In the Loktak wetland setting, the local fishers under the lead of the All Loktak Lake Area Fishers Union, Manipur, recently initiated a move to identify a section of the wetland and protect it as a ‘fish sanctuary’ with the motive for regenerating fish population in the lake through measures like preventing over-harvesting, netting of fingerlings, off-season closure during spawning period to encourage increase in fish production naturally, and the reintroduction of indigenous species.
By Salam Rajesh
Freshwater diversity is amongst the most threatened in the world, with freshwater fish being particularly vulnerable, writes authors Suman Jumani, Vanessa Hull, Parineeta Dandekar and Neethi Mahesh in their ground-rooted article “Community-based fish sanctuaries: untapped potential for freshwater fish conservation” (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
This reflection comes from the assessment that “Riverine systems and associated fish populations worldwide are threatened by human impacts, especially in tropical countries with emerging economies”. The threats as in this context are basically identified as ‘pollution, destruction of riparian habitats, sand mining and destructive fishing practices’.
In India, and elsewhere, community-based fish sanctuaries are a key mechanism for the conservation of freshwater fish populations. These sanctuaries hold great potential for the conservation of rare fish species in India, but are subject to myriad threats at local, regional and global scales.
Temple-based fish sanctuaries, community-based protected fish sanctuaries, and other informal privately managed fish sanctuaries strive to protect and regenerate fish populations to some extent, and sometimes serve to contribute towards protection of endangered species – more pronounced in the temple-based sanctuaries.
As in many other parts of the world, Manipur is no exception on the issue of freshwater diversity degradation and loss due to factors that are primarily human oriented. Most of the wetlands and rivers in the State have abjectly been subjected to many forms of abuse, including high level of pollution, physical modifications, sand mining in river beds, stone quarrying in watersheds, reclamations, and encroachments amongst other activities.
Many of the wetlands in the State are presently in pitiful conditions, either partially degraded or fully reclaimed for different human activities, thus affecting the freshwater diversity that these water bodies sustained in a past time. With the loss in wetlands, it obviously is ascertained that species known and those yet unidentified are lost to science and to humanity.
Conservation-based fish reserves are examples of local communities self-organizing to manage a common natural resource for sustainable use. Defining community-based fish sanctuaries as ‘complex social–ecological systems’, the authors of the study opines that, “Well-managed fish sanctuaries have the potential to contribute to the in-situ conservation of freshwater fish, other aquatic biota and riparian habitats whilst also providing socio-cultural benefits. Sanctuaries can function as riverine protected areas, protecting not only fish and biotic communities but also entire reaches of riparian habitats”.
In the Loktak wetland setting, the local fishers under the lead of the All Loktak Lake Area Fishers Union, Manipur, recently initiated a move to identify a section of the wetland and protect it as a ‘fish sanctuary’ with the motive for regenerating fish population in the lake through measures like preventing over-harvesting, netting of fingerlings, off-season closure during spawning period to encourage increase in fish production naturally, and the reintroduction of indigenous species.
The initiative, however, has not taken root as a reason of legal entangles vis-à-vis the definition of the rights of the local fishers over their ‘territory of life’, with the State imposing restrictions under a recent law that ironically ‘seeks for the conservation of the lake’.
In the Manipur situation, changes in the land use pattern for the wetlands, including different human activities that impact drastically on the water bodies, have induced degradation and degeneration of the wetlands. Many of the wetlands are presently in conditions of abstract neglect, with some at the verge of ‘un-natural’ death through reclamations and conversion for commercial activities, farming and low-scale industries.
The study authors opine that, “Given that community-based initiatives can achieve in-situ conservation whilst circumventing excessive spending and bureaucratic processes, there is an urgent need to tap into their conservation potential”.
The study wraps up with the emphasis on expediting ecologically sensitive conservation measures on this note: “Given their socio-ecological importance, sanctuaries should be integrated into broader conservation efforts and recognized in official decision-making processes, impact assessments and development planning”.
This latter submission of the study authors, however, is a process that has been fairly controversial in Manipur, given the fact that in most cases involving rights, land tenure and extension of ‘protected areas’ such as sanctuaries, the decision-making process has been virtually unilateral, closely knitted to the conventional top-down model of planning and decision-making.
The various organs of the United Nations, such as the World Conservation Union, has since been emphasizing on the proactive participation of local people, more specifically Indigenous peoples, as co-partners in conservation, a move that seeks to do away with the ‘fortress conservation’ model of the Government.
The fortress conservation model excludes Indigenous peoples, and local communities, from involving directly in the State’s measures on ‘protection and conservation’ of forest and wetland ecosystems, while in the process seeking to displace local people from their traditional roots. This system has been at the root of most conflicts of interest between States and the local people, more emphatically those who directly depend on these ecosystems for their living.
Other than the human factor, the study also looks at a broader scale beyond the river system, such as the threats from global climate change that affects fish sanctuaries. The study authors opine that, “Global warming has caused an increase in extreme climatic events, including more frequent and severe droughts and changes in rainfall patterns and intensity. These changes are expected to alter stream flows, increase stream drying, reduce hydrological connectivity and increase maximum water temperatures, which in turn affect endemic fish communities, especially in intermittent streams”.
At the end of day, it is not only about meeting challenges from Government policies on land and water uses, whereas, the bigger gamble is on the larger issue of climate debates which likely may impact on species to a level where already many species of plants and animals have been labeled either as ‘extinct in wild’ or ‘highly endangered’.
The focus, as in the study, now centers on to what length Government policies can enable local communities to come up with ecologically friendly conservation measures that helps revive species and regenerate forest and wetland ecosystems – to meet the needs of future generations, as the UN puts it.
(The writer looks at environmental stories through the journalistic lens. He can be reached at [email protected])