The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) is contemplating a new law that will override the Coastal Zone Regulation Notification 1991. Although the text of this notification is not yet in the public domain, it may appear quite suddenly and erase the existing regulatory framework governing activities on coastline.
On May 24 and 25, 2007, media reports said such a notification was on its way.A World Bank document--Project Information Document on a proposed Coastal Zone Integrated Man-agement--dated February 26, 2007, reads "A new draft Notification titled Coastal Zone Management is expected to be posted on the moef website for public discussion by February 2007."
It took a World Bank document to tell us about a draft notification to be posted on the moef website in the next 48 hours. By implication, even before people had access to it, even before it was introduced in parliament, the World Bank knew about it.
With a leaked copy of the notification, three researchers have brought the content, intent and process behind this new law under the scanner in this report published by the ngo Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in July 2007. In a short but succinct critique--11 pages--they capture the events leading to the draft notification, review the first law for coastal protection that has witnessed "near-zero implementation", as Sudarshan Rodriguez says, adding, "To say near zero, is to be charitable, as it was a tale of violations all through."
The researchers have contested two main premises advanced by moef for introducing a shift in perceiving coastal environmental governance from regulatory to managerial. Their analysis of several terminologies and scientifically inaccurate definitions in the draft notification tells readers how those who drafted this notification appear to have been more moved by land use than coastal protection. It would have been in order if authors examined how international financial institutes responded to the tsunami, not merely in terms of relief and reconstruction, but in using it to introduce cognitive changes in environmental policymakers.
The report provides leads for further reading and is going to be a useful resource for the struggle forged by fish workers to protect and defend coastal land from invasive development.