The problem

The Indian coastal region has long been agriculturally productive, especially for intensive rice cultivation with good irrigation support. The numerous river deltas have largely contributed to this. The nearly 7,500 kms. long coastline is characterised by 'hot-spots' of high population density and rapid and intense socio-economic and environmental changes. The coastal region includes megacities of Mumbai and Calcutta, numerous smaller cities, tourist resorts, fishing hamlets, fragile ecosystems of coral reefs and mangroves and industrial activities. More than half of the country's population resides in the coastal areas, causing enormous stress on the natural resource base of the region. Land is a primary resource that faces serious conflicts among sectoral users. It is indeed a challenge to put this precious resource to the most rational use, taking into account its productive and functional capabilities and matching them with the pressing requirements demanded by social, environmental, economic and political driving forces. The available land is undergoing rapid changes in its use and cover. What are the causes, processes, impacts and responses of these changes? Is it possible to estimate in reasonable terms, the magnitude, direction and pace of these changes? How can the understanding of the land use and land cover dynamics be used for policy guidance. These were essentially the questions addressed by an Expert meeting in early April this year at the International Centre in Goa. The meeting, sponsored by an European Commission Project and organised by the Committee on Science and Technology in Developing Countries of the International Council for Science (COSTED-ICSU) brought together about 40 scientists from the government, research institutions, academia, land use planners, including 6 Europeans.

The major factors that dominate and drive changes in land use were identified in order of priority as follows:

Industrialisation has marginalised agricultural activity in the coastal areas, making it increasingly unattractive to the farmers. The policy thrust for industrialisation and infrastructure development have largely dominated the use of land. This has brought about an unprecedented demographic shift from rural to urban areas, imposing pressure on the natural resource base. The coastal mega cities Mumbai and Calcutta followed by Chennai, Vishakapatnam, Mangalore and many others are fast expanding at the cost of prime agricultural land. They are also inducing migrations from rural to urban areas, more often than not accompanied by abandonment of agriculture as a livelihood option. The inadequate waste disposal from urban and industrial sites impact on land and water quality, which again influence agricultural productivity. In several areas, agricultural practices are becoming increasingly unviable due to soil degradation, topsoil erosion, decline in water quality and quantity, toxic and polluting industrial by-products. Intensive and extensive aquaculture, which saw a boom in mid 90's (but since then brought under regulation), have caused irreversible damage to prime agricultural land. The small farmer is being marginalised due to the growing trend in land fragmentation. One encouraging trend, however, is the improvement in communication and transportation facilities, which have the potential to reverse population migration and overcrowding in urban areas.

Tourism - The region attracts a sizeable tourist population providing visible economic benefits and livelihood opportunities for the local population. This however is accompanied by rapid changes in consumption patterns, changes in local social structures and depletion of natural resources. These trends in turn have the potential to make tourism itself an unsustainable industry.

Natural processes and extreme events accompanied by high degree of uncertainty in their occurrences bring rapid albeit local impacts on land use and cover. Monsoon regime variations, cyclones and floods largely subject the marginal farmer, especially those dependent on rainfed agriculture to heavy losses. Such successive events have been conducive for migration (South Tamil Nadu) and shift in land use practices.

Market forces -It is increasingly recognised that the market forces (domestic and external) and national policies in trade and commerce will determine the economic product of land. For example, commercial farming in agricultural commodities for export such as fruits and horticulture are already replacing land under cereal cultivation for domestic consumption since the domestic prices are no longer attractive. The agreement on agriculture under the GATT requires signatory countries to open their markets for the import of agricultural commodities. While this augurs well for a country like India which has demonstrated self-sufficiency production, it is feared that the choice of crops to be cultivated would be heavily influenced by such external market potential at the expense of domestic markets.

Change in culture and lifestyle - The creation of new livelihood opportunities through tourism, industrialisation and fast expanding urbanisation brings about unforeseen labour expectations and growing aspirations of a developing society. Such trends pose a challenge in quantifying and qualifying precisely. They indicate a preferential abandoning of farming as a livelihood option.

Policy interventions have a strong impact on the way land is used in the coastal areas. At the same time the rapid and extensive human activities in the coastal areas are seen as a strong impetus for fast and appropriate policy response.

Solutions

An opportunity exists in exploiting the high level of data, information, knowledge and expertise on the land use and land cover patterns in the coastal areas and a good number of case studies for an integrated understanding of the land use and land cover dynamics. Such an understanding will be useful in predicting future impacts of present land use decisions in the local and regional environment as well as develop desirable responses to mitigate their adverse impacts.

The large number of research studies and commissioned projects contain valuable insights into the prospects for coastal agriculture in the scenario of complex dynamism in land use and land cover. These have however focused on the issues in a restricted or limited way and have been largely mission - oriented efforts. An integrative approach to take advantage of all these efforts will be very valuable to the advancement of research in this area and is likely to point to gaps in knowledge and data, thereby stimulating further research. These have the potential to enrich regional and global research programmes.

Several Indian states ( provinces) have evolved detailed micro level perspective land use planning. Such experiences can be shared by other states as well. The real challeng lies in successful implementation of the plan

There is a good potential for establishing an interdisciplinary network to understand land use land cover changes integrating biophysical and socio-economic inputs. Such research will provide useful guidance for policy as well as public understanding and awareness for a rational use of land.

There is an urgent need to devise mechanisms to strengthen research co-operation between natural and social sciences in view of the strong human dimensions to the factors responsible for the dynamism in land use and cover

The research needs in this area point to strengthening capacity building efforts, data development initiatives, data acquisition and dissemination services, methodological for integrating natural and social sciences, and above all institutional linkages.

Classic examples of environmental conflicts pertain to the use of land by competing sectors which indirectly impinge on the quality of land and land use. Such complex issues are best resolved by stakeholder participation and effective mechanisms for conflict resolution.

Policy research is strongly seen as an area to be supported and strengthened to understand policy response to land use land cover changes as well as policy driven changes. Research on migration processes and their impact on agricultural production need to be elaborated and understood.

Evaluation of coastal resources and their potential use would be very valuable in forecasting land use and land cover changes as well as human and policy response to these trends. For instance, the petroleum resources would provide an insight into the time scale of exploiting such resources and hence the accompanying use of land in the vicinity.

Development of appropriate methodologies for integrating biophysical and social and economic data and information on a common platform is a challenge in itself. An interdisciplinary approach is called for to address this need.

Development of conceptual models, scenario generation, diagnostic and predictive modelling are seen as extremely valuable tools for researchers and for policy guidance.

Institutional action

Firstly the promotion of interdisciplinary research is seen as paramount importance. In most developing countries where classical areas of studies are well - established and thriving, it is difficult to operationalise new and interdisciplinary programmes with little or no extra funding. It is here that agencies such as U.N. bodies ( UNCSD, UNEP. UNDP, UNESCO and many others ) European Commission, ICSU-COSTED and many regional and international programmes such as the WCRP, IGBP, can play a catalytic role to bring together partners across disciplinary and geographic borders. They have the potential to add value to the research efforts at the national level by integrating and including them as contributions to regional and global programmes.

Such an approach also enables the local scientists to "think globally and act locally" The land use land cover change programme of International Geosphere Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is one such example to promote interdisciplinarity in research. It will be valuable in the long run to widely disseminate information on global and regional programmes to developing countries for raising awareness and mobilising their contribution and participation. The lessons learnt in food security in the Indian context have many useful pointers to other countries in the sam situation. Similarly the policy options in favouring industrial development vis - a vis food security is not a unique situation to India alone.

National government support is desirable by way of fostering national research groups that add value and significance to programme such as LUCC IGBP. This calls for appropriate mechanism and institutionalisation of interdisciplinary collaboration in the form of interdisciplinary project support, exchange fellowships and visiting scientist programmes that broadens the scope of interdisciplinary research. Such initiatives are badly needed in developing countries.

The national Government must set up a data centre and a data server for accessing, processing and disseminating land use land cover data available in the public domain. Such a role may also be build if approved by a non Government agency with the appropriate mandate if necessary.

Government policy on data needs to be reviewed in order to make public domain data easily and quickly accessible by the stakeholders. Decentralised data access may also be considered for non-sensitive data to aid efficient decision making at the farmers' level There is also the need for drawing up clear guidelines for land use policy. Mechanisms to draw from the lessons learnt from research and commissioned projects will provide very useful guidelines for policy. More importantly, the implementation strategy for the plan needs to be devised and carried out to actual practice

Extensive awareness and extension programmes for the farmers are invaluable strategies for strengthening the farmer in making well - informed choices in his cropping patterns, diversification of livelihood, etc.

Stakeholder participation in the form of awareness creation, Round Table discussions and workshops need to be stimulated to articulate the diversity and conflicts in land use as well as agricultural practices and preferences. Such a process will also aid a more effective and pragmatic implementation of policies.

Stakeholders' participation in conflict resolution is also seen as extremely valuable. Very often these processes are worth carrying forward from land use planning to practice. A successful example of stakeholders participation is community participation in mangrove conservation in the Eastern Coast of India as well as the agroforestry programmes sponsored by the Government.

Possible partnerships

Opportunities for North - South co-operation inherent in many international bodies can be sucessfully tapped. These include the INCO-DC programme of the European Commission in which food security, human health and nutrition and policy research in access to food and water are sectoral areas of thrust. So are areas relating to industrial development in the sectors of energy and information technology. Land use land cover changes also feature prominently in the work programmes whenever the effort demonstrates a global implication. The Commission also supports concerted actions in the European and developing countries to learn from and relate to each others' experiences. A primary requisite for support is the need for interdisciplinarity and international co-operation between EU and developing country partners.

The CGIAR institutions like ICRAF, ICRISAT have extensive experience on the ground. They could be successfully mobilised in co-operation with the local scientists and farmers. Organisations like the International Council for Science and COSTED have the potential to play a catalytic role in bringing together the right players and stakeholders. The mandate of COSTED is essentially to play the role of a match maker between development issues, the scientific and technical communities in developing countries and the development agencies.

In conclusion, it is clear that there is a certain level of understanding and awareness of the issues at the local and national level. There is however a need to integrate issues in a holistic manner and articulate it effectively to elicit support at the national level and subsequently at the international level.