Articles by John Kurien

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 trees, sea safety signalling systems and community disaster training - had been in place, would the death toll have been less?

Common Property Resource Karanila System in Kerala's Fishery John Kurien A J Vijayan An important feature of small-scale fishing communities in developing countries is community-evolved mechanisms to ensure that the resources, livelihood opportunities and revenues from the common property fishery are spread as widely as possible in the whole community. This article examines the case of an income spreading mechanism which has been practised in the coastal encircling net fishery of Kerala for about half a century. It shows how a combination of inappropriate technology choices coming in the wake of free market policies, and a now increasingly common pattern of state patronage of rural producers, often combine to create open access conditions in common property resources and thus put eminently desirable communitarian systems of sharing and caring under great strain.

Causes and Consequences John Kurien T R Thankappan Achari In Kerala the initial approach to fisheries development based on raising the productive capacity of existing facilities by developing artisanal fishing relying on traditional methods gave way by the mid-sixties to the 'modernisation growth-oriented model' which saw the traditional base of fishing as a hindrance and sought to introduce specialised capital-intensive techniques. Artisanal fishermen adversely affected by this responded at two levels- organised protest against destructive fishing and the adoption of new technology to enhance their declining harvest. The result has been the ruinous overuse of a common property resource. This paper examines the combination of economic, technological and social factors operating in a specific context that has led to this overuse and highlights the deleterious consequences of this to the marine ecosystem and concludes with suggestions for resolving the crisis.