National fishworkers forum stands in solidarity with our fisher peoples, coastal communities and traditional fishworkers’ across the world
Demands to the union government and the state governments of India to formulate the legislation ensuring and securing coastal rights for fisher peoples and coastal communities of India in consultation with them and the ceasefire of militarised persecution of fishworkers’ and the people in Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine
The World Fisheries Day is being held at a time when the world is going through unprecedented turmoil in the context of the conflict and war. Sudan faces a civil war, ethnic cleansing of it’s indigenous communities and destruction of an unprecedented scale to it’s population with a displacement of 4.3 million people since July 2023. Ukraine continues to step into another winter battling food shortages and a prolonged loss of economy and peace. The present casualties of civilians stands at 9,614 civilian deaths. The fishing community who engages with the occupation off the coast of Gaza have been constantly chased, harassed, intimidated and even killed for years. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on 10 November 2023, the Palestinian fatality toll in Gaza as of 10 November stood at 11,078, of whom 4,506 were said to be children and 3,027 women. About 2,700 others, including some 1,500 children, have been reported missing and may be trapped or dead under the rubble, awaiting rescue or recovery. Another 27,490 Palestinians have reportedly been injured.
National Fishworkers Forum [NFF] stands in solidarity with the urgent and pressing need for peace echoed by the people of Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine and demands an urgent resolution for immediate ceasefire. NFF believes in the right of the oppressed people to realise their demands in recognising their human rights of LIFE, FOOD, WATER, DIGNITY, SAFETY, JUSTICE AND PEACE.
National Fishworkers Forum, being part of the initiatives of founding in 1997 and the declaration of the World Fisheries Day in 1998 have steadfastly believed in recognizing the rights of the coastal communities which includes fishworkers and the fishing sector. 21 November 2023 marks 25 years of the official declaration of the World Fisheries Day.
National Fishworkers Forum extends our unwavering support and solidarity to the fishworkers of the world, whose tireless efforts sustain communities and their food security, economies, and our planet’s biodiversity. These brave women and men from the communities, working in challenging conditions, play a crucial role in feeding millions and preserving our marine, coastal, wetland and inland ecosystems. We recognize the invaluable contributions made by fishworkers, who face numerous challenges, including precarious, often dangerous working conditions, limited access to resources, including fresh water, and the undocumented impacts of the climate crisis. Despite these obstacles, their resilience, collective mobilisation and dedication are vital to ensuring food security, sustaining coastal economies, and maintaining coastal ecosystems for the next generation.
In India, the lop-sided model of developing the coast is moving towards creating opportunities for the capitalist industrialists for ownership of large swathes of coastal zones. The framework adopted to further this is by intensifying the present brown economy under the guise of a blue economy in its disruptive form by alienating and dispossessing the fishing communities and intensifying their permanent loss of water, land, marine resources, coastal commons and livelihoods.
Present coastal development projects, such as ports, industrial zones, seafront real estate, expansion of marine military bases, tourism infrastructure, ocean mining and exclusionary conservation management policies are displacing most fishing communities in India. This displacement has led to the loss of traditional livelihoods, as fishworkers are restricted and forced to abandon their homes and fishing grounds due to it’s ownership for concretisation and the aggravated erosion from the coastal reclamation and pollution.
Ocean and coastal industrial infrastructural developments have led to the destruction of critical ecosystems, including mangroves, sand dunes, wetlands and estuaries, which serve as nurseries for many fish species, including apex marine wildlife that maintains such crucial, eco-sensitive coastal zones. The loss of these habitats affects fish stocks and, consequently, the livelihoods and food security of fishworkers, coastal communities and fisher people who rely on healthy ecosystems for their catch and healthy community sustenance. The industrial and infrastructure projects like factories alongside estuaries, thermal and atomic power plants, oil refineries associated with coastal development have intensified the incidents and risks of environmental pollution at an unprecedented scale. The lack of accountability through policy or regulatory bodies has further intensified environmental pollution from private companies operating such industries.
Construction activities associated with coastal development, such as dredging and reclamation, can permanently alter the physical characteristics of the shoreline and seabeds. These changes can negatively impact fish habitats and disrupt the natural, fragile balances of the marine ecosystem. It is to be noted that the environmental laws have been diluted by the executive and legislative union and state government in favour of these actors without any consultation or participation of the fisherpeoples and coastal communities.
The impacts of climate change have affected our communities. Changes in sea levels, heatwaves, erratic monsoons and extreme weather events have compounded the challenges already faced by fishworkers.
Although there are heavy losses and damages, there are inadequate compensation, reparation and rehabilitation policy measures which support the fisher peoples and coastal communities.
It is in this context that the fisher peoples and coastal communities across the coastal states in India have been resisting on the ground against this lop-sided, top-down unsustainable development which alienates and permanently destroys the present and future generations of fisher people and coastal communities from their sources of livelihood. National Fishworkers Forum stands in solidarity with these resistance initiatives and demands of the fishworkers’ and urgently requests the union and state governments pay heed to the demands and respond responsibly to the demands of these grounded voices of the communities and calls for the unity of all fishing communities and workers, as the ocean people in steadfastly asserting their right to life, livelihood and resources!
On the 26th Year of the World Fisheries Day, NFF demands the Central and State Governments of India to draft an Act which upholds the rights of the Historical fisher peoples and coastal communities’ dependent on natural resources of the coast and the recognition and protection of historical and customary rights to coastal and marine commons and the constitutional recognition of the rights of the fishing community and legislation of the Coastal Rights Act. This definitely is the need of the hour and in this crucial year the fisher peoples, coastal communities and fishworkers have realised the historical oppression and marginalisation from all streams within the present policy frameworks and policy-making process.
NFF appeals to all the unions, collective groups, organizations working on the issues of the coast and the fishing communities to collectively make this demand of drafting a legislation which secures and recognises the Coastal Rights of the fisherpeoples, coastal communities and fishworkers to the elected representatives, as the primary focus of this year’s World Fisheries Day.
While remembering the World Fisheries day, let also pledge our unwavering support to the people and fishworkers of Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine as well as all fishworkers presently persecuted and demand for an immediate ceasefire to the war, discrimination, human rights violations and atrocities against them.