Clam fishery campal will remain closed from 11 August 2026 for two months as conservation step on part of the fishers. Two months closure is designed in order to strengthen principle of sustainability in clam fishery in Mandovi river.
Two months shut down of clam fisheries is rewarding in both ecological and economic sense. Two months of non-fishing allows clams to grow without interruptions and size of clams grows bigger fetching good income too.
There are number of community conservation practices in place all over the world. However they are not recognized nor rewarded and most often remains ignored. Campal fishery consists of around 25 fishers; most of whom are members of All Goa Small Scale Responsible Fisheries Union (AGSSRFU)
Octopus fishery in Kenya too has elements of community conservation as we learned from our interactions with African fishers in Mombasa through Community Action for Nature Conservation (CANCO).
Conservation is contested arena where marine areas are demarcated as protected areas without community involvement in decision making that alienates fishing communities. Due to this situation number of conservation projects in the world are facing resistance. Number of international organisations are facing this challenge.
I had raised this issue in my capacity as delegate to the metting at FAO SSF summit at Rome in 2024 while representing small scale fishers at that international forum too where international delegates from many other countries supported National Federation of Small-Scale Fishworkers (NFSF) position on community conservation.
There is no better condition for marine conservation when community of fishers decides to self- administer the same.
Kudos to Campal fishers of Goa, India for their sensitivity and sensible efforts at community conservation. We only hope that Panjim sewage is stopped from release in Mandovi where their canoes dock.
Sebastian Rodrigues
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