Co-management of the Wetlands and it may Contribute to the Livelihoods of the Poor People

Abstract

"The sustainability of open water fisheries in Bangladesh and elsewhere is threatened by increasing fishing pressure, fishing practices, and loss of wetlands. The traditional fisheries management system in Bangladesh is for the government to lease out fishing rights, often to influential persons. This has not limited exploitation to sustainable levels to achieved an equitable distribution of returns. Several projects have tried to establish co-management systems through forming Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and linking these with the concerned government departments. A comparative analysis is made of two water bodies - Jethua Beel in Hail Haor supported by MACH project and Goniar Beel in Halir Haor supported by CBFM 2 project. To explore the present water body management systems, various participatory methods were followed and fish catch and household consumption data were analysed. This found that though the approach in MACH project comparatively better but the sustainability of co-management and performance of the CBOs in both projects are constrained by a lack of clearly defined benefit utilization, a mismatch between resource scale and management initiatives, and a lack of government commitment. Goniar Beel has a higher catch per unit area (CPUA) in value terms, although the difference is not significant (p>0.05). However, per capita fish consumption was significantly higher (p<0.05) for the beneficiaries of Jethua Beel taking fish protein much more than Goniar beel beneficiaries. There was no significant correlation between CPUA and daily per capita fish consumption (p>0.05). This suggests that the management approach and fish production in a water body is not sufficient to contribute to the livelihoods of the poor, other factors such as alternative occupations and access to year-round fishing are more important."