supporting healthy ecosystems
thriving communities

India's coastal, marine and island geographies face growing environmental, developmental and social justice challenges. These affect over 15 million people who depend directly on fishing and its allied sectors for their livelihoods.

Dakshin's work is grounded in the belief that marine conservation is most effective when shaped with communities who use and depend on marine resources. We work alongside these communities to inform and catalyse conservation and natural resource management, while supporting sustainable livelihoods, social development, and environmental justice.

Catch the current

In Thota Bengre, culture is a powerful determinant of cuisine

Eswaran, H.

June 2023
Decolonising sea turtle conservation

Eswaran, H.

June 2023
Small-scale fisheries and community resilience

Eswaran, H.

June 2023

Our Approach

We bring together research expertise from the natural and social sciences to address environmental and livelihood challenges. This work is grounded in local contexts, flexible across scales, and implemented in partnership with communities, government departments, and other civil society organisations.

SeaChange

SeaChange is Dakshin's intersectoral approach to achieving system-level change. It brings our broader approach into practice by working across five crucial, interlinked themes: conservation, fisheries management, coastal livelihoods, resource governance, community health and sports.

This approach is designed to put philanthropic resources to the best use by building ground-up capacities that help small-scale fisher (SSF) communities respond to complex problems.

Learn More

SeaChange

Our Programmes

Communities and Resource Governance 

Community Wellbeing

Conservation Crossroads 

Livelihoods

Marine Flagships 

Sustainable Fisheries

Impact

As on 31st January 2026

43,000+

Community members engaged

120

Villages across 6 districts in 4 states

3000 +

Kilometers of coastline covered

Dakshin's intersectoral approach has reached a diverse community of active fishers, women, youth, children, panchayats, government departments, and civil society organisations. But these numbers tell only part of the story.

Our interventions are designed to create both tangible and intangible outcomes. Beyond facilitating measurable change, we focus on building relationships, strengthening governance, and generating knowledge to lay the foundation for systems change. This means looking past what can be easily counted, and attending to how change is shaped, who it includes, and how it can sustain itself.

Resources