The access of rural households, particularly the low income and landless, to fishing is being restricted by:
• declines in the availability (quantity and diversity) of fish; and
• traditional rights of access to common property resources being replaced by restricted access to individual
and group-owned resources.
Recommendation 3: To re-evaluate the food production and disaster mitigation strategies which place so much
emphasis on transforming Bangladesh's flood plain into dry land, and on restricting traditional rights of access.
Recommendation 4: To develop procedures and introduce codes of practice for restricting further introduction of
exotic species to Bangladesh.
Recommendation 5: To establish conservation areas for indigenous species.
Recommendation 6: To adapt green and blue revolution food production systems to enhance rather than destroy
SIS, for example, through greater use of integrated pest management (IPM) systems, integrated fish and rice
cultivation, integrated cultivation of SIS and commercial fish species.
Recommendation 7: To promote fishing technologies which are more selective and less damaging to the
environment.
Issues Arising
The issues raised by the Study, along with the contributing factors identified are summarized below:
Issue 1: Limited and declining freshwater ecosystems Causative factors:
• Green revolution and Flood Control Drainage projects are reducing land area prone to seasonal inundation.
• Disruption and closure of river flows (caused by the dam projects).
• Siltation of rivers, beels and water bodies.
Practices:
Construction of dams, embankments, sluice gates, etc. Regulation of these by the land owners, who maximize the
water available for irrigation, and restrict the flow of water and the movement of fish between rivers and flood plain.
Issue 2: Human Society - Natural Resource Interaction
Causative factors:
• Increased population puts increasing pressure on the environment and natural resources.
• Increasing competition for diminishing resources forces people (especially poorer rural households) to
increase fishing effort in open freshwaters, in "a race to fish".
• Increasing pressure to generate income, as well as to meet subsistence (nutritional) needs.
Practices:
Use of non-selective catching methods, use of destructive gear, disregard for the reproduction cycle and growth of SIS.
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