Kerala

Guest post by Priya Desai

Background

This was organised by the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE). Held on May 26th 2011, we were joined by around 150 to 200 student volunteers from various higher educational institutions in Kerala, such as the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, St. Albert's College in Ernakulam, School of Applied Life Sciences in Chuttippara and the School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University.

Organizers:

• Centre of Gandhian Studies, University of Kerala
• Kerala Biodiversity Board

Venue: University Senate Chamber, Thiruvanthapuram

Organizer: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) - Community Environmental Resource Centre (CERC)

Venue: St.George Parish Hall, Muhamma, Kerala

Warm Greetings from Eram Scientific Solutions!!!

, is the part of USD $1 Billion, Eram Group. Eram Scientific is based out of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala and working for addressing the pressing needs of the society through the effective use of Technology. We are giving much emphasis to R&D and now developing solutions to prevent Food Adulteration, Ensuring Women Safety, and Using Non Conventional Energy. 

 Delight is the blend of Information Communication and Engineering Technologies.

This policy document by the Department of Environment, Government of Kerala highlights the need for conservation of natural resources in the state of Kerala, in the context of increasing exploitation of resources and deterioration of the environment in the state.

The policy aims at mainstreaming environmental concerns in all the developmental activities and  argues that the most secure basis for conservation is to ensure that people dependent on resources obtain better livelihoods from conservation, rather than degradation of resources.

Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) organised a panel discussion at Sasthra Bhavan on Saturday, 19th March 2011, in connection with the celebration of World Water Day which falls on March 22.

 'The Bill proposes to get compensation from the company and to form a tribunal to provide time-bound compensation. The tribunal is to have a chairman, a technical member and an administrative member'.

Theme: Adverse impacts of uncontrolled sand mining in the rivers

Organizer: Center for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM)

Venue: Kozhikode, Kerala

The second international symposium on the management of large rivers for fisheries was held by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and Mekong River Commission on 11 - 14 February 2003 in Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. It had three primary objectives: (a) To provide a forum to review and synthesise the latest information on large rivers; (b) To raise the political, public and scientific awareness of the importance of river systems, the living aquatic resources they support and the people that depend on them; and (c) To contribute to better management, conservation and restoration of the living aquatic resources of large rivers.

The symposium was organised in six sessions:

Session 1: Status of rivers
Session 2: Value of river fisheries
Session 3: Fisheries ecology and conservation
Session 4: Management of river fisheries
Session 5: Statistics and information
Session 6: Synthesis

 It came up with the following recommendations for action -

• Improve the valuation of living river resources in order to contribute to equitable and sustainable management of fishery resources and properly place the fishery in the context of the other uses of rivers.
• Direct greater effort to better understanding the social and economic aspects of fisheries to support policy and management priorities; livelihood approaches will be a valuable tool.
• Communicate and engage with environment and water resources managers within the context of multi-use of water in order to accurately assess impacts and to sustain the benefits of river fisheries in an equitable manner.
• Develop processes that facilitate the users and beneficiaries of the fishery resource to assume greater control of its management.
• Establish appropriate mechanisms at national and basin level to enable negotiation for the needs of communities dependent upon the living aquatic resources. In particular further regulations need to be elaborated to protect general ecosystem function and provide for environmental flows.
• Use instruments such as the freshwater eco-regions approach, the Ramsar Convention and the guidelines for water allocation suggested by the World Commission on Dams, to enhance planning for conservation and sustainable use of river habitats.
• Incorporate ecological flow requirements of river-floodplain systems into development plans and impact assessments that affect river flows, taking into account the seasonality of the system and the environmental cues needed by the fish for migration and reproduction.
• Rehabilitate degraded ecosystems wherever possible. Prioritize schemes that ensure connectivity and protection of critical habitats.

The authors study three tanks; one each in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala and find that almost all tanks in Southern India face similar problems that include farmers in command area being deprived of water, siltation, lack of proper maintenance of such structures, lack of political will to decentralise authority to tank institutions etc.