark large areas of the coastline for special zones to promote tourism, economic activities and fisheries. Speakers at a seminar organised by the federation here on Sunday said the reservation of large tracts for special zones would deprive traditional fishermen of direct access to the sea and coast and affect their livelihood.

Participants pointed out that the move to replace the Coastal Regulation Zone norms with the Coastal Management Zone policy recommended by the M.S.Swaminathan Committee would push the fisheries sector into a serious crisis. The new zonal regulations, they observed, would open up the coastal areas to sea sand mining, coastal tourism and industrial activities.

The seminar called on the Government to discuss the proposed Coastal Management Zone with fisheries experts and fishworkers organisations. Fish workers from all over the State would send hundreds of post cards to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest.

PEOPLES CAMPAIGN FOR COASTAL AREA RIGHTS (Seminar)

Date : 18h January 2007, Calicut

On 18th of January 2007 the Kerala Independent Fish workers Federation (KSMTF) organized a seminar in collaboration with its Malabar Regional Wing, to discus about the effects of the implementation of the new Coastal Zone Management Policy, recommended by Dr. M S Swaminathan's Committees. There were around 81 participants from Kannur, Calicut and Malapuram.

Mr. Bhaskaran, Worshipful Mayor, Calicut City Corporation inaugurated the Seminar. In his inaugural speech he mentioned about the need of using modern fishing technologies and equipment to tap the sea wealth in a healthy manner. He added that the Government should take appropriate steeps to prevent the foreign ships coming in to our sea and taking away only the big fishes and abandoning the small fishes back to the sea, which is badly affecting the wealth of the sea. He asked the Government to rectify the loopholes in the new Coastal Zone Management Policy and to implement the same for the best interest of the fishing community and the people at a large. And he asked the fishing community to cooperate with the Government for the effective implementation of the same. He requested the fishermen to cooperate with the new flat model housing project of the Calicut Corporation and to keep good relationship with the other sections of the society to solve the problems unanimously. As a conclusion he said the problems facing by the fishing community could only be solved by the joint action of the Central and State Governments. He asked the women folk to find the jobs and ventures which they can manage for themselves.

Mr. Peter and Mr. Musthafa had subject presentations in which they explained the problems faced by the fishermen, especially by the introduction of the new Coastal Zone Management Policy and the insufficiency of possession of land for the is creating a lots of housing problem for the fishing community. Mr. Babu Raj, Ward Councilor, City Corporation, Calicut, Ms. K P Safiya of the Theeradesa Women Federation and Ms. Athira of Malabar Federation of Fishermen's Societies had addressed the issues of the area.

The seminar pointed out that, like Adivasi community is facing the problems of land, the fisherman community will also is loosing the sea and seashore form their hands. The new Coastal Zone Management Policy is actually for the sand mining, tourism and industrial lobbies than for the fishing community. It should be revised for the well being of the fishing community. It is also decided to pressurize the Central and State Government to revise the new Coastal Zone Management Policy incorporating the good aspects of the Coastal Zone Regulator Act of 1991. The seamier also discussed about the manner in which the fishermen and fishing community had be pictured as uncultured society by some of the recently released movies.

St. Stephan’s Community Hall, Pallithottam, Kollam (3-3-2007)

There was a seminar conducted by KSMTF on the subject of coastal regulation zone act on 3rd March 5, 2007 in Kollam.Federation’s district president, Mr.S.Joseph inaugurated the seminar and T.Peter, the state president presented the subject .Mr.Kurian Kuttikkaran, moderated the session. Mr. GracieN Jose, councilor of kollam Municipal Corporation and S.James greeted the audience. In the subject presentation, Mr.T.Peter cautioned the fisher folk community on the proposed laws of CRZ and CZM and according to him as this law undermines the very basic rights of fisher folk community; the community had to fight against the law with tooth and nails. Issues such as the consequences of global warming and how global warming affected the fisher folk community in future days, issues related to the proposed move of dividing the coasts into Special Economic Zones,(SEZ), Special Tourism Zones(STZ), Special Fishing Zones(SFZ) and its impact on coastal people etc were presented and discussed in the seminar. The ongoing program of construction of sea walls will not help the coastal community, but it would help only some vested interests in the political parties and contractors to loot the money from exchequer. The seminar also demanded for the traditional rights of fishermen community in coastal areas and a comprehensive coastal afforestation policy in coastal areas in order to check the future disasters

According to Mrs.Gracie Jose, the proposed (expansion plan ) of harbor development at Kollam will be led to the silent implementation of CRZ law in the coastal areas as the coastal population will be evicted from the coasts when it would be materialized and any such move of the state government should be stopped. Other office bearers of the federation and social activists contributed on the issue in the seminar. The seminar started at 10 am and ended up at 4 pm and about 100 fishermen and women also participated in the seminar