"We attempted to bring the Indian trawler issue in to main stream through facts"- Says Maarten Bavinck

There is much information surfaced on Indian trawler issue since 2004 with the initiation of People to people  dialogue between Sri Lankan and Tamil Nadu. The Indian Trawling issue was core among Northern fishermen after the war ended in 2009. Northern fishermen came into the water with the created space even though limited, that is more than time of the war.
So the Reincorpfish program began with the intention to do research and to feed into the on going  policy dialogue.
"We expected to find a sustainable solution to the Indian trawler issue while filling the gaps of knowldge through research which could use for feed into the policy formulation. So we launched both research and policy dialogue taking a bottom up approach strengthening the fishermen's capacities."
Prof. Maarten Bavick, team leader of the Reincorpfish narrated at the meeting held at NARA, in Mutwal today.

The secretary of Ministry of Fisheries Mrs. Adhikari said at the meeting that "we are not bother about the livelihoods of the Indian fishermen. But we need to ensure the livelihoods of northern Sri Lankan fishermen. We have nothing to do with the State government of Tamil Nadu. However, we take the issue upto central government and attemot to find sustainable solution."

The officials who attended the meeting from the Secretary of MoF or the DG fisheries to others fron Navy and others attended the meeting very aggressively take a stand for the issues of northern province fishermen which is very important development.
However, it is complex situation of socio, political and economic condition in both the sides in the Palk Bay. How we address the excluded fishing communities issues  considering the all the potential changes  is challenge ahead even though the Reincorpfish 5 year project is over.