Fisheries management and governance in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is considered as one of the most suitable riverine country endowed with the rich inland and marine fisheries resources with enormous aquaculture potential. The suitable geographical location of Bangladesh along with its huge number of aquatic species offer excellent opportunities for the effective utilization and management of fisheries resources. Fisheries sector in Bangladesh represents as one of the most productive and dynamic sectors in the country. The country’s fisheries sector plays a significant role in food security, employment, and foreign exchange earnings in the economy. The sector contributes 3.65% to the national GDP and 23.81% to the total agricultural GDP. Fish and fishery products are the country's second largest export commodity contributing 1.97 percent of its exchange earnings in 2015–2016. From the year 2000 to 2016, aquaculture production increased from 712,640 to 2,060,408 mt, which was much higher than wild capture production of 1.023 million mt in 2016. There has also been a recent increase in the value of fishery exports, with more than US $34.08 billion in 2010 rising to more than US $46.60 billion in 2015. However, fisheries production is well below production targets despite the large gains seen in the aquaculture sector. However, the fisheries sector in the 21st century is facing the challenges of food security for the increasing population, habitat degradation, urbanization, and industrial development. Development of responsible fisheries management and optimal use of water bodies can address those challenges. Since fishery is a productive growth sector in Bangladesh, it has high potential to contribute in the socioeconomic development of the country. In this paper, we also make an attempt to examine the current legal status of Bangladesh fisheries and constraints in the implementation of fisheries laws. It is identified that twelve fisheries regulations are executed for the regulation and management of the fisheries resources in Bangladesh. Among these laws, a few are historically important for the regulating and managing of fisheries. These laws are implemented with some amendments for the development of legal mechanisms for fisheries development of Bangladesh. The implementations of these laws often met limited success due to a number of shortcomings in the legislations. The constraints in the implementation are the lack of clear policy guidelines and strategy; inadequacy of existing regulatory framework, non-enforcement of legislation and jurisdictional conflicts, the absence of regular law review and updating mechanism and formulation of by-laws, rules, orders etc. However, in recent years, Bangladesh Government has taken some initiatives towards the conservation and management of fish stocks (e.g., hilsa fishery), both to optimize total production and ensure fisher’s livelihoods. Furthermore, a comprehensive legal framework is required for sustainable management of fisheries resources in Bangladesh.

Aquaculture Status in Southern Bangladesh With Special Emphasis on Disease Induced Loss

“…Aquaculture in Bangladesh has a great contribution to the global aquaculture production. The continuous increase of aquaculture production in Bangladesh largely depends on the fisheries management (20) . Moreover, skilled manpower, modern technology and availability of raw materials including fish seed and feed determine the success of this sector (21) .…”

Promoting Cooperation of Monitoring, Control, and Surveillance of IUU Fishing in the Asia-Pacific

“…Implementation of these new systems is conducted as part of the Bangladesh Sustainable Coastal and Marine Fisheries project by the World Bank (2019-2023) [96]. Other MCS measures by Bangladesh include patrols by the coast guard "Operation Jatka (juvenile Hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha))" and the fishery protection campaigns by the navy for this species (Hilsa is considered one of the most important commercial species in Bangadesh) [97]. Lastly, Bangladesh ratified the PSMA in 2019.…”

Diversity, distribution and decreasing factor of intertidal invertebrate communities in the Pangandaran Turism, Indonesia

“…Invertebrate organisms with has actively moving -Echinodermata and Arthropod phyla-found random distribution category by Morisita index. Echinodermata is one of species found in the highest tides coastal [22,3] , capable of reproducing in the intertidal zone [54,40] and adapting to rock crevices as a hiding place from predators. Ophiocoma scolopendrine and Ophiocoma Erinaceus are the dominant species, they are opportunist species in coastal intertidal zones mixing hard substrates and sand.…”