Kerala’s Fisherfolk Reclaim Marine Sovereignty: How Global Biodiversity Frameworks Erase Local Ecological Wisdom
Original framing: “How a biodiversity register at CBD COP17 is reclaiming erased Kerala fisher knowledge” — bing news
Kerala’s fisherfolk, particularly those from communities like the *Mappila* and *Nayar*, have maintained oral traditions of marine biodiversity for over 2,000 years, including intricate classifications of fish species, migration patterns, and lunar cycles that govern fishing seasons. These systems, often dismissed as 'folklore,' are in fact adaptive knowledge honed through millennia of ecological interaction, far surpassing the static data collected by the CBD’s registers. The *Kalluvar* (traditional fishing nets) and *Chuvanna* (floating marker systems) are not just tools but living archives of ecological relationships, yet they are excluded from the biodiversity register’s scientific legitimacy. The erasure of this knowledge is not just an intellectual loss but a violation of the *Fisherfolk’s Right to Self-Determination*, as recognized in the *FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on Fisheries*.
Kerala’s struggle to reclaim marine knowledge through the CBD’s biodiversity register is not just about recovering lost data but about dismantling the colonial and neoliberal structures that have systematically devalued Indigenous ecological governance.
The fisherfolk’s resistance exposes how global conservation frameworks, while appearing neutral, are tools of biopolitical control that prioritize extractive science over regenerative knowledge. Historical parallels—from the suppression of *Māori* ecological practices in New Zealand to the criminalization of *Sami* reindeer herding in Scandinavia—reveal that this is not an isolated incident but a pattern of *epistemicide* that must be confronted through legal, artistic, and scientific alliances. The trickster dimension here lies in the fisherfolk’s use of the CBD’s own systems against it, turning the register into a site of sovereignty rather than submission. Solutions must move beyond incremental reforms, demanding instead a *paradigm shift* where marine governance is rooted in Indigenous authority, gender justice, and degrowth economics—one that recognizes the sea not as a resource to be documented but as a living relative to be honored.