Browsing by Author "Deepananda, K.H.M.A."

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Community based management practices in the coastal fisheries of southern Sri Lanka and strategies for sustainability
(2016) Deepananda, K.H.M.A.
Herklotsichthys quadrimaculatus Korumburuwa in the stilt fishery in Southern Sri Lanka: Are they really poisonous?
(Sri Lanka Journal of Aquatic Sciences, 2016) Deepananda, K.H.M.A.; Amarasinghe, U.S.; Jayasinghe-Mudalige, U.K.
Indigenous knowledge in the beach seine fisheries in Sri Lanka: An indispensable factor in community-based fisheries management
(Journal of Marine Policy, 2015) Deepananda, K.H.M.A.; Amarasinghe, U.S.; Jayasinghe-Mudalige, U.K.
Small-scale fishing over the globe is based primarily on fisher indigenous knowledge (IK), accumulated through many generations of close interactions between people and the natural world. Community-based beach seine fisher communities of southern Sri Lanka were studied through standard ethnographic methods to ascertain the traditional method in using fishers’ IK, and explore empirically the accuracy in using those methods distilled from the traditional fishers. Study revealed that, inter alia, traditional fishers use IK to predict the commencement of fishing season, and identify and quantify the species composition occurring at their fishing territory. Ten traditional methods those which are important for identifying and quantifying the fish school were distilled. Explored methods frequently used by traditional fishers were based on the changes of seawater color (folk oceanography) and the behaviour of sea terns (Sterna sp.). Traditional fishers’ responses on frequency of utility of explored methods in day-to-day fishing activities were in accordance with the findings of the empirical study. Moreover, principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that PC score loading in fishers’ expectation and fishers’ realization had a positive significant relationship (r=0.814, p<0.001). This indicated that traditional fishers’ expectation on composition and quantity of fish school arriving at fishing territory (ex-ante) is accurate and reliable at the realization (ex-post). As such, there exist opportunities to fisheries co-management for the coastal fisheries in Sri Lanka, incorporating fishers’ indigenous knowledge in resource exploitation.
Institutional robustness averts Hardin’s tragedy of the commons in the community-based beach seine fisheries in Sri Lanka
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Deepananda, K.H.M.A.; Amarasinghe, U.S.; Jayasinghe-Mudalige, U.K.
Small scale coastal fisheries accounts for nearly 40% of world fish catches and provide direct employment for more than 90% of the world fishers employed in capture fisheries. Subsequent recognition of the failures of centralized fisheries management led the governments to accept community-based management as an invaluable means to formulate fisheries management. Such traditional management practices exist in beach seine fisheries of Sri Lanka. Study ascertains and documents the rules and norms that are in general not formerly codified in writing, and evaluate empirically the compliance of elements of customary governance with Ostrom‘s modified design principles (MDP) for long enduring commons management systems. Eight beach seine fisher communities were studied using standard ethnographic methods, and evaluation of compliance with MDP was carried out by administering structured questionnaires. Fishing rights in contiguous sea were vested to the villagers who lived in the sea front, as a residential proximity right. Due to this tradition, the ownership of a beach seine and fishing rights came in three ways identified as: exclusive right, primary rights and secondary right. Sole authority for governing the commons was vested to community organization termed ―madelsamithi‖, considered as the local administrative unit. Institution governing the commons addressed the excludability problem by defining fishing territory, eligibility rules and intercommunity access rule, while subtractability problem was addressed by gear rules, temporal allocation rules, first comer rules, fishing behaviour rules, conservation rules, and rules for distribution of benefits. Institutional architecture of beach seine fisher communities exhibited the high compliance with MDP. Out of the 11 MDP, fisher communities showed very high compliance with four MDP and high compliance with six MDP. Only one MDP had a lower level compliance. As empirical evaluation on architecture of customary institutions shows high compliance with MDP, beach seine fisher communities can be treated as those govern commons through selfgoverning institutions. Beach seining in southern Sri Lanka is, therefore an example for wellmanaged commons that relies on strong, locally crafted rules as well as evolved norms, where institutional and governance mechanisms have essentially averted the ―tragedy of the commons‖. Study provides the starkness to the notion that local actors in tropical communitybased marine resource systems overcome the tragedy of the commons through robust selfgoverning institutions.
Neither bust nor boom: Institutional robustness in the beach seine fishery of southern Sri Lanka
(2016) Deepananda, K.H.M.A.; Amarasinghe, U.S.; Jayasinghe-Mudalige, U.K.
Many fisheries authorities in the world have been compelled to accept community-based management as an invaluable means to formulate fisheries management due to failures of small-scale fisheries exclusively managed by centralized units. Beach seine fishing practices in Sri Lanka are known to be institutionalized by traditional community-based coastal fisheries management systems. Eight beach seine fisher communities in southern Sri Lanka were studied, using standard ethnographic methods, to ascertain and document the rules and norms that are in general not formerly codified in writing, and evaluate empirically the compliance of institutional arrangements with Ostrom's modified design principles for long enduring common pool resources (CPR) management systems. Fishing rights were vested to the villagers as a residential proximity right. Due to this tradition, ownership of a beach seine and fishing rights at fishing territory vested them as; exclusive, primary or secondary rights. The sole authority for governing CPR was vested to community organization termed “madel samithi” (beach seine society), which can be treated as the local administrative unit. Institutions governing the CPR addressed the excludability problem by defining fishing territory, eligibility rules and intercommunity access rule, while subtractability problem was addressed by gear rules, temporal allocation rules, first comer rules, fishing behaviour rules, conservation rules, and rules for distribution of benefits. The study highlighted that institutional architecture of beach seine fishery of southern Sri Lanka comprised all modified design principles and, 90.9% of those exhibited higher compliance (54.5% – high compliance and 36.4% – very high compliance) with modified design principles. Higher compliance of institutional arrangements with modified design principles indicates robust and stable self-governing institutions. Beach seine fishing in southern Sri Lanka is therefore an example for community-based coastal fisheries management system that relies on strong, locally crafted rules as well as evolved norms, where institutional and governance mechanisms have essentially averted the tragedy, providing significant contribution to coastal economy. Study provides the starkness to the notion that local actors in tropical community-based marine resource systems overcome the CPR dilemmas through robust self-governing institutions.