Wetlands are the lifeline of a nation. They are natural reservoirs, taking up the role as coastal bio-shields and act as a flood control measure. India cannot be indifferent to the ecological, economic and human linkages of ecosystems and their interdependence. Freshwater scarcity has raised the consciousness to the need for an overarching legislation that helps protect our river basins, floodplains, lakes or aquifers, mangroves, swamps, marshes, coral reefs and peatlands. In the absence of statutory backing, wetlands continue to be degraded through indiscriminate acts of land conversion. The complexity in enacting a suitable law to protect natural resources reflects a nation’s attitude towards water conservation and security leading to sustainability of ecosystems.
The legal framework, inter alia, has to sustain the livelihoods of local communities which depend on wetland farming of produce like fish, bamboo, kelp, thatch fuel wood, medicines and building poles. Wetlands, although classified as freshwater wetlands, saltwater wetlands and coastal wetlands, need to be treated as one form of ecosystem requiring a common legal regime that links all of them. The legal framework should address several issues ailing maintenance of wetland form of ecosystem. These issues include conservation of water, habitat conservation and restoration, prevention of habitat degradation and fair and equitable distribution of wetland produce to promote sustainable development.
Wetlands play a crucial role in maintaining groundwater supply. We are failing to ensure water security for our nation by merely working at protecting forests that play a major role in the hydrological cycle and allowing our wetlands to slowly disappear. Wetlands render a wide range of ecosystem services in agriculture, sanitation, fishing,aquaculture and providing habitats to migratory species, thus gaining international importance and trans-boundary significance as a crucial ecosystem. This ecosystem protects the flora and fauna of a particular region supporting a wide range of biological diversity. The introduction of substantive law to help determine the rights and obligations of those who depend on these resources can help the community in protecting these fragile ecosystems.
Wetlands protection in India is governed by multiple provisions from a series of statutes and is not cohesive enough to make governance an easy task. Overlapping provisions and multiple jurisdictions where no single entity is entrusted with the responsibility of protecting ecosystems can lead to a situation that is chaotic and unyielding. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, 2010, passed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, restricts certain activities within protected wetlands and limits its purview to those wetlands listed under the Ramsar Convention.
India is a signatory to most of the Conventions on Biodiversity including Bonn Convention or the Convention on Migratory Species. Bonn Convention calls for a concerted action on the part of all countries to work towards conservation of migratory and endangered species through the entire range. Every country that is signatory to the Bonn Convention is expected to contribute to the restoration and conservation of habitats for migratory species that migrate from one territorial jurisdiction to another. In effect, wetland protection is incomplete without a special legislation that aims to protect endangered and migratory species, prevents habitat degradation by curtailing illegal hunting and takings, provides means to mitigate by-catch.
It is time we looked beyond Ramsar Convention, a convention on wetlands that promotes ‘wise use’ of trans-boundary wetlands and creates a list of those wetlands that have gained international importance. Montreux Record, a part of Ramsar List, is a register which lists those wetlands “where changes in ecological character have occurred, are occurring, or are likely to occur as a result of technological developments, pollution or other human interference.” On restoration, these listed wetlands are removed from the list and placed under the original Ramsar list. Some of our protected wetlands are yet to be removed from the Montreux Record, denoting the lack of accountability and absence of relevant efforts. The fact that we may have not even identified some of the wetlands that are valuable enough only reiterates the need to draw appropriate guidelines for the process. We also need to regulate artificial wetlands like irrigation tanks and temple tanks that help in groundwater recharge and save them from neglect and disuse.
The fact that wetland protection requires an integrated and holistic approach is a given, since wetlands exist as an interface between water and land resource and wetland management that should include watershed areas, catchment areas and navigable waters adjacent to wetlands.
John Powell Wesley defines watershed as
"that area of land, a bounded hydrologic system, within which all living things are inextricably linked by their common water course and where, as humans settled, simple logic demanded that they become part of a community.”
If the requirement for an overarching legislation is fulfilled, we could manage the water and land resources more effectively by regulating activities such as drainage and reclamation thereby protecting our rich heritage of biodiversity. Drainage of wetlands results in the loss of nutrients that are required to support some of the flora and fauna of wetlands while unregulated reclamation of wetlands leads to complete loss of water resources. A comprehensive legislation could be the lodestar to wetlands management, that which can protect, restore and enhance wetlands and ensure that the overall net loss of wetlands remains minimal.
A conceptual framework for wetlands and other natural resources on the procedural edifice of the public trust doctrine promotes the concept of ‘wise use’ as contemplated by the Ramsar Convention. The doctrine holds that the public has rights in public lands, waters and living resources and that the state has an obligation to preserve the resources for the benefit of its citizens. As a consequence, these public rights may not be sold, transferred or alienated, and in any such conveyance the protected public uses must be preserved for the present and future generations. The public trust doctrine helps manage shared assets of natural resources that transcend geographical and political boundaries and establish correlative rights. The doctrine furthers the concept of co-tenancy rights over the shared asset and imposes a duty upon the user not to waste resources to the detriment of the other beneficiaries.
By extending the public trust doctrine to wetlands protection, activities like drainage, dredging and filling, reclamation of wetlands could be regulated through a permit issuing program where the permit holder becomes the beneficiary. Commercial and recreational activities such as boating, fishing and navigation and other forms of ecotourism within wetlands can be regulated within the ambit of statutory law in order to help local communities use wetlands sustainably encouraging positive human impact on the ecosystem. Under this doctrine the state has a right to compel restoration of lost habitats and natural resources by suing those who have acted against the interest of the local communities that are dependent on the ecosystem for their livelihood.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) promotes the ‘ecosystem approach’ to regulate wetlands. Regulating wetland management through this approach helps meet the objectives of conservation, sustainable use and equitable distribution of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. An ecosystem approach, as defined by the Ramsar Convention, is based on the
“application of appropriate scientific methodologies focused on levels of biological organization, which encompass the essential structure, processes, functions and interactions among organisms and their environment. It recognizes the value of human impact on our ecosystems and customary practices in preserving our natural resources.”
Any legislation introduced to serve wetland protection would be incomplete if it fails to visualize the development of environmental management plans (EMPs) for watershed and catchment areas. These EMPs involve mitigation measures for habitat degradation, monitoring systems for ecological and economic aspects of the ecosystem, inventorization of wetlands by maintaining a national register and other institutional measures to eliminate adverse environmental impacts on wetlands. Ultimately, the essence of an EMPs rests in the dictum that preparation of an Environmental impact statement (EIS) be made mandatory. It is also important that the legislation promotes the use of best management practices which protect the hydrological cycle of water, control storm water and fertilizer runoff, construction of detention basins and wet ponds, control of surface and sub-surface or groundwater flow and wildlife habitat protection.
No comments:
Post a Comment