Management of inland open water fisheries resources of Bangladesh: Issues and options

Despite the possession of a highly productive inland water area of about 45,000 km2, the continuing decrease in fish catch increasingly threatens the livelihoods of more than 12 million fishers in Bangladesh. The government's open access and leasing policies have been identified as the principal causes of catch decline. Conflicting demands on the inland aquatic area also accelerate drastically the destruction of aquatic resources. Barriers to the access of fishers in the management of inland fisheries resources and over-exploitation by the relatively wealthier non-fisher population are reducing the options for sustaining the livelihoods of fishery dependent communities. The government has pursued a range of initiatives to arrest this continued decline but none has appeared to be appropriate. In this study we investigated the present fisheries management crisis of Bangladesh and justified the opportunities for existing fisheries management to evolve towards community based fisheries management (CBFM) to support the sustainable use of fisheries resources in future.