Community Based Fisheries Management in Bangladesh
This is a personal website. The objective of this website isto eventually publish some work I have done for 14 months and fulltimefrom March 2003 through June 2004. The research project was titled BenefitImpact Assessment of the Open Water Fisheries Component (OWFC) of the FourthFisheries Project of the Government of Bangladesh supported by a consortium ofseveral donors alongside with the Government of Bangladesh. The researchproject was informally but widely known as BIM or Benefit Impact Monitoringproject. During the course of the work livelihoods impact in 12 fishing grounds were studied. Due to lack of access to sufficient space here I have included abstract of allthe 12 reports that were produced on the 12 fishing grounds and the full reports are also downloadable.
The objective set for the OWFC was to make an:
improvement of inland open-water fisheries management through the development of sustainable, community-based institutions and supporting them in undertaking a program of adaptive management oftheir fisheries resources using technical measures such as stock enhancementof floodplain fisheries, restoration of fisheries habitats, establishment of fishsanctuaries, and construction of fish passes...So there were institutional (community development) andtechnical interventions (stocking, sanctuary, restoration of fishhabitats) undertaken to improve the livelihoods of the fishers. The communitydevelopment aspect was taken care of by hired NGOs. These communities developedfisheries management plans which basically resulted in the outcome of who canfish, how,where, and when. There was an interaction between the community and thestateand hence it can also be termed as one form of co-management.
A wide range of outcomes were generated by the projects depending on the nature of local power structure, institutions, the role of NGO and state, the hydrology of the fishing grounds. Generally the open water fisheries in Bangladesh is characterised by elite capture, i. e., access rights are concentrated to those who are generally not involved in fishing. The success of the interventions depended how it handled power issues. Here we will not draw any conclusion. A quick scan through the 12 abstracts will help one to draw his or her personal conclusion.
I would like to thank all those who worked with me in various capacities. The research assistants have done a wonderfurl job. Mark Aeron-Thomas designed the studymethodology which was modified when situation demanded. He meticuously went throughall the reports and made valuable comments. I also benefited fromcomments from Mike Daplyn, Saleha Begum, amongst others.
I have several plans. First, I would like to post all thereports in a larger website (any help in this regard would be welcome).Second, I would like to publish journal articles from these reports. This isconstrained by funding and availability of time. Third, I would like toadd more work on fisheries in this website. This is the first website thatI have produced and therefore it looks pretty ordinary. Finally, I would liketo improve upon the digital beauty of this website. Please feel free tolink this site to yours and I will follow suit.
31 March, 2008: This website will be redesighed soon both in terms of structure , content and design. I have plans to include my other (downloadable papers on fisheries, livelihoods, poverty etc.). Visit again around July 2008.