Social Considerations of Large River Sanctuaries: A Case Study from the Hilsa Shad Fishery in Bangladesh

Abstract

The establishment of a sanctuary is often suggested as an effective strategy for ecological restoration, though social aspects of such attempts are often overlooked. This study analyzed the socioeconomic status of 248 fishing households who are dependent on hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha) sanctuaries in southern Bangladesh. Also, the fishers' perceptions were investigated to assess the status of ecological restoration, level of participation in the hilsa sanctuary management, their livelihoods constraints, and coping strategies during crises. Based on the fishers' perceptions and fishery catch data of the government, it appears that the establishment of the hilsa sanctuary in the Bangladesh waters helped to restore the hilsa fishery and also enhanced the fishers' income. However, a large section of hilsa fishers were found to be poor in terms of socioeconomic capital such as monthly income, housing conditions, and assets ownership. Particularly, these households suffer seasonal food insecurity during the banned period of fishing in the sanctuaries. The government's compensation scheme is a good example of payment of ecosystem services in an open water fishery; however, this scheme does not include all the affected fishers. Food and income insecurity during ban period often force fishers to use illegal fishing as a livelihood strategy that undermines the success of sanctuaries as an ecological restoration strategy. The findings reflected that sanctuaries and other similar management strategies have social impacts on stakeholders and human societies, and these social impacts can have surprising feedbacks that influence management success. Thus, the success of ecological restoration relies on understanding the human dimensions of the system and that ecological and social restoration must go together. To address this goal, we call for developing fisheries policy that will facilitate engagement of resource users and other local stakeholders in sanctuary comanagement, which will ultimately strengthen fishers' livelihoods and sustain the benefit from ecological restoration.

Socio-Economic Context and Community Resilience among the People Involved in Fish Drying Practices in the South-East Coast of Bangladesh

“…SLAs are a way of understanding the needs of the poor and identifying the significant constraints and positive strength for their resilience. Based on the sustainable livelihood framework, a fishery-based livelihood embraces several components: (a) livelihood assets (owned or accessed by people, i.e., human, financial, physical, natural, and social capital), (b) vulnerability context (risk factors surrounding livelihoods); (c) transforming structures and processes (the structures associated with a formal organization, e.g., government, NGOs, laws and rights, social relations and participation) (d) livelihood strategies (the range and combination of activities people undertake or do to achieve livelihood goals such as productive activities, investment strategies); and (e) livelihood outcomes (achievement or output of the people’s livelihood strategies) [ 22 ]. Through open-ended interviews and FGD, much information was gathered about access to different types of capital, livelihood strategies and decision-making processes, local institutions, and their ability and willingness to respond to changing vulnerability contexts.…”

Enhancing Social Resilience of the Coastal Fishing Communities: A Case Study of Hilsa (Tenualosa Ilisha H.) Fishery in Bangladesh

“…Though in recent times research regarding socio-ecological resilience has grown progressively, the link between ecological and social resilience is not entirely clear [5]. However, it could be expected that a resilient ecosystem has the potential to support resilient communities and vice versa [51] but the interaction is not straightforward. For instance, social outcomes of resilient ecosystems are often mediated by several factors such as communities' resources, rights and access to the environment [7].…”

Catch Trend and Stock Assessment of Hilsa Tenualosa ilisha Using Digital Image Measured Length‐Frequency Data

“…Effective community surveillance including representatives from all stakeholders would be instrumental to ensure compliance with conservation rules and regulations. An effective, sanctuary-based, comanagement body should be introduced in all the sanctuaries to conserve resources in a sustainable manner (Islam et al 2018;van Brakel et al 2018). However, because Hilsa is a shared species in the Bay of Bengal region, especially in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar, a regional management initiative, in addition to the national efforts, could be initiated to further improve the management of the species.…”