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Coastal Mangrove Forests: Micro-Geopolitics of Resistance and Social Innovation for Environmental Sustainability

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Abstract

This chapter argues that at the heart of social innovation for environmental sustainability are the issues of space, scale, and power, which present themselves in the form of various puzzles, especially when approached in the context of climate change. Since communities are the basic building blocks of “social” they remain central to “social innovation.” Taking as its key examples the Indian Sundarbans in the Bay of Bengal and Zhangjiangkou Mangrove Forestry National Nature Reserve in Yunxiao county of Fujian province of China, the chapter shows how communities located on sites characterized by multiple marginalities (geographical, socioeconomic, and cultural) perceive and approach impacts of environmental unsustainability and incremental climate change in both material-physical and ideational-representational terms. Environmental sustainability, both on land and at sea, is unlikely to be realized in the absence of a pursuit of social innovation through a micro-geopolitics of resistance anchored in participatory democracy and environmental-social justice.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program has included the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in the Global Network of Island and Coastal Biosphere Reserves contributing to Action on Climate Change and Sustainable Development .

  2. 2.

    The Indian Sundarbans Delta is bounded by the Ichamati-Raimangal River in the east, by the Hugli River in the west, by the Bay of Bengal in the south, and the Dampier-Hodges line drawn in 1829–1830 in the north.

  3. 3.

    The major villages on this island include Khasimara, Hathkola, Baghpara, Raipara, Mandirtala, Chunpuri Lakshmi Narayanpur and Khasimara Char.

  4. 4.

    Government of India Census 2011.

  5. 5.

    The Stable Zone contains established settlements, both peri- and semi-urban environments , such as Bakkhali, Canning, Jayanagar-Majilpur, Kakdwip, Minakhan, Namkhana, Sagar Island, and Tengrabichi.

  6. 6.

    According to the WB Report, “The findings of a household survey conducted as a part of this Non-Lending Technical Assistance (NLTA) indicate that, of a typical group of a thousand residents, 190 get only one day meal a day, for 60 of whom it will be a substandard meal. Of those thousand, 510 (mostly children) suffer from some form of malnutrition. If the sample came from the “richest’ administrative block of the region, 310 of those thousand would still be below the poverty line; a sample in the poorest part of the region would see 650 of those thousand live below the poverty line.” p. 1.

  7. 7.

    “Summary description: Fujian Zhangjiangkou National Mangrove Nature Reserve. 02/02/08; Fujian; 2358 ha; 23°552 N 117°252E). National Nature Reserve. Dominated by mangrove forest in the estuary area and including intertidal mudflats and salt marshes, located in the estuary of Zhangjian River. Due to high productivity, high decomposition and restitution rate, the mangrove coastal marsh and coastal arenaceous vegetation provides habitat for more than 154 birds species, including IUCN Red-listed species like Daimao (Eretmochelys imbricate), Lengpigui (Dermochelys coriacea), Xigui (Caretta caretta), Taipingyangligui (Lepidochelys olivacea), Huangzuibailu (Egretta eulophotes), andHeizuiou (Larus saundersi), as well as 240 other aquatic animal species and 224 vascular plants. It is also a spawning and breeding place for important fish species like Yicheng (Sinonovacula constricat), Banji (Clupanodom puncthatus), and Ziyu (Mugil cephalus). The site plays an important role in typhoon resistance, coastline protection, purifying water and maintenance of regional microclimate. Aquaculture is practiced here for local economic purposes.” Source: Wetland International China.

    See shttp://www.wetwonder.org/en/news_show.asp?id=476

  8. 8.

    See www.greenmap.org/greenhouse/en/node/6874

  9. 9.

    See Ibid. p. 20. The list of 26 Acts/Policies and Programs includes 1882 India Forest Act, 1897 Indian Fisheries Act, 1908 Indian Ports Act, 1950 Coast Guard Act, 1958 Merchant Shipping Act, 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, 1974 Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution), 1976 Maritime Zones Act, 1978 Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1980 Forest Conservation Act, 1982 Coastal Pollution Control Series, 1986 Environmental Protection Act (EPA), 1991 Costal Regulation Zone Notification (under EPA 1986), 1991 Coastal Ocean Monitoring and Prediction System, 1995 National Environment Tribunal Act, 1995 UNCLOS, 1996 Coastal Zone Management Plans, 1997 National Environment Appellate Authority Act, 1998 Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project, 1998 Ocean Observation and Information Services, 1998 Turtle Excluder Device, 1998 DOD Program on Assessing Marine Life beyond 70 m depth, 2002 The Biodiversity Act, 2004 Swaminathan Review Committee on CRZ Notification 1991, 2006 National Environment Policy and 2007 Draft National Biodiversity Action Plan.

  10. 10.

    Pandurang Hegde, in correspondence with the author, 26 October 2012.

  11. 11.

    Pandurang Hegde in correspondence/conversation with the author through email. 26 October 2012.

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Acknowledgments

I gratefully recall and acknowledge here the powerful intervention made by Dr. Lily Ling of The New School, New York, on ‘decolonization of mind’ during Q & A of session 3 of the ICI Conference, Environment in India and China, held on 1 December 1, 2012. Her critical scholarship and relentless search for ‘multiple worlds’ in international relations is a major source of inspiration for this study.

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  1. Centre for the Study of Geopolitics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Sanjay Chaturvedi (Professor)

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Correspondence to Sanjay Chaturvedi .

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  1. School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Shikui Dong

  2. Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, India

    Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

  3. Centre for the Study of Geopolitics, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India

    Sanjay Chaturvedi

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Chaturvedi, S. (2017). Coastal Mangrove Forests: Micro-Geopolitics of Resistance and Social Innovation for Environmental Sustainability. In: Dong, S., Bandyopadhyay, J., Chaturvedi, S. (eds) Environmental Sustainability from the Himalayas to the Oceans. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44037-8_8

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