Social media video featuring the project.
Vedharajan Balaji
Other projects
18 Jan 2016
Strengthening Participatory Dugong Habitat Conservation and Awareness in Northern Palk Bay
5 Aug 2019
Upgrading Dugong Rescue and Release Unit and Expanding Volunteer Network with Local Stakeholders
The project is aimed to conduct a basic livelihood assessment in three villages and to organize village awareness events in coastal villages and schools about dugong-seagrass conservation. It is also aimed to create dugong seagrass volunteer team in coastal villages and train them in rescue and release of dugongs. Village meetings will conduct to sign an agreement for supporting seagrass community reserves in the selected project sites. Finally conservation livelihood support village provided to the selected villages as compensation based on the livelihood assessment carried out in the beginning of the project.
Fishing pressure has been challenging the sustainability of sea grass fishery resources and Dugongs in Palk Bay. We believe establishing community based protected sites is forming positive relationship with and within communities. Apart from our promises for better fishery productivity in community reserves, the relationship with communities has been boosted by providing positive livelihood support like building a “net repairing sheds” in two fishing villages in our previous booster grant project. With significant progress, now we want to extend the same concept to three more villages, so the communities can join in our ongoing “seagrass protected sites” concept by a) following no fishing activities in marked zones b) safe guarding seagrass transplantation work at sea c) cooperating with our organization for dugong rescue and release d) to participate in our squid breeding project next year.
The project site is located along the coast of northern Palk Bay, southeast coast of India. We work in the same geographic location for more than ten years with a focus for grassroots conservation. The project is expected following outputs i.e.
1) A total number of five fishing villages will be included to jointly manage the fishery practices in the protected seagrass site.
2) Fishing will be regulated step by step in the selected village coastal areas.
3) Seagrass transplantation field work will be extended into other village coastal areas with the support of local government.
4) The village volunteer’s team will be helpful for immediate response to stranded dugongs.
5) Fishery productivity with special reference to cuttle fishes and squids, will be increased if the seagrass beds will be undisturbed in the protected sites.
The village level meetings will be monitored through number of meetings conducted with the signature of participants, photographs and video clips. The total number of villages (people) participated in our meetings will decide the success. If we reach more people, the seagrass conservation message will reach widely, which would help to prepare a draft of agreement to establish community based protected sites in forthcoming years. The level of success among school events will be monitored by conducting drawing/writing competitions, which would express the understanding of youths/students about local seagrass ecosystem. The progress of building net repairing sheds will be photographed monthly in all the three villages until the end of work.