Institutional landscapes affecting small-scale fishing in Southern Sri Lanka - legal pluralism and its socio-economic effects

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the variety of institutional arrangements affecting smallscale fishing in southern Sri Lanka, highlighting legal pluralism and focusing particularly on its consequences for livelihoods and resource conservation. Evidence derives from two landing centres in Hambantota District, and is grouped according to three institutional types: norms, community working rules and state working rules. The authors argue that these institutions play differential roles in providing access to fishing, preventing conflict, structuring fishing operations, reducing risks and conserving resources. Interactions between state and community legal systems consist of four types -indifference, competition, accommodation and mutual support. Institutional effectiveness is threatened most where implementation is poor or rules are in direct competition.

Between the sea and the land: small-scale fishers and multiple vulnerabilities in Sri Lanka

“…Hence, their ability to withstand challenges varies. This has been highlighted in research conducted from geopolitical (Bavinck, 2015;Stirrat, 2018), postwar (Lokuge & Munas, 2011;Soosai Siluvaithasan & Stokke, 2006), governance (Wickramasinghe & Bavinck, 2015) and political ecological perspectives (Ajit et al, 2016). All these studies prove that the livelihoods of SSFs in Sri Lanka are embedded in complex contexts and multiple vulnerabilities.…”

‘Even fish have an ethnicity’: livelihoods and identities of men and women in war-affected coastal Trincomalee, Sri Lanka

“…Based on a legal pluralist viewpoint, Wickramasinghe and Bavinck (2015) have argued that state and community institutions have both a parallel and a contradictory impact on fisheries governance, and the current analysis supports this point. In certain instances, the institutional and normative multiplicity of the state and community results in clashes, as shown by the case of the Kinniya Muslim disco net fishers who defy the state authorities and rely on community-based linkages to legitimise their fishing activity.…”

“…Whereas fisheries regulation by the district fisheries officers seems a mundane and almost negligible issue on the south and north coasts of Sri Lanka (see Scholtens, 2016;Wickramasinghe and Bavinck, 2015), this is different in Trincomalee, not least because of the post-war involvement of the Navy in enforcing fishing regulations on banned fishing methods in the sea. This involvement of the Navy is mandated, as, after the war ended, state regulatory authorities increased their presence and reach in relation to banned fishing methods in Trincomalee in an attempt to reclaim the sea space and resource governance mandate.…”

“…The importance of these fisheries organisations in fisheries governance is context-specific. In southern coastal communities, these organisations seem to be limited to providing welfare and credit (Wickramasinghe and Bavinck, 2015), but they continue to play a significant role in northern communities (Scholtens, 2016). In the case of Trincomalee, these organisations have had varying levels of significance, especially in relation to governance and the enforcement of norms and rules.…”

“…Fisheries governance in Sri Lanka has generally been studied using a co-management or legal pluralist approach, and the geographical focus has been the country's ethnically homogeneous Southern and Northern Provinces (Bavinck et al, 2015;Wickramasinghe and Bavinck, 2015). A few studies have explored issues of livelihood entitlements and competition over resources, ethnic discourses and changing legitimacies during the war in Sri Lanka (Korf, 2005).…”