Abstract
Among the many models proposed to address vulnerability and poverty in fisheries, this chapter takes a social capital approach. It focuses particularly on the role of cooperatives in providing small-scale fishers with linking social capital. The latter allows for the transfer of resources from other societal levels, such as government. The chapter is based on a study carried out in two landing centers in the Hambantota District of southern Sri Lanka. Fishers in this region suffer major problems as a result of weakly developed credit, product and insurance markets, increasing costs of fishing equipment, and deficient educational and training services. Cooperatives have played a positive role in all these fields, improving the resilience of small-scale fishing households significantly. Two qualifications are, however, in order. The first is that not all fishing cooperatives in Sri Lanka function effectively. The research sample, which contrasted a well-functioning with a weakly functioning cooperative, demonstrates the range of results available. Second, cooperatives have been more oriented toward promoting welfare than toward resource conservation, and have contributed to a potentially harmful increase of fishing effort. In order to remain successful over the long term, cooperative leaders will need to start paying attention to resource governance.
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Notes
- 1.
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction website http://www.unisdr.org/eng/terminology/terminology-2004-eng.html (accessed May 18, 2011)
- 2.
This is, in fact, the brighter side of social capital. Durlauf and Fafchamps (2004) has also noted the darker side of it – the possibility of social capital ties leading to immoral or unproductive behavior, and its use to overtake others, generating political tension and inequalities among groups.
- 3.
Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, information obtained from the statistical division.
- 4.
USD = 113 Rupees.
- 5.
The landing center in Bata Atha South is called “Kalametiya” Landing Center, while the fisheries cooperative society is called the “Bata Atha South Fisheries Cooperative Society.”
- 6.
Fishing cooperatives were able to borrow from state banks under various loan schemes and disbursed such funds through their own programs, earning an interest income. Co-ops have also been able to access assistance through “linking social-capital” (as explained later in this paper).
- 7.
Bata Atha cooperative members, in particular, have benefited from these programs. This village is not served by public transport; and the major means of transport is by the “three wheeler” (small scooter), the purchase of most of which have been financed by the Bata Atha co-op. While providing employment to the youth, this assistance scheme has facilitated the establishment of a good transport network within the village.
- 8.
In Sri Lanka as a whole, it is hard to state with precision that coastal fisheries are operating beyond MSY, because coastal fish landings have not shown a clear-cut decline during the last two decades. This is unlikely to happen under the open-access situation. However, we are speaking of multi-species fisheries, and we must have lost some species (species extinction) in the process.
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Acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge assistance rendered, during field studies, by Mr. Sumith and Miss Malika of Bata Atha South; and Mr. Jayatilleke and Miss Nashira of Rekawa, all of whom not only helped me to conduct field studies, but also provided me with valuable information on fisheries in the study areas. My thanks are also due to services rendered by Miss Inoka as the data entry operator, and office assistance extended by Mr. A. Somasiri, Mr. Munasinghe, and Mr. Chandana of the Department of Agricultural Economics of the University of Ruhuna. I greatly acknowledge valuable comments made by Professor Svein Jentoft of MaReMa – Centre of Marine Resource Management, University of Tromsø, Norway, from the first draft, until the final product. Thanks are also extended to the Norwegian Research Council for funding the PovFish project.
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Amarasinghe, O., Bavinck, M. (2011). Building Resilience: Fisheries Cooperatives in Southern Sri Lanka. In: Jentoft, S., Eide, A. (eds) Poverty Mosaics: Realities and Prospects in Small-Scale Fisheries. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1582-0_17
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