11.1 Current Jal fisheries in Bangladesh
11.2 The Honda Bay resource management programme, Palawan, the Philippines
11.3 The new fisheries management policy in Bangladesh
In this chapter, three case studies are presented to illustrate how the framework for sociological analysis could be applied in different circumstances in different types of fisheries intervention.
(This case study has been elaborated from research work carried out by the FAP 17 Fisheries Study in Bangladesh. His study was one component, funded by British aid, of the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan.)
Current jal is the term commonly used for small-mesh monofilament gillnets in Bangladesh. These 1.5-2 inch mesh nets are found practically everywhere in the country. They are extremely versatile, easy to use, relatively cheap, do not require great skill or knowledge of fishing techniques, and are very efficient. However, for the same reasons that the gear is popular, it is also destructive for fisheries resources, catching many juvenile and immature fish. Its potential impacts on the sustainability of fisheries resources in the country are considerable.
The Government of Bangladesh has already placed a ban on the use of smaller mesh sizes of current jal and considerable effort is put into enforcing this ban. But in spite of this, the gear is still ubiquitous on the floodplains of Bangladesh and it contributes a significant proportion of freshwater and estuarine catches.
An examination of the social issues involved in managing this particular gear in the context of Bangladesh could help clarify why efforts to limit its use have been relatively unsuccessful to date.
11.1.1 Stakeholder communities
The stakeholder community which would be concerned by any effective controls on current jal would be enormous. The gear is so widespread and used by such a heterogeneous cross-section of Bangladeshi rural society that there are few social or economic groupings who would not be affected in some way.
The greater part of this stakeholder constituency currently benefit, at least in the short term, from current jal use. Either they are directly involved in fishing using the gear or they purchase fish in local markets which come from current jal fisheries. Of particular importance are the large numbers of non-professional, often seasonal fishers who use current jal as a source of food for their families and livelihood during periods of slack agricultural labour demand. This group includes a considerable number of the rural poor who have relatively few alternative options open to them if their ability to fish were to be restricted through an effective ban on current jal use.
This can be particularly important during the flood season when fisheries access is relatively open to all comers and the enormous expansion of the area under water means that it is relatively straightforward for non-fishers to get involved in fishing. As floodwaters recede, these opportunities become more limited because the areas where water remains all year round are generally leased out by the government as these are the points where the enormous fisheries production of the floodplain is concentrated during flood recession. Some of these leaseholdings command extremely high lease rates but are also extremely lucrative for those involved in their harvest.
It is the leaseholders and fishers working for them who would benefit most directly by the restriction of current jal use as it would reduce the amount of fish being caught out in the floodplain and increase the numbers of fish "left over" to concentrate into the deeper, leased out areas during the flood recession. These potential beneficiaries of a current jal ban represent a relatively limited number of "professional" fishers whose fishing effort is concentrated on high-value, leased fisheries (jalmahal) on rivers or beel (back swamps) and the generally wealthy leaseholders who have been able to obtain leases at the annual auctions of lease rights. Others who would benefit are landowners in floodplain areas who are increasingly excavating "fish pits" (kua) on their lowland holdings in order to artificially concentrate fish during the flood drawdown. In exactly the same way as leaseholders and "professional" fishers, these landowners-turned-fishers have a clear interest in limiting the amount of fish caught on surrounding floodplains. As many of those fishing with current jal are landless, there is a clear division of interest between these stakeholder groups.
This consideration of the "stakeholders" in the current jal issue highlights the problems which fisheries managers face in trying to restrict its use. Limitations on current jal would bring long-term benefits for the fisheries resources on floodplains but, short-term, they are perceived by rural people as benefiting a small group at the expense of a far larger proportion of the population. Given the acute poverty of many rural households in Bangladesh, the failure in efforts to enact this ban is not very surprising.
Gender issues could be considered to have an indirect relevance. Women are not widely involved in current jal fisheries in Bangladesh but the poor are, and many of the poorest households in rural areas are female-headed. Much current jal fishing is carried out by children, often providing food and income for families that depend on such occasional and opportunistic earnings to supplement the livelihood provided by female heads of household. Age is thus a significant factor affecting current jal use as the gear is easily used by young children as well as by adults.
At the community level, there are also very important social, cultural and religious divisions in rural Bangladesh which play an important role in determining the relative dependence of different groups of fishers on the use of current jal - Hindu caste fishers are likely to have very different attitudes to and uses for current jal compared to Muslim farm labourers-turned-fishers. These different groups require very different treatment in the context of efforts to restrict current jal use.
One of the major attractions of current jal is its versatility. Depending on the circumstances, pieces of gear can be joined together to form a larger sized fishing gear requiring an organised fishing unit for its use, or individual pieces of gear can be used by single fishers in shallow water areas where even a boat is not necessary. Therefore, at the production unit level, fisheries managers have to deal with an enormous range of size and organisation.
11.1.2 Economic factors
In rural Bangladesh, the competition for economic opportunities is extremely severe. People displaced from one means of livelihood or occupation are likely to face extreme difficulty in finding alternatives. This should clearly be of concern to managers attempting to restrict use of current jal as this undoubtedly provides a livelihood, or an additional form of livelihood support, for a significant group of people.
Vulnerable groups defined by gender and age would need to be of particular concern to fisheries managers. Even though they may catch small amounts of fish using current jal, those small amounts might be of particular importance to them. With the risk of destitution never far away for many of these groups, the impacts of even small changes in livelihood earning capabilities has to be carefully assessed.
Nutritional impacts would also have to be looked into as current jal fishing is a relatively low labour-input means for rural communities to obtain fish for household consumption. Removal of this element from household food security strategies could have serious nutritional implications in communities already suffering from chronic food insecurity.
In some areas of Bangladesh, the use of current jal is particular intense and entire communities might have a significant degree of economic dependence on the use of the gear. In situations such as these, there could be severe ripple effects in the local economy if use of an essential fishing gear like current jal were to be banned. Sale of fish from current jal fisheries might constitute an important source of cash in generally cash-starved rural communities. If this source were to be cut off, demand for other goods and services locally might suffer significantly.
These impacts would need to be studied and means of supporting such communities during transition periods to other types of fishing gear or other activities identified.
11.1.3 Access and ownership
Access to fisheries resources is a key issue in all inland fisheries in Bangladesh and is determined by a complex set of factors ranging from annual patterns of flooding, changes in land use and ownership, shifts in the religious and cultural composition of rural communities and changes in the value of fisheries.
One of the reasons for the popularity of current jal in the country is its flexibility and the fact that it can be used effectively in many locations, and at different times of the year, where access rights are ill-defined and fish resources therefore open to groups of people who would not normally be able to exploit the resource to any major extent. The dynamics of these changing access rights in different parts of the country would require careful consideration as they are of key importance in determining management impacts.
Changes in access and ownership patterns of land in floodplain areas, at the community and household levels, are of considerable importance in influencing different groups' relative access to fisheries. These changes, which tend to lead to the progressive exclusion of more and more fishers from larger and larger areas of the floodplain as it comes under intensive cultivation might also influence the demand for current jal in the future.
11.1.4 Labour
The replacement of current jal by alternative means of catching fish would have to take account of the way in which use of the gear fits into rural labour patterns. Part of the attraction of current jal is due to the ease with which it can be used by relatively non-expert fishers, including in some cases women and children. Gender and age are therefore issues which would require consideration. Elimination of the current jal would mean that the labour requirement among rural households in order to catch the same amount of fish might increase significantly. This in turn could be expected to affect the distribution of labour on other activities.
A careful study by sociologists or anthropologists of different survival strategies employed by rural households engaged in the current jal fishery would clarify the impacts at the household level.
At the community and household levels, seasonal labour patterns would also have to be considered to see how possible alternatives to current jal fishing might fit into the overall agricultural patterns and thus labour demand. The use of current jal, for many households, represents a means of obtaining significant quantities of fish with minimal labour input, allowing work to continue on other agricultural tasks.
Similarly fishing operations organised as more formal production units which rely on current jal use might have to change their composition and labour pool significantly in order to accommodate the use of new alternative gears. The implications of this would require assessment during sociological analysis.
11.1.5 Institutions and decision-making
There has been general failure to limit the use of current jal through normal means of enforcement. Central government agencies with fisheries management responsibilities are unlikely to have the resources required to police the use of what is currently one of the most common fishing gears in the country. Fisheries managers would therefore need to consider changes in the institutional mechanisms for the enforcement and policing of a ban in order to make it more effective.
The heterogeneity of the social groups using the gear and the lack of unified leadership at the village level make local level management difficult. On the other hand, given the level of diffusion of the gear, enforcement on the ground by fisheries officers alone would probably be impracticable. Participation by community-level organisations on a broad scale would be essential.
The analysis of these social issues during preparation of such a ban might indicate that fisheries managers actually wanting to limit use of the gear might do better to control supply and sale.
11.1.6 History and change
An understanding of the historical development of inland fisheries in Bangladesh would be of considerable importance for managers and administrators if they were to properly identify the various stakeholders and the measures required to change patterns of gear use among them.
Shifts in the structure of the fishing community, from a dominance by Hindu caste fishers to a more heterogeneous group of professional, semi-professional, seasonal and subsistence fishers have played an important part in the steady spread of the use of current jal.
These historical changes have also affected access arrangements, both for communities and for individual households and production units. Changing attitudes to fisheries, rising population and widespread poverty have all played key roles in encouraging people to move into fishing not only as a subsistence activity but as a source of livelihood.
11.1.7 Beliefs, knowledge and skills
Investigation of fishers' attitudes and knowledge, both to fisheries management in general and to current jal in particular, would indicate that the fishers who use the gear are not insensitive to its negative impacts. But basic problems would also become apparent given the context of rural Bangladesh, where any opportunity renounced, such as using a relatively efficient fishing gear like current jal, means an opportunity given to someone else.
Given this context, fisheries managers might decide that resources were better dedicated to general economic development measures in an effort to create opportunities which would allow fishers to renounce the use of a gear which they know to be destructive.
(This case study is elaborated from a report on the above project in the proceedings of the ICLARM conference on "Community Management and Common Property of Coastal Fisheries in Asia and the Pacific" (1994) by R.M.Sandalo. The comments are based entirely on this report and are intended as being entirely illustrative of the sorts of issues and questions which a sociological analysis would expect to address in a project of this kind. No criticism of the project and its approach is intended.)
The Palawan Integrated Area Development Programme (PIADP) was a multisectoral project funded by the ADB, the EEC and the Philippine Government. The project was concerned with the economic development of the island of Palawan as a whole But several components of the project had a specific resource management focus. Irrigation, drinking water and upland land management were all subjects of programme components while the integrated environmental program was an effort to put into practice a "Strategic Environmental Plan for Palawan towards Sustainable Development", drafted in 1987. The stated aims of this plan were to improve living conditions by developing land and water resources in an economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable manner. The approaches used were to be ecologically viable, socially acceptable and integrated. Several specific projects were formulated to implement the plan, one of which, the Honda Bay Resource Management Programme, focused on a coastal area where fisheries were an important part of the local economy.
11.2.1 Stakeholder communities
Among the social groups directly concerned with the use of fisheries resources were the communities living immediately around the bay, most of them involved in both farming and fishing using a variety of methods, including dynamite and "transient" fishers using trawl, mini-purse seine and ring nets in the waters of the bay. In addition, logging operations in the hinterland of the bay and shifting cultivation practices were also identified as having important impacts on marine resources.
Network analysis of problems and constraints also identified charcoal makers as an occupational group having significant impacts on mangrove areas. The project placed emphasis on an approach which would give beneficiaries an active role in project planning.
Once this broad definition of the stakeholder community is established, a more detailed sociological analysis would want to break down these groups of stakeholders into more specific interest groups. Among the various fishing groups involved, it would need to be checked whether there were permanent workers in the sector and other part-time fishers. Differences in terms of social and economic status between fishing labourers and those owning gears and craft would also have to be analysed. The role of women in either working directly in fisheries or in the handling of catches would also need to be ascertained.
A proper stakeholder analysis would need to go beyond the "community"-level identification of stakeholders to look in more detail at how gender, age, different households and different production-units were composed in order to obtain a clearer picture of the priorities and needs of each group.
11.2.2 Economic factors
Fishing was clearly identified by the project as an important part of the local economy. Certain communities with high dependence were identified but a picture of the interdependence of other sectors in the area with fisheries would also be required. The relative dependence of different groups on fishing as opposed to farming and other activities would need to be clearly identified.
Later problems of "disinterest" among some project beneficiaries might have been avoided by better identification of where the economic priorities of people lay. Underutilization of land was also identified as a key problem, suggesting that more agricultural development work would have been appropriate within the scope of the project.
11.2.3 Access and ownership
Little information is available regarding access and ownership of the resources targeted for management within Honda Bay. Local fisheries are referred to as "open-access" and transient fishers are able to exploit local resources with few effective controls. Enforcement of existing regulations is also reported to have been poor.
With reference to any future management of coastal fisheries resources, the mechanisms by which this "open-access" regime could be changed to more controlled access would need to be looked at in detail.
With reference to rights to marine areas, a study of the tenure arrangements on land might be constructive as there are often links between the two. Significantly, the network analysis identifies land tenure, overlapping land rights and absentee ownership as issues but the ways in which these may have influenced resource management are not explained.
11.2.4 Labour
Given the integrated nature of the programme and the complex set of issues it intends to address, an analysis of the labour patterns in the area would be of great importance. Current patterns of labour allocation would indicate the priorities attached to different activities by different stakeholder groups. This would require some detailed study at the household level and production-unit levels looking at a range of activities involving a range of social and economic groups.
The ways in which farming and fishing activities, as well as other trading and service work, interact would need more detailed analysis in order to assess the suitability of the various proposals for fisheries development which the project eventually came up with. Given the stated problems of "disinterest" mentioned, it is probable that this type of analysis of labour use would have been particularly useful.
11.2.5 Institutions and decision-making
The work on institutional development carried out by the project has clearly been thorough. A wide range of local-level institutions were identified and involved in the project at all stages. From the working experience of the project, the importance of traditional community opinion leaders, such as the panglima, was identified. The key role played by kinship ties in establishing the acceptability of leaders was also noted.
The project adopted a strategy of providing training in co-operative principles for communities to encourage new forms of collective organisation to appear. The existing cultural and institutional basis for such collective institutions is not clear. An analysis of existing traditions of co-operative and collective action would enable assessment of the feasibility of such an approach. Experience in many parts of the world has shown that assumptions regarding the appropriateness of co-operative models of development are often dangerous as, in many social and cultural settings, co-operative action is associated to very specific situations and social circumstances. Transfer of co-operative modes of behaviour to other types of activity will often founder where the type of activity is not perceived as being appropriate for group action.
The project also identified and involved a range of other more formal local institutions, both governmental and non-governmental with important roles and contributions to make to the programme. A comprehensive institutional analysis of this kind is fundamental in resource management programmes.
11.2.6 History and change
Changes in the resource, particularly the fisheries resources, were traced, but the changes in local population, economic activities and patterns of access are not fully explained and may have required more detailed analysis prior to the identification of appropriate forms of management of local resources.
11.2.7 Beliefs, knowledge and skills
Problems regarding "negative attitudes to work" are mentioned in the problem analysis, but what this means in concrete terms or the extent to which these might be rooted in cultural attitudes and beliefs is not clear. The importance of cultural attitudes towards the types of activity being promoted by projects is frequently underestimated.
For example, in some cultures in the Pacific, notions of personal advancement which are the basis of Western-style entrepreneurship can be viewed very negatively as they disturb the social and economic equilibrium of relatively isolated communities. Such disturbance is regarded as a major threat to social harmony. In such circumstances, encouragement of enterprise through credit schemes and entrepreneurial training would be of dubious usefulness.
The need for considerable motivational work and "positive value systems" by the project suggests that certain cultural norms in the Honda Bay area may have also militated against co-ordinated efforts at resource management. Training for both local administrators and "beneficiaries apparently played an important role in overcoming these problems. The extent to which these methods were appropriate would largely depend on educational levels in target communities
(This case study has been elaborated from research work carried out by the FAP 17 Fisheries Study in Bangladesh. This study was one component, funded by British aid, of the Bangladesh Flood Action Plan.)
The New Fisheries Management Policy (NFMP) was instigated in Bangladesh in the early 1980s on an experimental basis in an effort to ensure a more equitable sharing of the benefits of fisheries in the country. Up until that point, "management" of the rich inland fisheries in Bangladesh has been through a system of leases on delimited, government-owned fishing grounds, or jalmahal. These leases were auctioned to the highest bidder on a regular basis with the time period for the lease varying depending on the waterbody. Most of the stretches of river, canal or backswamp (beel) leased in this way are leased annually but some of the larger and more important fisheries have longer leases of up to 5 years.
With the steep rise in the value of these fisheries, and in the prices offered for leases, only those able to access relatively large cash resources, or in a position to influence the auction proceedings, are easily able to gain control of productive fisheries. This situation resulted in fewer and fewer of the primary producers, fishers themselves, having any direct control over the fisheries on which they depended for their livelihoods. Leases were generally bid for and obtained by wealthy businessmen or moneylenders or even consortiums of investors. At best, fishers who often had long-standing traditions of exploiting and managing particular waterbodies, were reduced to the status of seasonal labourers. At worst, they would find themselves alienated from the fisheries which they often perceived as being theirs "by right".
The NFMP aimed to redress this situation by introducing a licensing system on important fisheries where licenses would be issued to bona fide fishers identified and registered by local-level Fisheries Committees. Those fishing communities which lived in the immediate vicinity of the resource and had a tradition of fishing on particular waters would be given precedence in obtaining licenses.
It was also hoped, through the provision of more security of access to those directly dependent on the resource, that management of the resource would improve as fishers themselves would have more incentive to ensure sustainability in the fishery.
11.3.1 Stakeholder analysis
The whole NFMP initiative was generated by a form of stakeholder analysis which identified the conflicting sets of interests focusing on control of fisheries resources and attempted to redress perceived inequities in the distribution of benefits from fisheries among these various stakeholder groups.
In particular, the variation in different fisheries stakeholder groups in different parts of the country was analysed and appropriate forms of support for the NFMP process identified in different areas.
Subsequent experience with the policy highlighted the importance of a detailed analysis of the functions performed by different stakeholders as well as their interests. In a highly complex and competitive environment such as that of fisheries in Bangladesh, this can be of key importance. In many circumstances links between fishers working on the leaseholdings of wealthy investors or traditional fisheries leaseholders were not limited to a labourer-employer relationship but included far more complex relationships of producer-seller, patron-client and victim-protector. In many cases, the overall relationship was often exploitative. In some cases, fishers were deliberately kept in conditions of extreme poverty and ignorance in order to increase their dependence on their patron-employers. But, on occasions, the relationship would also provide types of support and security which a simple licensing system, and the secure access to the resource which it was supposed to offer, could not fulfil.
Given this background, it was not surprising that, in some cases, the licensing system itself would end up being taken over indirectly by the same sets of interests which had controlled fisheries previously. Without the presence of the powerful patron/leaseholders in the fishery, fishers would find themselves with no access to markets, no access to credit, no access to fishing inputs, little security in the event of low catches and no protection in a highly competitive sector.
A more detailed analysis of the nature of the stakes involved might have highlighted these issues from the start. This analysis would need to have looked in more detail at the dependence of household survival strategies among fishers on the leaseholders who provided those households with employment. The relations of communities and production-units would also require greater study as, in some areas, the fisheries leaseholders were seen to occupy a central social and cultural role in local communities which could not easily be replaced.
11.3.2 Economic factors
The dimensions of the economic investment involved in fisheries leaseholding in Bangladesh are very considerable. For some of the most productive fisheries, temporary settlement of a large community of artisanal fishers and all their support infrastructure is required in remote areas of the floodplain. Fishing crews using a variety of gears and techniques need to be co-ordinated at different stages of the fishing season to ensure the optimum harvest. The capacity of fishing communities to mount this themselves might have required greater analysis as this was a key function of the leaseholder in some areas.
More importantly, a more rigorous analysis of the economic incentives surrounding the management of the resource might have indicated the limitations of the licensing system as a means of management. Individuals, issued licenses on a yearly basis, even with "tenure" reasonably assured, would not constitute a guarantee for good management, especially on the isolated jalmahal originally targeted for the NFMP.
11.3.3 Access and ownership
While some security of access was provided by the licensing schemes, it was not entirely clear how this security was distributed among different stakeholder groups.
Where local fishing communities were given greater control over the jalmahal and the procedures for licensing access to the jalmahal, the impacts on women, different age groups and communities not identified as licensed fishers was not thoroughly studied.
11.3.4 Labour
As already mentioned, leaseholders would often be responsible for a large proportion of the supporting infrastructure and services required to support particular fisheries. The introduction of the NFMP would, in some cases, result in fishers themselves having to provide their own support mechanisms. This would also have important implications for labour requirements which may not have been fully considered.
Where leaseholders would sometimes provide support to families of fishers while the menfolk were away harvesting distant leaseholdings, the effects of removing such support on women, children and old people within those households would require analysis.
11.3.5 Institutions and decision-making
Particularly in rural Bangladesh, the extent to which local level mechanisms for identification of licensees could remain immune to influence by the status quo, including local leaseholders, would have to be included in any preliminary analysis of such mechanisms. Leaseholders in some situations occupied positions as social leaders in the community and were not necessarily regarded as exploiters. Attempts to redirect control of fisheries in such circumstances might be opposed not only by the leaseholders themselves but also by the intended beneficiaries of the NFMP.
A careful analysis of informal institutions and the processes by which decisions were arrived at in the community would have to precede attempts to introduce significant changes of this sort. In several cases, the power of local leaseholders to lobby support, or intimidate fishers, was seriously underestimated in the preparation of the NFMP.
11.3.6 History and change
Historical analysis of leaseholdings and leaseholders in different parts of the country could have usefully informed the process of formulation of the NFMP. The roots of leaseholding arrangements in the social and cultural structure of some parts of the country would have been clarified and might have suggested a somewhat different approach to the promotion of the NFMP in some areas.
In addition, given the highly dynamic nature of the floodplain environment, the need to constantly adapt the whole leasing and licensing mechanism to changing circumstances and shifting values of fisheries would have been highlighted.
11.3.7 Beliefs, knowledge and skills
The power of leaseholders in some parts of the country is supported by local beliefs and culture which has imbued these figures with special powers associated with the fisheries they traditionally control.
The ability of fishing communities and their leaders to substitute the existing forms of control of fisheries would also be an important issue which sociological analysis would need to address prior to the elaboration of programmes such as the NFMP.
This document provides an introduction to social issues and
their significance in analysis and strategic planning in the fisheries sector.
It will be useful to non social planners involved in those tasks. The document
discusses the identification of social elements in fisheries systems and the
ways in which the sociologist or the anthropologist can assist in fisheries
management. A framework for sociological analysis in relation to fisheries
strategic planning and management is then presented, along with some of the key
social issues that fisheries analysts are likely to encounter. Three case
studies regarding social issues associated with fisheries development and
management actions are analysed using the categories proposed in the
framework.
