https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7069-291X
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ABSTRACT
The world ocean is a continuum that facilitates relatively free interchange among its parts and is of fundamental importance to studying environmental justice. Environmental justice sits within the larger ambit of social justice and equity. The article examines the effects of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing within the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) on sustainability, and damage to the marine ecology, resulting in environmental and distributive injustice to the coastal communities. It also highlights the prevalence of IUU fishing on the high seas and in the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of the coastal States vis-à-vis existing international fisheries laws. In addition, the article analyses the feasibility of managing the marine environment in the IOR through people’s participation, utilising the tenets of Commander’s Estimate of the Situation (CES), and suggests courses of action (CoAs) to achieve environmental justice. Further, it makes use of three case studies to assess the feasibility of people's participation in achieving sustainable fishing practices.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The CES is defined as a process of reasoning by which a military commander considers all the circumstances affecting the military situation and arrives at a decision regarding the course of action (CoA) to be taken to accomplish the mission. See Milan Vego, Major Naval Operations (Newport, Rhode Island: Naval War College, 2009), p. 53.
2 Mónica Ramirez-Andreotta, Environmental and Pollution Science, Third edition (Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2019), pp. 573–83.
3 Less oxygen dissolved in the water is often referred to as a “dead zone” because most marine life either dies or if they are mobile, such as fish, they leave the area. Habitats that would normally be teeming with life become, essentially, biological deserts.
4 UDHR, Article 3: “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”.
5 Constitution of India, Article 21, Protection of Life and Personal Liberty: “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.”
6 United Nations (UN) General Assembly, “Transforming our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” Resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 25, 2015, p. 9.
7 Marina de Oliveira Finger and Felipe Bortoncello Zorzi, “Environmental Justice,” UFRGS Model United Nations Journal 1 (2013): 222–43.
8 Ibid., 222–43.
9 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “Human Development Report 2011: Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All,” 2011, 2, https://hdr.undp.org/content/human-development-report-2011 (accessed September 25, 2022).
10 UNCLOS, Article 69: Right of Land-locked States; and Article 70: Right of Geographically Disadvantaged States.
11 UNCLOS, Article 71: Non-applicability of Articles 69 and 70.
12 FAO, International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (IPOA-IUU), 2001, https://www.fao.org/3/y1224e/Y1224E.pdf (accessed September 20, 2022).
13 UNCLOS, Article 61: Conservation of the Living Resources.
14 UNCLOS, Article 62: Utilisation of the Living Resources.
15 UNCLOS, Article 118: Cooperation of States in the Conservation and Management of Living Resources.
16 UNDP, “Environmental Justice: Comparative Experiences in Legal Empowerment,” June 2014, 6, https://www.undp.org/publications/environmental-justice-comparative-experiences-legal-empowerment (accessed September 20, 2022).
17 UNEP, “Conflict and Natural Resources,” November 6, 2015, https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/unep-marks-international-day-preventing-exploitation-environment-war (accessed September 20, 2022).
18 Prabhakaran Paleri, Marine Environment: Management and People’s Participation (New Delhi: KW Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 2009), p. 9.
19 SDG 14 – Life below water – aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.
20 Environmental justice: management and exploitation of natural resources in a manner that is sustainable, equitable, and inclusive of all stakeholders.
21 Ibid., ii.
22 Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (2018), “The state of food security and nutrition in the world,” Rome: FAO, https://www.fao.org/3/I9553EN/i9553en.pdf (accessed September 21, 2022).
23 Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm, “Rapid Worldwide Depletion of Predatory Fish Communities,” Nature 423, no. 6937 (2003): 280–3.
24 World Wildlife Fund press release of September 7, 2021, https://www.worldwildlife.org/press-releases/wwf-statement-on-new-shark-and-ray-assessment (accessed September 21, 2022).
25 FAO, http://www.fao.org/iuu-fishing (accessed July 14, 2022).
26 Global capture fisheries production measures the volume of fish catches landed and reported by countries for all commercial, industrial, recreational, and subsistence purposes. See “Our world in data” https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-capture-fishery-production (accessed September 21, 2022) and World Bank, “Metadata Glossary.”
27 World Bank, “The Sunken Billions Revisited: Progress and Challenges in Global Marine Fisheries”. Environment and Development, Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/24056 (accessed September 22, 2022).
28 “Second World Ocean Assessment,” Third draft, October 19, 2020, 658, https://www.un.org/regularprocess/sites/www.un.org.regularprocess/files/woaii-4th_and_final_draft_18nov_to_14th_ahwgw_in_tc.pdf (accessed September 22, 2022).
29 FAO 2020, “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture,” Rome, 177, www.fao.org/3/ca9229en/ca9229en (accessed September 22, 2022).
30 Garrett Hardin, “The Tragedy of Commons,” Science, New series 162, no. 3859 (December 13, 1968): 1243–8.
31 Available at http://www.NewSecurityBeat.org (accessed July 4, 2022).
32 On November 26, 2008, a group of 10 terrorists entered Mumbai via sea route and carried out gruesome terror act killing 165 people. See ORF, “26/11: A decade after,” https://www.orfonline.org/series/26-11-a-decade-after (accessed September 22, 2022).
33 On March 12, 1993, a series of 13 terrorist bombings took place in Mumbai, resulting in 257 deaths and injuring 1,400 people. “How the 1993 blasts changed Mumbai forever,” BBC News, 30 July 2015, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-33713846 (accessed September 23, 2022).
34 “577 Indian fishermen in Pakistan’s custody, 9 died in last five years: MEA,” Hindustan Times, March 22, 2022, https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/577-indian-fishermen-in-pakistan-s-custody-9-died-in-last-five-years-mea-101647916869505.html (accessed on September 23, 2022).
35 Teale Phelps Bondaroff, “Sea cucumber crime in India and Sri Lanka during the period 2015–2020,” SPC Beche-de-mer Information Bulletin 41 (March 2021): 55–65; and K.A. Shaji, “CBI Investigates Sea Cucumber Poaching in Lakshadweep,” The Citizen, August 19, 2020, https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/13/19227/Govt-Sets-Up-Anti-Poaching-Camps-in-Lakshadweep-Amid-Sea-Cucumber-Smuggling (accessed July 27, 2022).
36 R. Kiruba-Sankar, K. Lohith Kumar, K. Saravanan, and J. Praveenraj, “Poaching in Andaman and Nicobar Coasts: Insights,” Journal of Coastal Conservation 23, no. 1 (2019): 95–106.
37 Sohini Bose, “Finding Solutions to Fishermen Transgressions in the India–Bangladesh Maritime Space,” ORF Occasional Paper 331, September 2021.
38 Milan Vigo, Operational Warfare at Sea (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 1–2.
39 Operational art is defined as:
In industrial conditions, the dual dimensions of tactics (short term) and strategy (long term) has to be intellectually connected by an “intermediate member” – or operational level of war. Only at the operational level could combat actions [people’s participation] be forged into an ensemble and so provide the creative tactical material for extensive operations united by strategy.
40 United States (US) Naval War College, Commander’s Estimate of Situation (CES), NWC 4111F, US Naval War College, Newport, August 19, 2002, http://www.navedu.navy.mi.th/stg/databasestory/data/laukniyom/workjob/bigcountry-workjob/US-Joint/book-pamansatanakarn.pdf (accessed September 23, 2022).
41 Ibid., p. 1.
42 Joe Strange, “Centers of Gravity and Critical Vulnerabilities,” Quantico: Marine Corps War College, ix, https://jfsc.ndu.edu/Portals/72/Documents/JC2IOS/Additional_Reading/3B_COG_and_Critical_Vulnerabilities.pdf (accessed September 23, 2022).
43 The detailed worksheet of the CES is not included for the sake of word limit, but can be provided on demand.
44 Anjula Gurtoo, “Citizen Participation in Governmental Decision Making in Japan: A Review,” Working papers EMS_2015_06, Research Institute, International University of Japan, https://ideas.repec.org/p/iuj/wpaper/ems_2015_06.html (accessed September 24, 2022).
45 Vandana Shiva and Jayanta Bandyopadhyay, “The Evolution, Structure, and Impact of the Chipko Movement,” Mountain Research and Development, 6, no. 2 (May 1986): 133–42, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3673267?origin=JSTOR-pdf (accessed September 24, 2022).
46 Mahendra Pratap Choudhary and Himanshu Gupta, “Swachh Bharat Mission: A Step towards Environmental Protection,” Conference Paper, February 2015, http://www.researchgate.net/publications/272584099 (accessed July 20, 2022).
47 “The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, 1992,” https://www.iau-hesd.net/sites/default/files/documents/rio_e.pdf (accessed September 24, 2022).
48 UNEP 2013. “Embedding the Environment in Sustainable Development Goals,” UNEP Post-2015, Discussion Paper 1, III, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi, https://uscib.org/docs/GEDsite_UNEP_Post2015_Paper.pdf (accessed September 24, 2022).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anand Kumar
Anand Kumar (Retd), Research Fellow, National Maritime Foundation, is a research scholar at the Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. The views expressed are his own and do not represent the official policies of the Indian Navy or the Government of India. He can be reached at: [email protected].
K. Parameswaran
K. Parameswaran is an Associate Professor of Law and former Dean of Academics at Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar. He pioneered a law subject, “Law, Religion, Spirituality & Justice”, and a methodology of “Ethics through Skill Development (ESD)” for the legal profession. He represents Government of India in the Governing Board of Auroville Foundation under the Ministry of Education (MoE), UNESCO, the World Commission on Environmental Law & International Consortium for Law & Religion. He can be reached at: [email protected]