John Kurien

• Ph.D
• Professor at Azim Premji University

In this paper, we first discuss why small-scale fisheries require special consideration in the fish rights debate. We then discuss the conditions and processes for bringing about effective management of small-scale fisheries including through more secure rights.

This paper presented at an FAO Conference in 1999 argues for re-establishing community property rights to the fishery resource to ensure a secure future for small-scale fishing communities. The paper is written from a tropical fishery and Asian perspective.

In this Chapter, I recount four encounters – from the many I have had over the last four decades with fisher people -- to put in context a sample of their wise sayings. I describe them in some detail as these encounters have been definitive moments of great learning and unlearning for me. They helped me reframe the way I perceive resources and proc...

The Covid-19 pandemic brought into sharp focus the relationship people around the world have with the ocean. As lockdowns eased, people flocked to the seashore and the beaches as the oceans' appeal to the inner stirrings of both body and soul became more pronounced.

This was a draft prepared in 2004 for inclusion in the Kerala State Human Development Report.

Through a historical lens, this paper illustrates the differing economic, legal, institutional, social and cultural relationships people of varying cultures have with the ocean. Focusing on the institutions that affect access and rights, this paper addresses concerns about the appropriation of marine resources and displacement of indigenous vision...

Covid -19 lockdown musings!

This brief article describes changes which can be initiated in the small-scale fisheries of Kerala in the context of the novel coronavirus

The organisers of this Panel at the MARE "People and the Sea" Conference held in Amsterdam on June 2019 requested me to reflect on two subjects (1) How funding structures and performance criteria for marine science in countries of the Global North have to change for enabling better research cooperation between Global North/South so that the needs o...

This brief article explores the need for a more holistic and inclusive approach to India's water policy and the need to take a seascape perspective.

This paper is about the governance of the environment and natural resources and the lessons which can be learnt from experiences from Aceh Province, Indonesia and Cambodia for implementing post-flood (2018) rehabilitation and development in Kerala State, India

This is a discussion guide for an FAO Conference held in 1993 on the Socio-Economic Issues in Coastal Fisheries Management.

This was a presentation at a panel discussion at an International Association for the Study of the Commons in 2011 along with Elinor Ostrom.

This paper builds on lessons learned from case studies of organization-building and collective action as a means of eradicating poverty in small-scale fisheries. The Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication, endorsed by FAO Member States in 2014, recognize that addre...

Studies of post-disaster rehabilitation tend to focus on the immediate vulnerabilities of those who survive. Far less is written on the efforts focused on important longer term human capacity development and organisational innovations needed to secure a sustainable future for them. This study, set against the background of the 2004 Asian tsunami de...

This brief paper is about the process of innovation, adoption and diffusion in the small-scale fishing communities of Kerala, India

Key note Paper presented at 'Fish For All' Summit, Penang, 2002

The Tsunami provides the opportunity to think about a secure future for those who survived. This may be the most fitting tribute to those who lost their lives

When catastrophic events strike, they provide opportunities to think differently. On the coastal areas the issue of new rights for fishing communities need a rethink in the context of the 2004 tsunami.

How customary practices of fishing communities of Aceh were retained after the tsunami of 2004

The issue of mutuality of rights on land and sea are essential for the survival of small-scale fishing communities

Our marine fishing communities are once again restive about the possibility of a neo-liberal opening up of the seas to Indian and foreign industrial interests. Though the track record of industrial deep-sea fi shing has been very poor compared to that of the traditional artisanal fleet, steps seem to be in the making to further encourage their invo...

The main objective of the document is to make a modest attempt to highlight the challenges which are emerging with the current phase of Cambodia's aquarian reforms -- the most important component of which is the current transition from fishing lots to community fisheries. The challenges include the realms of institutional and policy reform, local a...

In the last twenty years, policy prescriptions for addressing the global crisis in fisheries have centred on strengthening fisheries governance through clarifying exclusive individual or community rights of access to fishery resources. With a focus on small-scale developing-country fisheries in particular, we argue that basing the case for fishery...

This paper attempts to explain the provision of social security in the fisheries sector of Kerala State in south India. It enumerates the salient achievements and the problems faced by the state in providing concrete social security measures for fishworkers. They were a section of Kerala society that was initially left out of the development proces...

Why small-scale fisheries need special considerationCharacterizing small-scale fisheriesA vision for small-scale fisheriesSubstantive contribution of small-scale fisheriesManagement objectives for small-scale fisheriesManagement approaches for small-scale fisheriesInstitutional arrangements for small-scale fisheriesMaking a management plan for a sm...

Introduction Following the influential article by Garrett Hardin titled ‘Tragedy of the commons’, it is part of both popular and scholarly belief that unless natural resources are strictly in the domain of private or state property, their fate is an inevitable ruin (Hardin 1968). Closer examination of the actions of lowincome communities who depend...

This policy brief is based on an initiative being made at the IFReDI in Cambodia to model the crucial hydrological, bio-ecological and socioeconomic factors that deserve attention if the fish catch in Cambodia is to be sustained.

"The main objective of this document is to make a modest attempt to highlight the challenges which are emerging with the current phase of Cambodia's aquarian reforms, the most important component of which is the current transition from fishing lots to community fisheries. The challenges include the realms of institutional and policy reform, local a...

This article is written in the style of a personal statement sketching my involvement in the fishery sector of Kerala state, India, over a span of three decades. Initially, this involvement was as a professional helping small–scale fishers to organize village–level marketing cooperatives. Later the involvement changed to one of a researcher and pol...

Could thousands of lives have been saved on December 26 on India's coasts if proper Coastal Regulation Zone plans had been implemented? If all fisherfolk were given housing sites on the landward side of coastal roads, if the many long-term coastal zone rehabilitation plans - including a revival of natural barriers such as mangroves, wind breaker tr...

This paper is the product of an international research project of the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA and the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi on “Natural Assets and the Poorâ€. The project was led by Professor James Boyce of PERI. It was first presented at the Internationa...

Social Security is achieved when deprivation or vulnerability is reduced or removed as a result of using social means, thereby, in the process, making lives and livelihoods more secure. However, provision of such social security measures is influenced by various supply and demand factors. This paper attempts to explain the provision of social secur...

Today Icelandic fisheries are the most productive in the world. The country's historic efforts at gaining sovereignty over its fishery resources and the governance structures it has instituted highlights the need to move from an open access regime, with possession rights only, to a regime of explicitly recognised property rights. Recent attempts at...

Some of the social and cultural aspects of marine fishing communities, as they emerge in the course of the pursuit for food and livelihood, are the subjects of this paper. The focus is on the marine fishery of Kerala State, India and attempts to show how these dimensions evolved in the context of very specific resource and ecological determinants....

This article is about the traditional ecological knowledge contained in five proverbs that reveal the wisdom of Asian coastal communities in relation to the coastal ecosystems with which they interact. It attempts to examine these old truths in a search for providing new meanings which may help to obtain stimuli on questions regarding institutions,...

The small-scale fisheries sector is the oldest and most important part of the marine fisheries economy of the world.Being a relative term, small-scale operations exist in most maritime nations.This is particularly true of the developing maritime countries where the small-scale sector normally accounts for the largest employment and a significant sh...

"Artisanal fisheries have been playing an increasing role in the food and livelihood security of a large majority of the world's population. However, increasing pressure on resource from industrialized and artisanal fishing fleets, the use of over-efficient and destructive fishing technologies, degradation of the coastal environment and lack of ade...

"Issues concerning the degradation of our planet's environment and the implications of this for the future of life on. earth are matters of widespread concern today. Together with this environmental consciousness there is a growing recognition that the most affected environmental resources are those over which control by individuals, firms or the s...

The sale of licences to fish in Indian waters to multinational consortia has angered almost all sectors of the Indian fishing industry. Fishermen argue that the grounds will be overfished and that less fish will be available for Indian consumers. After a successful national strike, the government has begun to back down, but it seems unlikely to pul...

In a few south Indian communities fishworkers have responded to trawler incursion by experimenting with artificial fish habitats (AFHs). In India the history of fishworker experiments with AFHs goes back many centuries. Recently NGOs and government departments have taken an interest in these experiments, and as a result the complexity and size of i...

When commons are degraded by overuse, the result is frequently an economic and ecological crisis. In the coastal marine fishing grounds of Kerala in south India, overfishing began with the introduction of modern trawlers, financed by outside interests, but the detrimental consequences have been felt most keenly by the local fisherfolk. The response...

"There is now a considerable body of literature on the issues and problems relating to the use and overuse of common property resources--sometimes referred to as "commons." A commons is an economic resource or facility subject to individual use but not to individual possession. Hence all commons face one problem: how best can one coordinate individ...

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Summary (En).Job number added acc. to DOCREP assignment 4 tables, photographs Summary

"This paper examines, from the fishery perspective of a developing country, the current debate on the role of fisheries subsidies in the context of the negotiations relating to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). While providing a background on fish production and trade in developing countries, i...

"Trade and food security are tow of the most pressing and controversial themes of our time. Never before have these themes been discussed singly and jointly with such fervour by states and civil society. This is the direct result of recent globalization and the greater and quicker flow of information arising from it. Interestingly, fish has played...

"The following paper gives a history of the fishery development process in Kerala state, India. It documents the ruin of the coastal commons caused by the over-intensive fishing techniques which were encouraged by official development plans, and describes the responses of the commoners to the destruction of their resource base. Special emphasis is...

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"The making of the Indonesian film, titled 'Peujroh Laot', shows how modern media can be used to revive customary practices in fisheries resource management."