Participants at the meeting called upon the Kerala tourism to withdraw its decision to announce Munnar as Special Tourism Zone under the purview of Kerala Tourism (Conservation And Preservation Of Areas) Act 2005.The workshop demanded to withdraw the act itself because this is highly bureaucratic, anti people and against the principles of decentralisation.

In his speech, Dr.T.T.Sreekumar, Asst. Professor of Singapore National University and noted economist pointed out that the available data published by Tourism department and tourism industry on tourism’s share in Kerala economy is manipulated. Official information provided by the State Planning Board and the Department of Tourism can be viewed as an attempt to cover up the insignificant role of the tourism sector to the state economy. It is not known how these data are computed. The bureaucracy and industry lobby invariably attempting to portray tourism as a major economic activity in the state for acquiring unequal shares of subsidies and profits. In this context, government should form a people’s commission to properly evaluate the share of tourism to Kerala’s economy, he added. Sreekumar called upon Kerala Tourism and industry lobby for an open debate with civil society in this matter.

During his presentation Sri.Joji Koottummel of Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishath (KSSP) said that Kerala Tourism is undermining the powers of Panchayat Raj Institutions by implementing the Kerala Tourism Act 2005.The decision of Tourism Ministry to announce 4 tourism zones within the state would be directly affect the powers and functions of Panchayat Raj Institutions in the state. According to this act, planning of development activities in these proposed zones would need approval of a committee, which consists only bureaucrats. Ultimately this act is bypassing the powers of Panchayat Raj Institutions, which they obtain through 73rd and 74th amendment of Indian constitution.

Case studies from various tourism destinations presented during the panel discussion were the testimony of the unsustainable tourism development in the state, which caused pollution of water bodies, loss of livelihood, encroachments of common property resources and denying access to the resources to communities.

The workshop opined that the tourism development in Kerala is uncontrolled so as unsustainable. The papers presented during the workshops shows that encroachments on common resources and properties are very common in the state especially in tourist destinations. Which affects many communities and their livelihood. The workshop demanded that government should withdraw the anti – Panchayat Raj and anti – people Kerala Tourism (Conservation And Preservation Of Areas) Act 2005 and government should formulate a legislation that should ensure the right of communities and local population over the natural and other resources including land. The present action of the government to invite global tender for Munnar tourism zone is part of the strategy to bring big companies including foreign investments to Munnar.

Speaking on the panel discussion on Coastal regulation Zone and coastal mananagement plan, Sri.Sudarshan Rodriguez (Marine conservation expert, Chennai) pointed out that the proposed Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) Notification is yet another example of the MoEF’s ‘double speak’ on environment issues and recent policy reforms. The notification talking about subjects like ‘sustainable development’, ‘sustainable livelihoods’ and ‘conservation of ecologically and culturally significant coastal resources’ as its objectives but the subsequent clauses contain no indication of how these objectives will be accomplished. The CZM Notification in its present form exemplifies the recent negative trend of ‘regulatory capture’ – a conscious process where environmental governance is influenced by commercial lobbies and environmental laws are dictated by investment priorities.

Leo Saldanha, Environment Support Group, Bangalore added that policies like proposed Coastal Zone management plan, Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006 are taking place in an undemocratic manner. It violates many of the constitutional rights of the people. He pointed out that The Ministry made no effort to meaningfully involve Indian parliament, legislatures, local governments and the wider public at any stages of the formulation process. These legislations clearly prioritize the needs of the industry and investment over environmental and social concerns.

During his presentation Dr.Sanjeev Ghosh said that the proposed CZMP would bypass the powers of the Panchayat Raj Institutions. The Land reforms implemented in Kerala would be destabilized by this plan. He pointed out that there was no discussion in either in the Parliament or any other legislature bodies before introducing such a plan.

Sri.T.Peter, President, Kerala State Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (Kerala State Independent Fish workers Union) demanded that government should withdraw from its attempt to undermine Coastal regulation Zone notification by implementing new CZMP. The proposed CZMP is not considering fishermen and their livelihood at any stage, he pointed out. This CZMP will make way to tourism industry to the whole coastal area of Kerala.This shows the commercial interests behind this proposals. These proposals are not explicitly state the necessity of protecting traditional and customary rights of fishing communities in the coastal zone he added.

Father James Culas was the moderator of the session.

The workshop opine that these policy formulations are intended to facilitate commercial and investment interests in the coastal zones. They are likely to pave the way for unsustainable and uncontrollable tourism and other developmental activities in the coast. This should be rejected particularly in view of the fact that there has been no process of consultation with stakeholders, especially, fishing communities and their organizations, the traditional inhabitants of the coast, by either the Swaminthan Committee or the MoEF. Such attempts are clearly undemocratic, and will raise serious questions about the intention of the government on a matter that has serious long-term implications for the fishing communities.

Sumesh Mangalassery, Sudheer.P.K, Jobi, Saroop Roy.B.R, Deepu, Santhosh Kumar.K.C, Mythri Prasad, Robin and M.A.Sekhar are among others who spoke in the meeting.