Mohammad Mahmudul Islam
Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences (GLOMAR), Research Center for Sustainability Studies (artec), University of Bremen
Ratana Chuenpagdee
International Coastal Network, Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Negotiating risk and poverty, Mangrove fishing communities, Sundarbans, Bangladesh
Sundarbans, Khulna
Socio-economic and Policy
Constraints
The Sundarbans is the largest single tract mangrove forest in the world. It was declared a reserve forest under the forest act of 1855. The Forest Department (FD) of the Ministry of Environment and Forest of Bangladesh Government controls fishing activities by issuing fishing permits to fishers. Fishing activities in the Sundarbans are predominantly undertaken by small-scale fisheries. Gears include different types of gillnets (such as drift, large mesh, fixed, and bottom set), estuarine set bag nets, trammel nets, beach seines, push nets, drag nets, and many different types of hand-operated gears and traps. Shrimp and prawn postlarvae collection for stocking in local coastal aquaculture ponds can be considered as the largest fishing activity in terms of number of people involved. About 70–75 percent of the households living along the rivers and creeks of the Sundarbans are engaged in this activity. Mixed species of white fish, crab, and Golda (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) are the most economically important species. The Sundarbans provide a major source of livelihoods for about 200,000 fishers. The livelihoods of resource harvesters of the Sundarbans are characterized by high levels of income poverty and human development poverty. Most of them have limited access to basic social services, such as safe drinking water and healthcare. They also lack knowledge of health and sanitation practices. Most of them suffer long term debt bondage and face exploitative relations with moneylenders. They generally lack organizational skills, do not have professional memberships, and have a muted voice in decision making. Infrastructure is poorly developed and access to markets is restricted. Women are particularly underprivileged and marginalized, with minimum access to income, livelihood opportunities, education, and healthcare. Moreover, there is no mobilization and organization of the Sundarbans resource extractors in order for them to be recognized as stakeholders in the management of the Sundarbans. Incomes of the richest households are six times higher than those of the poorest groups. Agricultural land ownership is extremely skewed, with only 51 percent of the population owning land. The average household size in the impact zone is 6.3 persons and the literacy rate is 36.5 percent. Data were collected through individual and key informant interviews, as well as participatory observation from November 2009 to April 2010, with a follow-up field visit in August, 2011. Interviews were done using a semi-structured questionnaire, consisting of questions regarding household characteristics, possessions and productive assets, target species and gear used, risk perception, risks and shocks faced during fishing and in daily life, and coping strategies. In total, ninety five interviews were conducted, eighty of which were with fishers (both men and women). The rest were with people involved in post-harvest activities and credit markets, some forest officials and non-governmental organization (NGO) officials. Each individual interview lasted about 45 minutes on average. As fishers felt uncomfortable with tape recording, the responses were hand-written by a research assistant. In Mothurapur, the majority of the interviewees were women, while in Chandipur, both men and women were interviewed. In the case of Dumuria, the interviewees were all males from 30 households who had taken temporary shelter on coastal embankments after their village was devastated by the cyclone. Supplementary to the interviews, it reviewed secondary data sources, mainly daily newspapers and reports published by NGOs. Hand-written data were transcribed with the help of a research assistant. After transcription, content was analyzed and classified into different themes for theoretically-guided analysis.
Maritime Studies 2013 12:7
Journal