Multilevel Resilience of Fishing Communities of Coastal Bangladesh Against Covid-19 Pandemic and 65-Day Fishing Ban

Abstract

The unusual situation that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 65-day fishing ban (national policy to boost depleted fish stocks) affected the lower-income fishing communities in coastal Bangladesh. Shocks and stresses were posed, and community people adopted strategies to adapt to the changes. In the process of adaptation, social-ecological systems resilience at different levels plays a crucial role. Though resilience is acknowledged as multilevel feature, studies on the interaction between the levels while understanding communities’ responses to shock and stress are limited. Thus, in this study, we explored the shocks and stresses the fishing community faced and their views on the resilience feature at different levels (i.e., individual, household, and community level) in coastal Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic and 65-day fishing ban period. The study found that the most resilience promoting features (e.g., diversified livelihood, friendship, and network of supports) were adopted at the individual and household levels. However, positive and negative interactions were explored between resilience features at all levels. Low community-level resilience was not translated into a lack of household-level resilience, and strong individual-level resilience did not mean high household-level resilience. It was noted that the increased resilience of a particular individual or household could negatively affect community resilience. Resilience features showed inconsistent interactions within or among the three levels’ resilience features. The study also revealed that multilevel resilience features stressed the importance of combining persistence (i.e., keeping fishing as the main livelihood) and adaptation process (e.g., livelihood diversification). The study showcases the importance of considering multilevel resilience that offers insight into crucial resilience factors which would not be evident if only one level were studied. The overall finding of this study will contribute to framing governance strategies to ensure sustainable coastal management even in the time of any abrupt or expected changes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the fishing ban policy.

Household-Level Economic Penalties Resulted From Climate Change-Induced Events Among The Coastal Fishers Of Bangladesh

“…Limited number of studies had highlighted the gender diversity among shers' communities except some reports of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) with almost similar ndings 21,36,39 . Similarly, the research ndings also demonstrated that almost all the coastal population who are involved in shing activities are impoverished, either extreme poor or poor and are rotating in the vicious cycle of poverty due to CC-induced and environmental (negative weather) events 15,31,[40][41][42][43][44] . The poverty rate found so far higher among direct/indirect shing communities compared to overall coastal population according to the World Bank/WFP/BBS 2014 ndings (54.8% vs 99.1%) in Chattogram and Barishal coastal belt 45 .…”

“…Moreover, this study also revealed that the severity of disasters (SoD), winter cold shock (WCS) wave, water over ow, sea-wave rising during storm/cyclone (SWDS), and household earnings member (HHEM) were also found to have a signi cant effect on the socioeconomic status (poverty status) of coastal shers living in Southern Bangladesh. Therefore, all these things force the coastal shermen to seek loans, others' mercy dependency, and favors from others like moneylenders (GO/NGOs) or Mahajans, who compel them to sell/mortgage their land, imposing advanced labor selling, cash crops in exchange for returning the money borrowed or lent 34,[40][41][42]50 .…”

“…Extreme CC-induced events have a signi cant negative impact on their major livelihood elements, including damage of household assets, reduced agriculture production, extinction of livestock, and loss in sheries, putting them into socio-economically impoverished status, health risks, and food insecure 9,15,24,30,33 . Every year CC-induced adversaries and events make them asset loss, jobless and income vulnerable by creating unfavorable environment for deep sea and off shore shing, consistently make coastal shers paralyzed and inactive 23,[33][34][35]42,48,50 . Notably, most studies have used different social, or policy-level perspectives and approaches to explore their ideas.…”

Assessing the Economic Impacts of COVID-19 on the Aquaculture and Fisheries Sectors in Relation to Food Security: A Critical Review

“…In such situations, non-governmental/governmental organizations in Bangladesh provided little to no support, further increasing the country's vulnerability to food insecurity [41]. However, certain fishers in Bangladesh adopted multilevel resilience strategies at the individual and household levels to cope with such situations, including diversifying their livelihood, creating more friendships, and networking among supporters [63]. In the USA, fishers in certain states temporarily halted their fishing activities due to the decreased fish demand in the restaurant business during this pandemic.…”

“…[12-15,19,24,32,40,42-44,52,58,59,61] Impact #7: External factors and post-pandemic scenarios • Chronic food-insecure situations may evolve; •Vulnerable populations may be forced to migrate and quit the fish farming business. [52,[62][63][64][65][66][67]…”