Fisheries Extension Education (2+1)

6.5.1 Introduction

Conflicts refer to any situation in which there are incompatible goals whithin or between individuals or groups that lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction. Conflicts over access and control of fisheries and aquatic resources are a global phenomenon. Conflicts emerge when the interests of two or more parties clash and atleast one of the parties seeks to assert their interest at the expense of the other partys interest.  

Conflicts over resource use in fisheries have been escalating all over the world and it is more pronounced in South East Asia. The productive fishery resource of this region provided the much needed employment and income requirements of the population. Increasing fishing pressure due to rapid population increase, economic incentives , increasing demands and the high equation over harvesting of these resources have resulted in bitter competition for resource between small scale and large scale fishing operators. Further , monitoring of conservation of endangered aquatic animals and increasing non-fisheries activities like industrial growth, tourism industry along the coast lines have made these issues more complicated and complex. The rapid population growth rate, increased poverty, increasing standards of living often force the resource users to employ more effective, capital- intensive, but destructive, fishing technologies which further aggravates the conflicts.

Over capacity is one of the situation that leads to resource use conflicts in several contexts. Over capacity is the situation where the capacity to capture is much more than the target to be captured. Over capacity and resource use conflicts are intricately linked. There are social factors bring about over capacity, which, in turn leads to various negative impacts. (Pascoe and Greboval, 2003). Over capacity in fisheries has been noted in Bangladesh (Rahman, et al., 2003), India (Vivekanandan, et al., 2003), and Srilanka (Samaraanayake, 2003). The terms over capacity and excess capacity are used interchangeably.

(Pascoe, S. and D. Greboval, Editors 2003. Measuring capacity in fisheries, FAO, Fisheries Technical Paper No. 445. FAO, Rome, Italy, 314p)