Assessing the Sustainability of Community Based Fisheries Management Approaches Through Beel User Group at Sunamganj Haor Area

ASSESSING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF COMMUNITY BASED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT APPROACHES THROUGH BEEL USER GROUP AT SUNAMGANJ HAOR AREA

SYED AHAMMAD ALI

OCTOBER 2012

INSTITUTE OF WATER AND FLOOD MANAGEMENT BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Assessing the Sustainability of Community Based Fisheries Management Approaches Through Beel User Group at Sunamganj Haor Area

Syed Ahammad Ali

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Water Resources Development

October 2012

INSTITUTE OF WATER AND FLOOD MANAGEMENT BANGLADESH UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

CERTIFICATION

The thesis titled “Assessing the Sustainability of Community Based Fisheries Management Approaches through Beel User Group at Sunamganj Haor Area” submitted by Syed Ahammad Ali, Roll No: M10062816P, Session : October 2006, has been accepted as satisfactory in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Water Resources Development on 22 October 2012.

BOARD OF EXAMINERS

………………….………….. Chairman Dr. Sujit Kumar Bala (Supervisor) Professor IWFM, BUET.

………………….………….. Member Dr. Md. Munsur Rahman (Ex-Officio) Professor & Director IWFM, BUET.

………………………….. Member Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam Associate Professor IWFM, BUET.

…………………...………….. Member Dr. Munir Ahmed (External) Executive Director, TARA 1 Purbachal Road, North-South Baddah, Dhaka-1212.

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CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION

It is hereby declared that this thesis or any part of it has not been submitted elsewhere for the award of any degree or diploma.

Signature of the Candidate

(Syed Ahammad Ali)

This thesis is dedicated to my beloved mother

Syeda Hasina Amjad

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page No List of Tables x List of Figures xii List of Abbreviations xiv Acknowledgement xvi Abstract xvii

1. Introduction 01 1.1 Background 01 1.2 Objectives of the Study 02 1.3 Limitations of the Study 02 1.4 Organization of the Thesis 03

2. Description of the Study Area : Sunamganj District 04 2.1 Location of the Study Area 04 2.2 Climate of the Study Area 04 2.3 Water Resources 07 2.3.1 Rivers and Khals of the Study Area 07 2.3.2 Water Supply and Sanitation 07 2.3.3 Flooding 07 2.4 Hydrology of the Syudy Area 08 2.4.1 Pre-Monsoon 08 2.4.2 Wet Season 09 2.4.3 Post-Monsoon / Flood Recession 09 2.4.4 Dry Season 10 2.5 Fisheries Resources 10 2.5.1 Open Water Fisheries 10 2.5.2 Close Water Fisheries 10 2.6 Forestry Resources 10 2.7 Demographic Characteristics of the Study Area 11 2.7.1 Area and Population of the Study Area 11 2.7.2 Socio-Economic Condition of the Study Area 12 2.7.3 Literacy and Education Status of the Study Area 12 2.7.4 Indigenous People and Archaeological Sites in the Study Area 13

3. Literature Review 14 3.1 National Policy, Plan and Strategy deal with Fisheries 14 3.1.1 National Fisheries Policy (1998) 15 3.1.2 National Water Policy (1999) 16 3.1.3 Inland Capture Fisheries Strategy (2006) 16 vi

3.1.4 Government Water Bodies (Jalmahal) Management Policy (2009) 17 3.1.5 Sixth Five Year Plan (2011) 18 3.1.6 Haor Master Plan (2012) 19 3.2 General Principles of Community Based Fisheries Management 20 3.3.1 Empowerment 20 3.3.2 Equity 20 3.3.3 Ecosystem-based Management 20 3.3.4 Respect for Local Knowledge 20 3.3.5 Inclusiveness 21 3.3 Climate Change Impact on Fisheries 21 3.4 Fisheries Resources and Its Management Strategy 22 3.5 Third Fisheries Project (1991-96) 23 3.6 Second Aquaculture Project (1989-96) 23 3.7 Fourth Fisheries Project (1998-2005) 24 3.8 MACH Project (1998-2003) 24 3.9 Sunamganj Community Based Resource Management Project (2003-`14) 24 3.9.1 Project Background 24 3.9.2 Developing New Approach 25 3.9.3 Major Components of the Project 26 3.9.4 Beel Development 26 3.9.5 Roles and Responsibilities of Beel User Groups 26 3.9.6 Fishing Rules and Responsibilities 28 3.9.7 Involvement of Local Government 28 3.9.8 Review of SCBRMP Livelihood Impact Monitoring Report 29 3.9.9 Review of SCBRMP Bio-diversity Monitoring Report 29 3.9.10Review of SCBRMP Annual Report 30

4. Methodology of the Study 32 4.1 Introduction 32 4.2 Conceptualization 32 4.3 Selection of the Study Area 32 4.3.1 Boiragimara Beel at Sunamganj Sadar 33 4.3.2 Chatol Udaytara Beel at South Sunamganj 34 4.4 Data Collection 35 4.4.1 Secondary Data Collection 35 4.4.2 Primary Data Collection 35 4.5 Sustainable Livelihood Approach 38 4.6 Driving forces Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) 39 4.6.1 Background of DPSIR 39 4.6.2 DPSIR Framework 40 4.6.3 Application of DPSIR 41

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5. Results and Discussions 42 5.1 Physical Sustainability of Beels 42 5.2 Hydraulic Connectivity of the Beels 42 5.3 Sanctuary Establishment 44 5.4 Impact of Sanctuary Establishment 47 5.5 Kua Establishment 48 5.6 Sustainable Beel Management 48 5.7 DPSIR Analysis 50 5.8 Driving forces 51 5.8.1 Labor Force 51 5.8.2 Conflict for Fishing Right’s 53 5.8.3 Vulnerability to Environment 54 5.8.4 Beel Management 56 5.8.5 Access to Market by the Poor 57 5.9 Pressure 59 5.9.1 Fishing Days Per Unit Area 59 5.9.2 Organizational Unity 60 5.9.3 Flooded Area Ratio 60 5.9.4 Species Richness 61 5.9.5 Road Density 62 5.10 State 63 5.10.1 Labor Return Distribution 63 5.10.2 Gender Equality 71 5.10.3 Impact on Biodiversity 71 5.10.4 Beel Yield 72 5.10.5 Marketing Efficiency 73 5.11 Impact on Livelihood 74 5.11.1 Human Capital 74 5.11.2 Social Capital 77 5.11.3 Natural Capital 81 5.11.4 Physical Capital 84 5.11.5 Financial Capital 87 5.12 Status Change of Livelihood State Using Pentagon 90 5.13 Response 92 5.13.1 BUG Federation Development 92 5.13.2 Involvement of Local Government Institutions 92 5.13.3 Habitat Restoration 93 5.13.4 Permanent Sanctuary Establishment 94 5.13.5 Post Project Activities 94 5.13.6 Fish Transporting and Marketing 95

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6. Conclusions and Recommendations 96 6.1 Conclusions 96 6.2 Recommendations 97

References 98

Appendix-A : Questionnaire Form (Sample) 102 Appendix-B : Photograph taken during field visit 109

LIST OF TABLES Title Page No

Table 2.1 : Climate Data of Sunamganj District 04 Table 2.2 : Mean Monthly Rainfall and Temperature of Sunamganj District 06 Table 2.3 : Demographic Characteristics of Sunamganj District 12 Table 3.1 : National Policy, Plan and Strategy deal with Fisheries 14 Table 3.2 : Phase-wise Beel Access Plan 30 Table 4.1 : DPSIR Analysis for Bangladesh Inland Fisheries 41 Table 5.1 : Establishment of Fish Sanctuaries in Study Beels 46 Table 5.2 : Catch Per Unit Area 47 Table 5.3 : Existing Size of the Kua of the Study Beels 48 Table 5.4 : Comparative Findings of the Study Beels 49 Table 5.5 : Consequence of DPSIR 51 Table 5.6 : Poverty Level in the Study Area 52 Table 5.7 : Shocks, Trends and Seasonality faced by BUGs 55 Table 5.8 : Swamp Tree Plantation Status of the Study Beels 57 Table 5.9 : Days Per Unit Area 59 Table 5.10 : Organizational Unity of BUG 60 Table 5.11 : Flooded Area Ratio 61 Table 5.12 : Number of Species found in Sample Beels. 62 Table 5.13 : Road Density of the Study Upazilas 63 Table 5.14 : Value Chain Analysis for Boiragimara Beel 67 Table 5.15 : Value Chain Analysis for Chatol Udaitara Beel 69 Table 5.16 : Women Involvement in Beel User Group 71 Table 5.17 : Biodiversity Index 72 Table 5.18 : Catch Per Unit Area for Study Beels 73 Table 5.19 : Marketing Efficiency 73 Table 5.20 : Level of Education in Sample BUG 75 Table 5.21 : Level of Satisfaction about SCBRMP Training 76 Table 5.22 : Level of Sufficiency about SCBRMP Awareness Campaign 77 Table 5.23 : Organizational Involvement of Sample BUG 78 Table 5.24 : Women Mobility of Sample BUG 79

Table 5.25 : Rationality of Shearing Responsibility 80 Table 5.26 : Average Land Uses by BUG per family in Decimals 81 Table 5.27 : Increasing Land Prices due to Project Implementation 82 Table 5.28 : Importance of Access to Alternative Resources 83 Table 5.29 : Sanitation Status for the BUG 85 Table 5.30 : Percentage of Wall Materials of Sample BUG 86 Table 5.31 : Importance of Road Communication to Improve Livelihood 87 Table 5.32 : Average BUG Member Yearly Income (Tk.) 88 Table 5.33 : Assist SCBRMP Project to Access Financial Loan 89 Table 5.34 : Access of Women to Economic Activities 90 Table 5.35 : Livelihood Polygon for Boiragimara Beel 91 Table 5.36 : Livelihood Polygon for Chatol Udaitara Beel 91 Table 5.37 : Volume of Re-excavation of the Study Beels 93

LIST OF FIGURES Title Page No

Figure 2.1 : Location of all Upazilas of Sunamganj District 05 Figure 2.2 : Mean Monthly Rainfall of Sunamganj 06 Figure 3.1 : Hierarchy of AC, BMC and BUG 27 Figure 3.2 : Existing Local Government Structure of Bangladesh 28 Figure 4.1 : Location of Boiragimara Beel 33 Figure 4.2 : Location of Chatol Udaytara Beel 34 Figure 4.3 : Sustainable Livelihood Framework 39 Figure 4.4 : DPSIR Framework 40 Figure 5.1 : Hydraulic Connectivity of Boiragimara Beel 43 Figure 5.2 : Hydraulic Connectivity of Chatol Udaytara Beel 44 Figure 5.3 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Fish Sanctuary Size 46 Figure 5.4 : Catch Per Unit Area 47 Figure 5.5 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Kua Size of the Beels 48 Figure 5.6 : Projection of Yield for the Study Beels 50 Figure 5.7 : Fishing Days Per Unit Area 59 Figure 5.8 : Number of Members in BUG 60 Figure 5.9 : Flooded Area Ratio 61 Figure 5.10 : Number of Species Found in Study Beels 62 Figure 5.11 : Value Chain Analysis for Fish Marketing Systems 64 Figure 5.12 : Marketing Margin, Marketing Cost and Marketing Profit for 67 Boiragimara Beel Figure 5.13 : Marketing Margin, Marketing Cost and Marketing Profit for 70 Chatol Udaitara Beel Figure 5.14 : Biodiversity Index 72 Figure 5.15 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Fish Yield 73 Figure 5.16 : Marketing Efficiency 74 Figure 5.17 : Level of Education of Sample BUG 75 Figure 5.18 : Level of Satisfaction about SCBRMP Training 76 Figure 5.19 : Level of Sufficiency about SCBRMP Awareness Campaign 77 Figure 5.20 : Organizational Involvement of BUG 78

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Figure 5.21 : Women Mobility 79 Figure 5.22 : Rationality of Sharing Responsibility 80 Figure 5.23 : Average Land Uses by BUG 82 Figure 5.24 : Increasing Land Prices 83 Figure 5.25 : Importance of Access to Alternative Resources 84 Figure 5.26 : Sanitation Status of Sample BUG 85 Figure 5.27 : Wall Materials of Sample BUG 86 Figure 5.28 : Importance of Road Communication 87 Figure 5.29 : BUG Yearly Income 88 Figure 5.30 : Assist to Access Financial Loan 89 Figure 5.31 : Assist to Women to Economic Activities 90 Figure 5.32 : Pentagon of Improvement of Livelihood Status of Study Beels 92 Figure 5.33 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Reexcavation Depth. 93

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AC Advisory Committee BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BHWDB Bangladesh Haor and Water Development Board BMC Beel Management Committee BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology BUG Beel User Group BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere CBFM Community Based Fisheries Management CED Cause Effect Diagram CPUA Catch Per Unit Area DC Deputy Commissioner DFO District Fisheries Officer DFID Department for International Development DoE Department of Environment DoF Department of Fisheries DPSIR Driving forces Pressure State Impact Response DPUA Days Per Unit Area DSR Driving force State Response FGD Focus Group Discussion FFP Fourth Fisheries Project GDP Gross Domestic Product HH House Hold HTW Hand Tube Well IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development IWFM Institute of Water and Flood Management IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature KII Key Informant Interview LGED Local Government Engineering Department LGRD&C Local Government, Rural Development & Co-operatives LGI Local Government Institution

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MACH Management of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry MoFL Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock MoL Ministry of Land MoWR Ministry of Water Resources MOU Minutes of Understanding NGO Non Government Organization OXFAM Oxford Committee for Famine Relief PSR Pressure State Response PMO Project Management Office SCBRMP Sunamganj Community Based Resource Management Project SO Social Organizer SRF Sundarban Reserve Forest SSC Secondary School Certificate SLA Sustainable Livelihood Approach TARA Technological Assistance for Rural Advancement TFP Third Fisheries Project UE Upazila Engineer UFO Upazila Fisheries Officer UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNEP United Nations Environment Programme UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNO Upazila Nirbahi Officer USAID United States Agency for International Development VCA Value Chain Analysis XEN Executive Engineer WFC World Fish Center

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all I would like to express my heartiest thanks to the almighty Allah for making me free from any sorts of interruption in completing this thesis work.

I am grateful to Dr. Sujit Kumar Bala, Professor, Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), BUET for his continuous supervision and guidance in all the stages of the thesis work. His cooperation extended beyond my study.

I want to express enormous thanks to Dr. Md. Munsur Rahman, Professor & Director, IWFM and Dr. A.K.M. Saiful Islam, Associate Professor, IWFM for their encouragement and valued advice.

In this respect special thanks are extended to Dr. Munir Ahmed, Executive Director, and Technological Assistance for Rural Advancement (TARA), check the draft copy of this thesis and providing her valuable comments and useful suggestions that helped a lot to upgrade the work.

All staff of IWFM was very cordial all along my study period and rendered me all types of help. Last but not the least, I would also like to thank my friends, class mates, well wishers and SCBRMP project staffs for their boundless inspiration and moral support in completion of the thesis. And of course, the errors, omissions and mistakes are my own.

Dhaka, 2012 Syed Ahammad Ali

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ABSTRACT

Bangladesh is dominated by vast floodplains with its huge small and large water bodies called haor, baor, beels under wetland system. The water resources system having unique natural setting like intensive river network and floodplains, wetland, bio-diversity, etc. with interdependent interactions has presented us the present social life of Bangladeshi typology. The beel fishery is a vital part of this eco-system and economy related with water. These water resources have been exploited by a small number of powerful people overriding all values and norms depriving the poor fisheries group. At present, fisheries and environmental degradation of beels and wetlands is alarming in Bangladesh putting severe adverse effects on livelihoods of subsistence fishery group as well as on beel ecosystem i.e. on water resources system. Community Based Resource Management Project is one of the latest such efforts since 2003 in Sunamganj haor area.

Education level of the schooling aged children, skill training, sanitation & hygiene awareness, organizational involvement, women mobility, shearing of responsibility, land uses for fisheries activities, land prices, access to alternative resources, improvement of wall materials, access to roads, average yearly income of BUG, access to financial loan and access of women to economic activities has been increased for the during project period compered with pre-project period. Under the marketing channel of study beels (Fishermen - Nikeries - Beparis - Aratdars - Consumers), Fishermen’s share was 74% and 70% for Boiragimara and Chatol Udaitara Beel respectively of what was paid by the consumer as the retail price. Production efficiency as labor return distribution, gender equality, impact on biodiversity, beel yield and marketing efficiency are better condition for study beels for during project periods compared with pre-project period.

BUG federation development, involvement of LGIs, habitat restoration, permanent sanctuary establishment, post project activities, construction of fish marketing sheds with adequate facilities have been suggested to improve the existing condition. Siltation has been occurred as a product of climate change impacts. Adequate area of the beels would be re-excavated to overcome the problem.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background Bangladesh is dominated by vast floodplain with its huge small and large water bodies called haor, baor, beel under wetland system. The water resources system having unique natural setting like intensive river network and floodplains, wetland, bio-diversity, etc. with interdependent interactions has presented us the present social life of Bangladeshi typology. The beel fishery is a vital part of this eco-system and economy related with water. Vigorous interventions are made upon this water resources system with the developmental work and enormous changes are brought in our societal life. Moreover, these water resources have been exploited by a small number of powerful people overriding all values and norms depriving the poor fisheries group. At present, fisheries and environmental degradation of beels and wetlands is alarming in Bangladesh putting severe adverse effects on livelihoods of subsistence fishery group as well as on beel ecosystem i.e. on water resources system. Local and international cooperation and efforts were taken up to improve wetland degradation, livelihoods of beel fisheries group through sustainable accessing, managing of beel resources as well as livelihoods. Community- based Co-management of these resources was one of the preferred solutions to achieve the goals (DoF, 2006; Halder et.al., 2006; IIRR, 2001; MACH, 2005a; MACH, 2005b; Ministry of Land, 2009; Ministry of Water Resources, 1999). Community Based Resource Management Project (Mohsin, 2010) is one of the latest such efforts since 2003 in Sunamganj haor area. The project was selected for its enormous vulnerabilities, backwardness and poverty. Challenges are multifaceted in the project area. Sustainable eco-system management through empowerment of poor fishery community at grass root levels in accessing and managing eco-system based livelihood resources was the ultimate goal of the project. To transfer beels to genuine fisher communities i.e. Beel User Group (BUG), establish sustainable community based management, restore and establish the degraded resource base and develop an institution of BUG for sustainable resource management, achieving the reduction of poverty, were the main objectives of the SCBRMP. The project is process based which involves concerned ministries (land, water, fisheries, environment, etc.) along with BUGs for promoting community based resource management basically depending and focusing upon the water resources. Numerous water resources developmental activities like resource mapping, social mapping, beel identification, design of fish friendly pond through appropriate bed excavation, restoration of fish bio-ecology through design of fish habitats, re-excavation of beel, planting of swamp trees, establishment of sanctuaries, conservation activities of beels, harvesting of fishes, etc. were taken up. The focus was on the beel development targeting restoration of fish habitat as well as beel environment based on master plan of the Government of Bangladesh. The project bears huge challenges, constraints, and difficulties to establish access to beels for fishers against the interest of powerful beneficiary groups. SCBRMP is an on-going project since 2003 and to be run up to 2014. Already concerned Ministry has handed over 170 beels to the project, where 52 beels are above 20 acres and 118 beels below 20 acres. This project is running through learning by doing like field experiments did by Management of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry (MACH) project and the SCBRMP. To make the approaches sustainable is very crucial for power and politics, conflicts and constraints, knowledge and social dynamism, and scales i.e. local and internationals are challenging agenda both intellectually and practically (Ian, S., 2009). A project might be sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base (Chambers, et.al, 1992). Now, it is very crucial to assess the sustainability of the community based fisheries management approaches through BUGs under SCBRMP.

1.2 Objectives of the Study The objectives of the study are as follows: i) to review the process of community based fishery management activities for identification of strength and weakness of sustainability of SCBRMP, and ii) to assess the sustainability of the community based fishery management approaches under SCBRMP.

1.3 Limitations of the Study A very few studies have been conducted on Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) in the sustainability issue in Bangladesh. So it was a challenging task to adopt the methodology in the study. More field visits and number of questionnaire survey should be required to obtain better result. Due to time limitation, it was not possible to do make so.

Sustainability indicators have been analyzed for few beels and for short duration. Better result would be shown for more beels and for long duration.

1.4 Organization of the Thesis The outline of the thesis is as follows: Chapter 1 provides the background, objectives and limitations of the study. Chapter 2 discusses area, climate, water resources, fisheries resources, demography and historical places and archaeological sites of the study area. Literatures regarding national policies, fisheries resources management strategy, and brief description on Community Based Resources Management Project (SCBRMP) are presented in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 describes the methodology that has been followed for this study. Methodology includes selection of the study area, Sustainable Livelihood Approach and Driving forces Pressure State Impact Response Approach. Data collection Methods are questionnaire interview, focus group discussion and key informant interview. Results and discussions including Physical Sustainability of the Beels, Labor force, Conflict Management, Vulnerability, Beel Management, Access to Market, DPUA, Organizational Unity, FAR, Species Richness, Road Density, Labor Return Distribution, Gender Equality, Impact on Biodiversity, Beel Yield and Marketing Efficiency are presented in Chapter 5. Conclusions and recommendations are given in Chapter 6.

Chapter 2 Description of the Study Area: Sunamganj District

2.1 Location of the Study Area Sunamganj zila was one of the sub-division of former Sylhet district. It emerged as a zila on the 1st March, 1984. The zila is full of haors and baors. Its headquarters is situated at the bank of the river Surma where a trading centre (meaning ‘Ganj’) was developed in this area in the name of a Shilphi Sunamuddin, who fought for the independence of the country in 1957. This might be the origin of the zila name to be Sunamganj. It is bounded on the North by India, on the east by Sylhet zila, on the south by Habiganj and Kishoreganj zilas and on the west by Netrokona zila. It lies between 24034' and 25012' north latitudes and between 90056' and 91049' east longitudes. The total area of the zila is 3669.58 sq.km of which 71.28 sq.km are under forest. The location of Sunamganj District with respect to Bangladesh is presented in Figure 2.1.

2.2 Climate of the Study Area The typical climate of Bangladesh having two distinct seasons-the Monsoon Season and the Dry Season, separated by two transition periods- the pre monsoon and the post monsoon prevails in the district. The climatic condition of this district is presented in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1 : Climate Data of Sunamganj District Parameter Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Temperature:Max 34.5 34.5 38.8 37.6 37.1 37.0 38.4 37.4 37.5 35.9 34.0 31.3 Min 5.7 6.4 10.0 14.0 17.2 18.0 19.3 19.8 18.7 15.6 10.9 8.0 Humidity (%): Minimum 25 13 12 15 41 36 49 54 50 55 30 35 Mean 71.2 62.4 61.3 71.5 78.3 85.3 86.2 84.9 84.9 81.3 75.3 73.2 Sunshine (hrs/d): Maximum 11.8 12.0 11.9 12.7 13.5 13.2 14.0 13.2 12.2 12.4 11.5 10.9 Mean 8.2 8.5 7.9 6.9 6.2 3.8 3.7 4.5 4.9 7.3 8.5 8.4 Wind speed (km/hr): Maximum 20.4 22.2 72.3 61.2 59.3 83.4 40.8 16.7 18.5 38.9 18.5 13.0 Mean 3.3 4.2 5.5 5.5 4.5 4.1 3.8 3.3 2.5 2.6 2.9 3.1 Potential 2.39 3.25 4.29 4.43 4.26 3.57 3.48 3.61 3.37 3.32 2.77 2.30 Evapotransp. (mm)/d Average rainfall 12 43 146 403 599 882 836 658 557 229 39 14 (mm) Source : LGED, 2009

Figure 2.1: Location of all Upazilas of Sunamganj District

There is no climatological station in the Sunamganj district. Meteorological data shown in Table 2.1 are from meteorological Station (ID 10705-Sylhet). This shows that the maximum and the minimum temperature of the district are 38.80C (March) and 5.70C (January) respectively. Lowest mean humidity is 61.3% (March). The mean sunshine varies from 3.68 hrs/day (July) to 8.5 hrs/day (February) and the mean wind speed varies from 2.5 km/hr (September) to 5.5 km/hr (March). Evaporation varies from 2.29 mm/day (December) to 4.43 mm/day (April).

The long term mean monthly rainfall data is given in Table 2.2 and in Figure 2.2. The rainfall of the district follows a unimodal distribution with a fairly peak in the month of July, with an annual average of 6248.5 mm. During pre-monsoon period (April to May) average rainfall varies from 351 mm to 652 mm, which varies from 1050 mm to 1259 mm during Monsoon period (June to August). The above pattern of rainfall in addition to the upstream flow indicates the chance of occurrence of early flood, monsoon flood and flash flood, which is prevalent in the area during the month of April, June and July. 5

Table 2.2 : Mean Monthly Rainfall and Temperature of Sunamganj District Month Mean Temperature (0C) Rainfall (mm) April 25.97 351.0 May 26.68 632.4 June 27.51 1050.1 July 27.87 1505.8 August 28.22 1259.0 September 27.77 969.4 October 26.56 283.8 November 23.58 24.0 December 20.10 13.7 January 18.9 10.8 February 20.8 41.7 March 24.3 106.7 Total - 6248.4 Source : LGED, 2009

Mean Monthly Rainfall of Sunamganj (mm)

1600

) 1200

800

Monthly Rainfall (mm 400

0 Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Month

Figure 2.2: Mean Monthly Rainfall of Sunamganj (LGED, 2009)

2.3 Water Resources

2.3.1 Rivers and Khals of the Study Area The district is comprised of many rivers with very complex river systems. The main rivers in the district are the Surma, Kushiyara, Chalti, Jadu kata, Dhamalia, Baulai, Someswari and Sari-Gowain rivers. The Surma and Kushiyara originate from the Barak river. All the rivers enter into the district from India and are non tidal but flushy. These are characterized by high sinuosity. Most of the riverbanks are submerged during 1:10-year floods (LGED, 2009). Besides the rivers, there are Ganga Chara, Islampur Chara, Nakria Chara/khal exist in the district.

2.3.2 Water Supply and Sanitation The BBS 2006 report shows in the district, 78.55% households drink tubewell, tap and ring well water and the remaining 21.44% drink other sources of water. In the dry season drinking water becomes scarce as the yield of hand tube well reduces significantly and a lot of effort is required due to the depletion of the ground water table close to suction limit.

According to the national census (BBS, 2006), the use of sanitary latrine in 1981 was 6%, in 1991 12% and in 2001 it was 36%. The report reveals that 19.09% use sanitary latrine, 65.43% uses other types of latrine and 15.48% do not use any latrine for defecation purpose. The urban-rural variation is also high. The data shows that about 45.35% population in the urban area and 14.16% population in the rural area use sanitary latrine in the district.

2.3.3 Flooding The whole district is mostly flood prone, except the northern part. The main causes of floods in the Sunamganj are flash floods on the transboundary rivers, back water effect from the Meghna, drainage congestions and local intense rainfall.

Intensity of rainfall is high in upper catchment in India, especially in the northern part and topography is slopping towards Bangladesh. As such when there is rainfall in India, onrush rainfall run off enters into Bangladesh through rivers and overland flows. The

silted up rivers and khals can not carry the huge discharge and over spills the bank of the rivers and Khals, causing floods. Flooding is also due to outfall constraints, primarily for the drainage congestion on the Meghna. This comprises flooding, causing back up water levels in the river system of the district. The severity of flooding is increased by severe rainfall and drainage congestion. The flow is also obstructed due to rise of bed level of Kalni river. The entire Sunamganj district was flooded during the major flood events in 1988 and 2004. Due to deep flooding most of the khals of the district merge with the water bodies to make a vast mass of water body in the form of haors in the monsoon. But in the dry season many of the beels/ haors become closed and disconnected with the adjacent rivers.

2.4 Hydrology of the Study Area

2.4.1 Pre-Monsoon During the early in mid February to end of February usually water accumulates in some beels and little in cannels but not to all cases. Fish gets stimuli for movement and some small fish breeds. In March though some North-eastern storm occurs and rain comes, sometime establish connectivity but surface water accumulate to a pool or depression position only. End of April and early May water starts move with regular connectivity and flow fish start move.

By end of May with the onset of monsoon heavy rains starts. Sometimes it rains several days together in Sunamganj area. Moreover, heavy rain occurs in adjacent Meghalayas hills in India. The water from Meghalaya comes to Sunamganj area through the Surma and other rivers including Jadukata. Besides through numerous rivers and creeks water comes to Sunamganj area. The rainfall within Sunamganj also adds huge water. The little inundation and connectivity that occurs in March-April period gets further inundation and connectivity. During this time water velocity in the surface and other rivers become very high. Fishes that started movement in March-April period continue to further migrate, dispersion through the rivers, canals to and fro beels/haors. In the upper part of the fields with heavy rain water flows across the field dykes and fish tends to move and local people catch fish from the fields.

Within the beels, water levels increase and also increase the extent of inundation. During that time though water remain slight turbid due to entry of water from river, tends to be more clearer gradually due to loss of water velocity, stagnancy and activity of bacterial, other organisms the suspected materials of the water clog and precipitate. Before that bigger size sand particles fall on the beel area which is the main part of siltation process. From different area fish accumulate in the beel and those reached in the deeper part during dry season move to shallower area for breeding and growing. Fish also move one beel to another beel through the connectivity cannel and also through the submerged floodplain/Kanda. Hizol/Koroch’s young plants also go under water for about 4-5 months period, other aquatic grass/weeds starts developing.

2.4.2 Wet Season June-July-August and to some extent up to mid September is the main wet season when water level and extent is full. In 2006 major inundation occurred due to rain of June. Most beels, floodplain and haors get inundation. Many roads, embankments and dykes go under water. Fish can move any direction except hindrance due to road and embankment which are high enough. Enough food organisms grow in the floodplain and fish graze. Bigger fish breeds in the beginning of this period. Some small fish breeds second time and it is also reported that some small fish breeds third time in a wet season. The adult and young fishes graze and grow in the inundation floodplain. Since riverine fish migrates further upward direction, non-fish organisms also grow and spread. Fish dispersion occurs mainly in a radial direction except through canals and river which is somewhat linear in nature.

2.4.3 Post-Monsoon/Flood Recession From mid to end of September and since from October flood water start receding. Fish try to find suitable and safer places to stay. Riverine fishes return to river from floodland after grazing. Floodplain species return to beels. Canals play important role during this time. By end of October water becomes limited/confined to beels, canals and river. Some beel connectivity become in-effective as canal bottom become high due to siltation and it is usually high compared to beel bottom. Many dykes/embankments of sub-merssible projects and rural roads come up above water level. During the end of this season fish concentrate in the beel with the decreasing phenomenon of beel water from flood.

2.4.4 Dry Season Water becme stagnant and confined to beel periphery with gradual but slow decreasing of water. Sometime water loss is more due to use of beel water for irrigation to the surrounding areas. With the lowering of temperature, fish try to less active. Other aquatic organisms also behave similarly. Other aquatic vegetations develop and try to prevail over the water in the beel. Fishing starts in the connecting canal and in the beel. Different fishing practices – pile fishery to individual gear operation is in use. Access and user type is defined by the condition of the beel and social code developed and practiced over the years of that area.

2.5 Fisheries Resources Sunamganj occupies an important and unique place in the country for acquaculture and fisheries resources development. Sunamganj district consist of, mainly, deeply flooded land known as haor and some floodplain in the piedmont area. Beels, haors, floodplain and numerous ponds of the district make the fish habitats. The district has as many as 95 rivers, some are small and some are big. The rivers, except few, have very little flow during the dry season and at many places riverbeds dry up. The ponds are closed water bodies while the others are part of open water body.

2.5.1 Open Water Fisheries The rivers, 1120 beels/haors (including Tanguar Haor) and floodplains provides 216,480 ha of open water fisheries habitat in Sunamganj district. A total of 40,470 ton fish are produced per year from these water bodies by the fishermen of the area.

2.5.2 Close Water Fisheries The Sunamganj district has 18,920 ponds with an area of 2,090 ha including 296 government closed jalmahal or ponds. All these ponds are in fish culture. A total 11,118 M-ton fish production is achieved per year from these closed water bodies.

2.6 Forestry Resources Swamp forestry mainly composed of Hizol, Koroch were abundant in the Haor areas from many years. These trees were supporting fish, other aquatic organisms, birds and animals and thus maintaining a healthy environment. Hizol, koroch, barun, pitali, sheora etc and

reeds were major plant species where hizol/koroch were about 80% of the composition in Sunamganj area.

For last few decades this swamp forestry has nearly disappeared due to excess harvesting of the resources, siltation of the beels/haors. With the significant reducation of the swamp forestry both in extent and quality fish and aquatic environment is now in threat.

Hizol and Koroch are water tolerant plant species which can be planted / grown in low lands of the beel/haors. The regeneration of swamp trees or plantation according to natural way is helpful for increasing fishery resources. During flood water recession time (September-October) when water of the beel periphery start reducing seedings of hozol/koroch plants fall in water, float and move on/with water and come in contact with clay soil. There they start growing. The roots of the samplings grow and penetrate deep in to soil before soil become dry, thus saplings attain capacity to withstand the adverse condition of dry season. Considering the natural process, hizol, koroch seed can be broadcasted or saplings can be planted in lower floodplains in the beel periphery. These plants also can be planted along the beel demarcation line to have long term identity and to reduce encroachments. All the nursery and plantation and forestry work can be done by involving women group.

As many beel periphery are now a day is under boro cultivation, these plantation may be done on iles/plot dykes. Further the swamp forestry may be developed through caring and maintenance of areas where naturally seedlings of hizol, koroch would grow. It should be mentioned again that hizol, koroch are not the only species under swamp forestry, different other plant species specially those grow in the upper periphery of the beel or floodplain near to the kanda or village line including reeds, are part of swamp forestry.

2.7 Demographic Characteristics of the Study Area

2.7.1 Area and Population of the Study Area The area of the district is about 3689.58 sq.km, consisting of 11 Upazilas and 118 unions/wards. According to BBS 2006, total number of households of the district is about 345,200 and the population is about 19,90,360. Of this male population is 10,29,500 and female population is 9,60,860. The average household size is 5.7, which is higher than the 11

national average of 4.8. The population density is 542 compared to 839 per sq.km for the country and ranks at 51 in order of density. The sex ratio is 105 male per 100 female against the national average of 107 male per 100 female. The population growth rate was 2.17% in 1991 and 1.62% in 2001. Demographic characteristics of Sunamganj is presented in Table 2.3.

2.7.2 Socio-Economic Condition of the Study Area About 61% HH have agricultural land (2001). The Agricultural census 1996 shows that the total farm household of the district was 286,350. The data shows that the percentage of landless was 35.90%, small farmers 40.70%, medium farmers 20.60% and large farmers 2.80%. According to the BBS 2001 the economically active population of the district was about 58%. Farming was the main occupation of the employed population (about 38.86%), followed by day labor (26.28%), fishermen (about 8.15%) and transport was about 7.3%. According to the Agriculture census 1996, about 60% households lease in some or full for their livelihood. Out of the total households about 42% households are landless, who owned only 2% of operated land. The census shows that the non-farm households were 3.13% in 1983 and 7% in 1996. About 20% agriculture labor goes to other places for work.

Table 2.3 : Demographic Characteristics of Sunamganj District Name of Upazila Area Union/ Mouza/ Village Total Population (sq.km) Ward Mahalla Household Male Female Total Bishwamberpur 194.25 5 74 254 23640 62300 63740 126040 Chhatak 434.76 22 343 530 52580 169000 160260 329260 Derai 420.93 18 182 224 36400 107440 95300 202740 Dharampasha 496.03 10 182 317 35100 95860 87120 182980 Dowarabazar 281.40 7 164 311 32560 90240 86560 176800 Jagannathpur 368.27 17 287 315 33760 118760 107220 225980 Jamalganj 338.74 5 101 174 23260 71620 67320 138940 Sulla 260.74 4 68 113 16860 46860 42540 89400 South Sunamganj 560.76 23 281 407 63080 189700 177200 366900 & Sadar Tahirpur 333.70 7 130 240 27960 77720 73600 151320 Total 3689.58 118 1812 2885 345200 1029500 960860 1990360 Source : BBS, 2006

2.7.3 Literacy and Education Status of the Study Area According to the population census 2001, the literacy rate of the district is 34.47%. Among them male is 37.18% and female 29.61%. The highest literacy rate is found at the Sadar Upazila (45.3%) followed by Chhatak (36.30%). On the otherhand the lowest 12

literacy rate is found at Dharmapasha 26.40%. It was learnt from discussion that though insufficiency of educational institution and bad communication were telling upon the induction of children to the schools, yet because of the government policy for assisting female education, it was attracting more female children to schools than boys.

2.7.4 Indigenous People and Archaeological Sites in the Study Area According to the Statistical Yearbook 2004, a total number of 255 tribal households like Khasia and Monipuri live in the district, which is about 0.54 percent of the total households. The total number of population is 6643, among them 3811 male and 3262 female. Their main occupations are agricultural day labor, small trades and handicrafts. Their interest should be taken care of from any social inclusion and discrimination in development intervention. Similarly, some traditional boatmen, fishermen and some craftsman are vulnerable groups due to squeezed income opportunities affected by water resources interventions and other socio-economic reasons. To reduce their vulnerability, income generation for them by providing long-term loan with low interest, training and motivation could be arranged.

Prominent archaeological sites are “Hasan Raza’s Bari, Laouer Garh, Dalura Smriti Monument, Pagla Moszid, Dohalia Zaminder Bari, Gouranga Zamindar Bari, Takerghat Chunapathar Mine Project, Punnya Thirtha and Narayantala Mission”. Tanguar haor one of the two Ramsar Sites lies in this district. Fishing and hunting of birds are prohibited from this haor. Peoples from different places of the country and foreign country come to visit Tanguar Haor.

Chapter 3 Literature Review

3.1 National Policy, Plan and Strategy deal with Fisheries The following Policy, Plan and Strategy guide and provide the path of Community Based Fisheries Management in Bangladesh.

Table 3.1 : National Policy, Plan and Strategy dealt with Fisheries Name of Activated Policy/Plan/ Deals with year Strategy Procurement, preservation and management of fisheries / National Fisheries 1998 fish culture and management / culture of shrimps / Policy exploitation, conservation and management of fisheries. River Basin Management / Planning and Management of Water Resources / Water Rights and Allocation / Public and Private Invilvement / Public Water Investment / National Water 1999 Water Supply and Sanitation / Agriculture / Industry / Policy Fisheries and Wildlife / Navigation / Hydropower and Recreation / Environment / Preservation of Haor, Baor and Beels. Planning and Administrative Support / Access / Inland Capture Environmental Management / Community Based Co- 2006 Fisheries Strategy management / Support to the Sector / Alternative Income Generating Activities. Clear Definition of Actual Fisher, Fisher Organization and Water Bodies (Jalmahal) / Handover of Water Bodies Government with MOU / Management of Water Bodies upto 20 acres Water Bodies / Management of Water Bodies of above 20 acres by (Jalmahal) 2009 District Jalmahal Management Committee / Management Management of Water Bodies of upto 20 acres by Upazila Jalmahal Policy Management Committee / Management of Closed Water Bodies of above 20 acres by Development Projects.

Open water capture fisheries / Community Based Sixth Five Year Fisheries Management / Stocking / Enforcement of law / 2011 Plan Strengthing DoF / Fish Processing and Marketing / Credit Access. Water Resources / Agriculture / Fisheries / Livestock / Forest / Bio-diversity and Wetland Management / Transportation / Mineral Resources / Health and Haor Master Plan 2012 Nutrition / Industry / Education / Water Supply and Sanitation / Social Services and Facilities / Power and Energy / Housing and Settlement / Tourism / Climate Change Scenria / Morphology / Livelihood of Haor Area.

3.1.1 National Fisheries Policy (1998) National Fisheries Policy (1998) stated that priority will be given to the government owned ponds, baors and other suitable water bodies for fish culture as a means of alternative earning source for the poor fishers. The water bodies will be leased out on long-term basis to the poor and interested fishers/trained jobless youths. Genuine fishermen would be given priority to get khas water bodies.

For increased production and to conserve biodiversity, some areas or the whole jalmohal will need to be converted into fish sanctuaries. Department of Fisheries will be liable for the care and management of the declare fish sanctuaries with the help of fishers societies and bodies of local government, if necessary. Jalmohals designated as fish sanctuaries will be transferred to the Directorate of Fisheries. A new integrated model for fish/ shrimp cum HYV rice culture will be initiated in the beets, haors and other flood affected areas, especially in the regions encircled by dams in flood control and irrigation projects.

Water bodies like haor, baor and beef would be renovated for fish culture and these water bodies would not be reduced in sizes. Genuine fishermen would be given priority to get khas water bodies. Females will be encouraged in fish culture and trained accordingly. Local fisher communities will be given priorities for fish culture in baor, and technical and socio-economic support will be provided.

3.1.2 National Water Policy (1999) National Water Policy (1999) stated that the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) is responsible for the implementation of water projects that exceed 10 sq.km in size, whereas the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) is entrusted with smaller projects up to 10 sq.km in size. Preservation and conservation of haors, baors and beels are emphasized in the policy.

Water bodies like haors, baors, and beels are precious assets of Bangladesh with unique regional characteristics. Apart from their scenic beauty, they have great economical and environmental value. Even during extremely dry seasons, when the smaller beels turn into quagmires, the haors and the baors retain considerable amount of water. These water bodies account for a large share of the natural capture fisheries and provide a habitat for a wide variety of aquatic vegetation and birds. They also provide sanctuary to migratory birds during winter. In the past, many beels have been drained through engineering interventions and turned into cropland for immediate gains. The adverse effects of such interventions have been deleterious to the environment. They have destroyed the fish and aquatic vegetables that thrive in these wetlands and are important in the diet of the rural poor. They have also blocked the flow of wastes, discharged from the flood plains and domestic sources, which naturally move out of the beels through the khals into the river's drainage system. Only submersible dikes have provided tangible benefits in certain haor areas by enabling cultivation of high yielding variety boro rice.

Natural water bodies such as beels, haors, and baors will be preserved for maintaining the aquatic environment and facilitating drainage. Only those water related projects will be taken up for execution that will not interfere with the aquatic characteristics of those water bodies. Haors that naturally dry up during the winter will be developed for dry season agriculture. Take up integrated projects in those water bodies for increasing fish production. Natural water bodies will be developed, where possible, for recreational use in support of tourism.

3.1.3 Inland Capture Fisheries Strategy (2006) Inland Capture Fisheries Strategy (2006) stated that through a leasing system based on the needs of sustainable management and not maximum revenue generation, providing access to government water bodies to genuine fishers and user communities. Measures would be 16

taken to ensure the sustainable management of water bodies and their ecosystem through improved community planning and appropriate management interventions encouraging the establishment of sanctuaries, control of fishing effort, habitat restoration, stocking and other management measure.

People who depend on catching fish themselves will be given priority in gaining the lease of jalmohals. According to the local situation, users may be organised into fisher based organisations or broader community organisations where the role of fishers is emphasised. For this they may be organised as cooperatives, under social service department, or as other community based organisations. All water bodies of the country will be identified in an inventory along with their current status, area, etc. These areas will be reserved as inland fisheries and changes in their use and loss of wetland area prevented.

In general sanctuaries in part of a waterbody will be established by the concerned user communities as part of their fishery management plan and endorsed by local government and Department of Fisheries. Local user communities would be encouraged to undertake measures to reduce fishing pressure and implement bans on destructive fishing gears /methods e.g. dewatering. Conservation and propagation of the threatened and endangered fish species in their native habitat will be encouraged. Leasing will primarily be a means of controlling access to water bodies and not a system to raise government revenue. To provide a formal legal recognition of user rights, community based organisations where fishers have a leading role will be facilitated and organized. The type of community based organisation appropriate will vary according to the location, it may be membership based (fishers), an organisation representing different stakeholder groups, or a set of volunteers from the community concerned to ensure sustainable fisheries. They should be registered either under the social services department provisions (larger wetland management) or as co-operatives (smaller well defined fisher based organisations). To support this effort capable NGOs will be encouraged to work with fishing communities and government agencies.

3.1.4 Government Water Bodies (Jalmahal) Management Policy (2009) Government Water bodies (Jalmahal) Management Policy 2009 reveals that “Jal Jar, Jola Tar” (Net owner for fishing will be the water body owner). The policy has been prepared for the proper use of water bodies and protects the water bodies from destruction and 17

pollution, increase fish production and revenue earning; priority has been given on aquatic environment.

The policy provides a clear definition of actual fisher, fisher organization and water bodies (Jalmahal). Handover of Water Bodies to Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Monistry of Local Government, Rural Development & Co-operatives and Ministry of Environment and Forest will be managed with some Minutes of Understanding (MOU). Management of Water Bodies upto 20 acres for self-employment of young society will be abolished. Water Bodies of above 20 acres will be administreted by District Jalmahal Management Committee. Water Bodies of upto 20 acres will be administreted by Upazila Jalmahal Management Committee. Closed Water Bodies of above 20 acres will be leased out by Development Projects for poverty reduction and socio-economic development actual poor fisher.

3.1.5 Sixth Five Year Plan (2011) The overall strategy of fisheries sector development should focus more on open water fisheries, ensuring biodiversity and preserving natural breeding grounds, product diversification, value addition, capacity building and development of appropriate marketing infrastructure. The strategy should be to promote a dynamic capture fisheries and aquaculture, involving the key actors e.g. NGOs, private sector entrepreneurs and community based fishing groups. Emphasis should be given on the management of open water capture fisheries since the potential for pond culture has nearly been exhausted.

Community-based fisheries management should be encouraged. There are already some examples of successful community based management of open water fisheries that can be disseminated and replicated in other places. This ensures broad-based participation of community people in the fisheries management as well as higher production. However, community-based management works better during the project period only and the situation deteriorates soon after the completion of the projects. Hence, to make the community-based management more effective and sustainable, community people should be made more aware about the fishing practices and fisheries management. They should also be given “ownership” of the resources so that they invest and adequately take care of the resources. Introducing long-term leasing system can serve the ownership problem in this respect. 18

Better practices of open water fisheries management should be re-introduced in other places. Restocking in the open water fisheries, not to catch fish for some time of the year, enhancing seasonal culture, pen culture and beel nursery can significantly contribute to augmenting fish production from the capture fishery. It is also important to emphasize on the creation of more sanctuaries and proper enforcement of laws in order to ensure the breeding and growth of fish in the open water capture fisheries. Capacities of Department of Fisheries (DoF) and Fisheries Research Institutes should be strengthened. Ministries of Land and Fisheries should also work together in deciding leasing of the jalmahals.

Fish preservation, processing and marketing structure, particularly for the capture fisheries, are also weak. It needs to develop proper preservation facilities. There should be adequate provisions of credit access for the fishermen and fish farmers. Fishermen in most of the cases work as contract labor of large traders and arotdars. They should therefore be provided with credit so that they can purchase fishing equipment themselves and meet regular expenses during lean seasons. Fish farmers, particularly the small farmers, should also be provided with credit so that they can invest in the fishery.

3.1.6 Haor Master Plan (2012) This Master Plan is a framework plan for developing the haor areas through optimal utilization of natural and human resources for the next 20 years (up to 2032). The Plan has been formulated following the principles of IWRM. It will be implemented on the short, medium and long term basis with the provision of updating and incorporating rationale changes in demand. It has been formulated in an integrated manner envisioning mainly flood management, environmental sustainability, production of crop, fisheries and livestock, expansion of education, settlement and health facilities, road communication, navigation, water supply and sanitation, industry, afforestation, tourism, use of mineral resources and generation of power and energy.

The haor region comprises a wide variety of fin fish including 143 indigenous and 12 exotic species along with several species of freshwater prawns. Fish species are broaly grouped into two categories, large and small fish. The estimated fish habitat area in the haor region is nearly 9,66,900ha. The fish habitats in the haor area produce about 4.32 lakh ton of fish where 73.7% is from capture fishery and the remaining is contributed by culture fishery. Wetlands are breeding as well as feeding grounds of most of the 19

freshwater migratory fish species. Culture fish ponds in the haor area produce about 0.114 million ton which is 26.3% of the total production.

The major driving forces controlling the future development of the haor reion are pressue on agriculture land, pressure on fragile ecosystems, urbanization and migration, improvement of transportation system, economic diversification, dependency on local resources, international demand for conservation of wetlands, initiation of agricultural technologies, ownership of wetland areas, recurrence of water related risks and hazards, social change, local initiatives and decentralization of power.

3.2 General Principles of Community Based Fisheries Management According to Community Fisheries Management Handbook (2006), five principles of Community Based Fisheries Management are given below:

3.2.1 Empowerment In community based fisheries management, empowerment is the ability of local people to exercise management control over resources and institutions on which they depend.

3.2.2 Equity Community based fisheries management is concerned about equity. This usually means equal opportunity and fair access to the fishery among the various users and between different user groups.

3.2.3 Ecosystem based Management Community based fisheries management promotes the importance of protecting and managing not only commercial species, but also other species and a whole range of habitat and ecosystem functions.

3.2.4 Respect for Local Knowledge Local knowledge is the body of information developed by those with a local connection to the beel, whether through living by the beel or through earning a living from the beel. Community based fisheries management seeks to recognize this wealth of knowledge and incorporate it into fisheries decision making and management.

3.2.5 Inclusiveness Community based fisheries management recognizes the unique roles and contributions of many different resource users and community members. Community based fisheries management makes room for appropriate involvement from all.

3.3 Climate Change Impact on Fisheries In the short term, climate change is anticipated to impact freshwater fisheries through incremental changes in water temperature, nutrient levels and lower dry season water levels. Dry-season flow rates are predicted to decline in Sunamganj basins, resulting in reduced fish yields.

Favorable temperature and good rainfall are most important factors for successfully fish breeding and nursery. Usually, high temperature and less rain restrict fish breeding and nursery. They might be detrimental for Sylhet region. Various factor like fias do not ovulate, eggs are not fertilized or less fertilized and lower hatching rate occurred due to high temperature and less rain. On the other hand, no rain or less rain due to climate change creates various problems like less water availability; reduce feeding apatite, disease prevalence and mass mortality of fishes. Climate change may directly affect fish reproduction, growth and migration patterns are all affected by temperature, rainfall and hydrology and shown below as per Ficke, 2007.

World Fish Centre identified four tropical Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Yemen as most vulnerable depending on the vulnerability of national economics to the impacts of climate change on fisheries (Alison, 2009).

Climate change stresses will have complex pressure on fisheries and aquaculture and threaten the fish production and livelihood of the communities. These changes have major consequences for the productivity and species composition of fisheries resources in the Sylhet region (King, 2005).

Physical Ecologocal Fisheries Temperature Species distributions Productivity Sea level Timing of reproduction, Distribution pH migration, abundance Species availability Salinity Physiology Timing Currents Recruitment Days at sea Nutrients Behaviour Accidents Oxygen Sex ratios Loss of harbours, homes Ice cover Calcification rates Damage to productive Turbulence & mixing Upwelling timing & assets Wind speed & direction latitude Increased insurance costs Storm frequency & Habitat loss Livelihood diversification intensity Coral bleaching frequency Ability to plan seasonal Evaporation & severity livelihood activities Precipitation Disease Runoff

(Source: Edward Allison et. al., 2005)

3.4 Fisheries Resources and Its Management Strategy Fisheries constitute a major component of food and livelihood systems in the flood-prone ecosystems in Bangladesh. The fisheries sector is an important source of employment, rural income, food security, import substitution and biodiversity. The sector accounts for 20.9% of agricultural GDP, 3.7% of the total GDP, 4.0% of the export earning and 58% of animal protein intake (DoF, 2009). Bangladesh is endowed with enormous inland fishery resources; approximately 28% of the total area of the country is floodplains, contributing significantly to national inland fisheries production (DoF-FRSS, 2006). There are 12 million people whose livelihoods depend directly on fisheries as full-time fishers, subsistence fishers, part-time fishery labors, aquaculture operators, fisheries traders and business people.

Fisheries management in the past was mostly revenue oriented under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Land (MoL) through the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act in 1950 which allowed water bodies to be leased to the higher bidder, usually for 1-3 years. 22

Poor fishers were thus practically excluded from participating in the process of bidding and, therefore, from the management of fisheries. In haor areas (extensively low lying and deeply flooded areas of floodplain) most of the land remains under water for about five months in a year, yet the benefits during a period when otherwise good crop land would be unproductive, was only for a few poor people who could access the fishery as fishing labors under the conditions set by the leaseholder (Kan and Middendrop, 2006; Khan, 2007).

3.5 Third Fisheries Project (TFP) (1991-96) The main objective of the Third Fisheries Project was to increase fish production and income of the poor fishers through stocking seasonal flood plain with carp and by involving the beneficiary fishers organized, trained and assisted by NGOs engaged under the project. The idea behind the project was to increase fish production by using the underutilized ecological niches of the floodplain and gradually hand over the financial and technical aspects of management to the fishers by the end of the project. Though the programme was not sustainable, the project was a guide for this type of programme in respect of technical issues (stocking densities, species composition, and habitat suitability), social aspects, timely handing over of the water body to the beneficiaries on long term basis, properly organizing the group through NGOs, etc.

3.6 Second Aquaculture Project (1989-96) The major activities of the project were floodplain stocking in the haor basin of northeast region of the country and aquaculture development and extension in ponds for increasing fish production of the country. This system involved less cost compared to TFP where fingerlings were purchased through contractors, but the beel nursery system was not environmentally sound as preparation of beel nurseries required all fish/aquatic organisms of the beel to be killed with pesticides. As there was no systematic monitoring system under the project, the environmental and livelihood impact could not be assessed. However, there had been an enhancement of fish production and of fishers’ income in the area. Though the project was to increase fish production and the income of the fishing community, there was no direct involvement of fishing community in project implementation.

3.7 Fourth Fisheries Project (FFP) (1998-2005) On the basis of the experience of TFP, the FFP has been taken up by the Government with flood plain stocking as one of the major components of the project, but where the beneficiaries have been involved in the stocking programme with financial, and technical support from the very beginning of the project. The other components of the project are establishment of fish sanctuaries, construction of fish passes, and linking canals with floodplain and river, and involvement of beneficiaries in project planning and implementation for sustainability of the Programme.

3.8 Management of Aquatic Ecosystem Through Community Husbandry (MACH) Project (1998-2003) MACH is a USAID financed project for community participatory management of aquatic resources. The major objective of the project is to demonstrate to the community, local Government and policy makers, and the viability of community approach to sustainable natural resource management and habitat restoration and conservation over an entire ecosystem for sustainable and improved livelihood and food security of the poor, and landless. The project activities include awareness building, organizing and training of the community by NGOs involved under the project; habitat restoration and conservation of aquatic resources, and providing income generating activities for landless poor and destitute women. The project is being implemented in three locations namely – Hail Haor in Moulvibazar district, Turag-Bangshi basin in Gazipur district and Kangsha-Malajhee basin in Sherpur district since 1999. The management is being carried out by community level resource management committees comprising representatives from fishers, farmers and local elite and through involvement of local Government. Users’ rights have been transferred to the committees for management of the fisheries in specific water bodies. As a result of management intervention like habitat restoration, resource conservation (closure of fishing during breeding season, establishment of sanctuaries, and implementation of fish act) the fish production increased in the project area.

3.9 Sunamganj Community Based Resource Management Project 3.9.1 Project Background Sunamganj Community Based Resources Management Project (SCBRMP) of LGED under Local Government Division is a development project funded by International Fund

for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The total project cost is Tk. 20,046 Lack. The ultimate goal of the project is to reduce poverty of the rural poor in Sunamganj. The project is for 12 years started in January 2003 and will end in June 2014. The total project’s period is divided into three phases. The Project is implementing its activities in Sunamganj district which is one of the poorest and most backward districts in Bangladesh. The project has included bottom 90,000 households from nine most distressed Upazilas as its targeted people.

Sunamganj is a deep floodplain known as haor where maximum land goes under water for almost seven months a year. During that time villages in haor become inlands being locked by water. Every year strong waves generated in haor areas erode homesteads and settlements and eventually make the concerned people homeless. Most of the agricultural lands in Sunamganj fall under single crop land, and those are highly prone to early rain and flash flood. Although the Sunamganj haor is rich in fisheries, the resource base is gradually decreasing following regular siltation. The communication is too bad and the people have very limited access to basic civic services. Scopes of livelihoods are inadequate. Men usually commute to nearer cities for four to five months a year in search of works leaving their families behind with hardly any source of income. It causes a big suffering to those families particularly to women and children.

The project is being implemented with the following two objectives: i) Increase the assets and income of 90,000 households by developing self-managing grass-roots organizations to improve beneficiary access to primary resources, employment and credit, and ii) Support to the development of available national institutions to replicate the project approach in other areas of Bangladesh.

3.9.2 Developing New Approach The management of these resources, based upon a combination of short-term lease access to water bodies has long been in the hands of a socially and politically privileged individual or a group of people backed by the political parties. Increasingly the government recognizes that resource sustainability and the equitable distribution of benefits to the poor is more important that the revenue generated under the leasing system (and increasingly the revenue is becoming a negligible contribution to the national 25

treasury). To address these concerns in lease based systems and the free-for-all approach in rivers and open floodplains, LGED has been developed a new community based approaches to fisheries management in Sunamganj District, which is shown below.

Resource user-based, or Government management community-based of resources Co-Management management of resources

3.9.3 Major Components of the Project There are five components of the project to meet the project objectives. These are: i) Labour-intensive infrastructure development ii) Fisheries development iii) Crop and livestock production iv) Micro-credit, and v) Institutional support

3.9.4 Beel Development Beel development is an important part of the beel fisheries. The focus of the activity is basically on fish habitat restoration and restoring the beel environment. The initiative comprises two kinds of activities - one is compensating and other is remedial. Planting swamp trees and re-introducing scarce fish species come under the compensating measure and re-excavation of beels to remove silt and restore the connectivity of beel with the mainstream haor system falls under the remedial measure.

3.9.5 Roles and Responsibilities of Beel User Groups The Beel User Groups (BUG) is the basic structure of the beel users. It consists of fishers who live in the beel command villages. The users are selected from a list based on social mapping where all villagers are listed by occupation and their wellbeing status. The BUG has a governing body called a Beel Management Committee (BMC). The BMC comprises 7 to 9 members and lead the BUG being guided by byelaws developed by the BUG members after consulting with experts. In addition to the BMC, there is a structure called the Advisory Committee. This is a structure formed consisting of local people with a view to assisting the BUG if there is crisis or conflict. The committee has no share in the beel resource or any voting rights in the formation of the BMC, but their role and support are

counted as highly vital to the BUG to solve many local problems related to beel management. The structure of Advisory Committee (AC), Beel Management Committee (BMC) and Beel User Group (BUG) are given in Figure 3.3.

Advisory Committee AC (7 Members)

Beel Management Committee BMC (7-9 Members)

Beel User Group (150 members) BUG

Figure 3.1 : Hierarchy of AC, BMC and BUG (Source: Mohsin, 2010)

The BUG as the user of the beel has many roles and responsibilities. Of those, a few are regular such as group meetings, savings and maintenance of the beel and a few are occasional or seasonal such as depositing lease value, re-excavation of beel, planting of swamp trees, guarding, harvesting and conservation activities. The most focused responsibilities of the BUG are to maintain the beel with sustainability and all actions in relation to beel management are carefully resigned to attain that.

Beel maintenance activities include embankment (Pati Bandh) construction, to establish Khola etc. One of the most significant works in the SCBRMP arrangement was the beel conservation activities i.e. making fish sanctuaries, cleaning the weed (locally known as ‘Hugla Bon’), tree plantation (locally known as Hijol tree) surroundings the whole waterbody, buying and releasing of fingerlings etc. Establishing small fish sanctuaries to protect brood fish in the winter and then to voluntarily stop fishing in the early monsoon to allow native fish to breed. The Beel Management Activities are attended meetings, attended trainings, beel guarding, beel management activities, beel conservation activities, information gathering, co-ordination cost and conflict management. Beel management 27

activities play a vital role to the success of new institutional arrangement like SCBRMP system in the study area.

3.9.6 Fishing Rules and Responsibilities Fishing is done in accordance with the Fish Conservation Act and some customary rules supportive to sustainable fisheries resource management. There is provision for three categories of fishing; individual, subsistence and group based seasonal major fishing. However, the project is yet to formulate a concrete policy for subsistence and individual fishing, and therefore only group fishing is in practice. During the major fishing season, a group of fishers undertakes beel fishing which is usually completed in three or four rounds of fishing. Under SCBRMP project the BMC develops certain rules regarding fishing in the beels. According to these rules, outsiders are not allowed to fish in the haors during late autumn or winter and nobody is allowed to fish in a sanctuary.

3.9.7 Involvement of Local Government Institutions Existing local government structure is presented in Figure 3.2.

Ministry of LGRD&C

Rural Urban

Union Parishad Paurashava Upazila Parishad

Zila Parishad City Corporation

Figure 3.2: Existing Local Government Structure of Bangladesh

The existing Local Government Acts are: Local Government (City Corporation) (Amended) Act, 2011 Local Government (Paurashava) (Amended) Act, 2010 Local Government (Union Parishad) Act, 2009 Upazila Parishad (Amended) Act, 2011 Zila Parishad Act, 2000

The above acts preserve a seprate committee on Fisheries Development. But there is no linkage of the SCBRMP and local government bodies. Elected representatives of Union Council do not participate in the SCBRMP Project Activities. Union Council does not play any role to settle the conflicts. Well functioning linkages between the community organizations and the local administration are essential. Union Parishad Chairman and Upazila Administration may act as arbitrators when conflict occurs.

Ensure strong linkages and capacity of BUGs to obtain help and services from local government by re-orienting local government to provide support to the BUGs in any circumstances. At the same time local government should be accountable to the community for its services.

3.9.8 Review of SCBRMP Livelihood Impact Monitoring Report 2010 Livelihood Impact Monitoring Report 2010 reveals that integrated rural development approach has been undertaken by this project and produced positive impact on life and livelihoods of the project area’s communities. Livelihood has been monitored on the aspect of population profile, income, occupation, landholding, assets, food security, women mobility, institutional involvement and credit utilization. The report concluded that to achieve sustainable poverty reduction need long term comprehensive development programs supported by government agencies.

3.9.9 Review of SCBRMP Bio-diversity Monitoring Report 2010 Catch monitoring studies have been carried out in 30 (thirty) SCBRMP sites. Fisheries production was measured in terms of organized catch (bulk catches made by organized groups). The main effective factors influencing better production at most sites are habitat type, water extension during monsoon, level of compliance in fishing regulation, fish sanctuary, higher species diversity (e.g. Chatol Udai Tara, Medi beel, Abua nodi, Thapna Group Jal Mahal), presence of professional fishers around water bodies, fisher density, good links with other water bodies or big haor, no restriction during monsoon and nearby beel areas, and interruption of organized harvest.

A total of 105 species of fish and prawn were recorded during the study period. The study reveals that in 2007-08, the ranges of species number from 56 to 65 were found at 3 sites which increased to 6 sites in 2008-09. Similarly in 2007-08, the ranges of species number 29

from 46 to 55 were found in 5 sites which also increased to 6 sites in 2008-09. The study report recommended that a sustainable fish production is possible only through a coordinated effort encompassing flood level, flood duration, flood plain environment, refuges, migration and fishing intensity. A longer duration of flood provides a longer growth period for fish and therefore a higher yield.

3.9.10 Review of SCBRMP Annual Report 2011 Fisheries development component is being implemented to ensure access of the poor fisher community to water bodies. The component is applying participatory Sunamganj Community Based Fisheries Management (SCBFM) approach for sustainable resource usages. The project has an ultimate plan of access to 300 beels of which 86 are above 20 acres and the rest are below 20 acres. Phase wise beel accessed plan is given in the following table.

Table 3.2: Phase-wise Beel Access Plan Upazila Beel Handed Over to BUG First Phase Second Phase Third Phase (under Total process) Sunamganj Sadar 26 10 4 40 South Sunamganj 28 7 5 40 Bishwambarpur 13 7 5 25 Jamalganj 10 13 18 41 Tahirpur 12 17 0 29 Derai 4 17 20 41 Sulla 0 18 7 25 Dowarabazar 0 5 11 16 Dharmapasha 0 15 5 20 Chatak 0 6 9 15 Jogonnathpur 0 3 5 8 Total 93 118 89 300

Though there was a plan to access 211 nos. of beels would be covered under first and second phase, but after completion of second phase, only 170 nos. of beels (around 81%) have been accessed. Court case and stay orders are the main causes for not achieving 100% efficiency of beel access. An extensive development activity has been undertaken for beel development. The activities included earthwork, swamp tree plantation, setting of demarcation pillar, establishing of fish sanctuaries and dredging. All the activities 30

implemented in consultation and collaboration with respective District and Upazilla Committees formed for evaluating and facilitating the beel fisheries activities of the project. The report concluded that the beel management by BUGs has become stronger and the conservation measures of the resources has become more systematic and brought good results in fish production and species diversity.

Chapter 4 Methodology and Study Area

4.1 Introduction Methodology is very important for clear understanding as how the research has been carried out for this study. The following methods are undertaken for successful completion of the research work.

4.2 Conceptualization Conceptualization was nothing but understanding of the work to be done for the study. It was made clear during the proposal writing through intensive literature review on wetland and beel fisheries management, national policies taken up during various times for achieving management goals, existing journals, reports, e-materials, review papers, magazines, etc. related with the research topic to make it focused and clear. A lot of approaches and projects were taken up for making degraded wetland of Bangaldesh sustainable for future use. It was clear that rampant use of wetland has put enormous preesure on wetland resources leading to severe degradation of wetland ecology and disruption of livelihoods of marginal fishers. There are several conceptual frameworks like Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA), Pressure-State-Response (PSR), Driving force- State-Response (DSR) or Driving-force-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) for assessing sustainability of eco-system as well as adopted approaches. Among these methods, DPSIR method widely used in Bangladesh by DoE, World Fish Center, IUCN, UNESCO, UNDP and UNEP. So DPSIR method for assessing the sustainability of CBFM approach through BUG was found suitable for this study. Livelihood pentagon has been used to assess change of state for before project, during project and maximum attainable of Human Capital, Social Capital, Financial Capital, Physical Capital and Natural Capital. A detail discussion about physical sustainability has been conducted to know the physical features of the beels, hydraulic connectivity, sanctuary establishment, kua establishment and sustainable beel management.

4.3 Selection of the Study Area The criteria for selection of the study area were easy accessibility and availability of the community who has applied Community Based Fisheries Management (CBFM) approach. 32

CBFM approaches under LGED are being implemented at Sunamganj since 2003. Boiragimara Beel under Sunamganj sadar and Chatol Udaytara Beel under South Sunamganj are selected as study area.

4.3.1 Boiragimara Beel at Sunamganj Sadar Boiragimara Beel is located at Sunamganj Sadar Upazila of Sunamganj District. Approved leased area of this beel is 46.58 ha with leased money of Tk. 70,376. The beel has come under SCBRMP from April 2005. The total Beel User Group Member is 69, where 63 members are male and 6 members are female. A total of 1,000 nos. Swamp trees have been planted in this beels. Fish Sanctuary with an area of 2,000 sq.m has been established in this beel in 2008 and all type of fishing is restricted around the fish sanctuary. Among the 69 BUG members only 3 members have baan passed SSC examination. Others are below SSC. 60% members have ring-slub sanitary latrines. Limited water supply facilities with HTW are existed in this Mohalla. Only a BUG consist of 69 members have been operated and maintained this Beel. Babongar Khal is one of the fish movement path of this beel. This beel is within Dekkar Haor area.

Figure 4.1 : Location of Boiragimara Beel

4.3.2 Chatol Udaytara Beel at South Sunamganj Chatol Udaytara Beel is located at South Sunamganj Upazila of Sunamganj District. Approved leased area of this beel is 58.20 ha with leased money of Tk. 61,052. The beel has come under SCBRMP from April 2005. The total Beel User Group Member is 51, where 42 members are male and only 9 members are female. A total of 3,453 nos. Swamp trees have been planted in this beels. Fish Sanctuary with an area of 4,900 sq.m has been established in this beel in 2008 and all type of fishing is restricted around the fish sanctuary. Among the 60 BUG members only 4 members have baan passed SSC examination. Others are below SSC. 40% members have ring-slub sanitary latrines. Limited water supply facilities with HTW are existed in this Mohalla. Only a BUG consist of 51 members have been operated and maintained this Beel. Udaitara beel is in the north and Chatol is in the south. Both are connected via Haribhanga River. Fish migrate to these beels through Haribhanga River.

Figure 4.2 : Location of Chatol Udaytara Beel

4.4 Data Collection Primary (study area, BUGs) and secondary sources (SCBRMP, World Fish Centre, and other) have been used for data collection. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used for the study. Quantitative methods are used mostly for carrying out SLA and DPSIR analysis.

4.4.1 Secondary Data Collection National policies and strategies adopted by concerned Ministries like MoL, MoFL, DoF, MoWR, etc. and by international aid agency like DFID, USAID were collected and reviewed and presented in the Chapter 3. The all published project documents on SCBRMP and other community based management are also collected and reviewed to see their experiences (weakness and strengths) at field level experiments and the lessons learnt from those project activities and are presented in the same chapter 3 under literature review. The published reports concerned with SLA, DPSIR, biodiversity etc. were collected/downloaded and accordingly used for analysis with the data found from both primary and secondary sources.

4.4.2 Primary Data Collection SLA contains five capitals - human capital, natural capital, financial capital, social capital and physical capital and followed to assess the sustainability of the CBRMP. Similarly, DPSIR framework contains several components through which sustainability of eco-system as well as adopted approaches by SCBRMP might be assessed.

For this purpose, two BUGs are selected for collection of primary data through questionnaire survey. A set of structured questionnaire was prepared for carrying out field related survey (Appendix A). Considering various levels of respondents, both open and close-ended questionnaire was considered. The total sample from two BUGs for carrying out survey was 90 (ninety) considering 45 (forty) members from each BUG. Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Cause Effect Diagram (CED), and Trend Line Analysis are conducted among these sampled 90 (ninety) members of two BUGs as well as with associated groups like fish fry traders, fish traders, day laborers including gender (women, and destitute groups), etc. 6 (six) FGDs were conducted comprising of 10 - 15 members for each group to get an overview of particular issues such as existing fish farming systems, fish marketing and the socio-economic condition of BUGs, eco-system and environmental degradation and improvement status as a result of adopted complex community based activities and approaches in these two beels of Sunamganj haor area.

Photo 01 : Conducting FGD at Boiragimara Beel Dated : 17.07.2012)

Photo 02 : Conducting FGD at Boiragimara Beel (Dated : 18.08.2012)

Photo 03 : Conducting FGD at Chatol Udaytara Beel (Dated : 18.08.2012)

Photo 04 : Conducting FGD with Female at Chatol Udaytara Beel (Dated : 18.08.2012)

A key informant is someone with special knowledge on a particular topic. Key informants are expected to be able to answer questions about the problems and prospects of BUGs. Cross-check interviews were conducted with Executive Engineer (XEN), LGED, Upazila Engineer (UE), LGED, District Fisheries Officer (DFO), Upazila Fisheries Officer (UFO), UNO, researchers, relevant non-government organization (NGO) workers and SCBRMP project staff at Sunamganj and Dhaka Project Management Office (PMO). Where information was found to be contradictory, further assessment was carried out. A total of 15 (fifteen) key informants were interviewed. KII have been conducted to find out the marketing channel of the study beels.

4.5 Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) SLA was introduced by Robert Chambers and Gordon Conway in 1991. In 1997, this sustainable livelihood framework was picked up by the UK’s DfID. This framework was also popularized by other international NGOs such as CARE, IUCN, OXFAM, UNDP etc. According to Chambers and Conway (1992), “A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources) and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base”. The sustainable livelihood framework is a tool for understanding the livelihood strength and strategies of a particular population, especially about poorer population. This framework also assists government and non- government agencies to implement their development goal for a given community.

Basar (2009) has conducted a study on climate change impact of Shymnagar, Satkhira with sustainable livelihood approach. Investigating the livelihood with natural capital, social capital, human capital, financial capital and physical capital, the study presents four major findings: 1) the climate has been changing over the last few decades in the greater Sundarbans zone; 2) due to climate change, livelihood patterns of the coastal communities in Sundarbans Reserve Forest (SRF) zone are also changing; 3) unplanned shrimp cultivation in brackish water has caused severe environmental problems in SRF zone and increased salinity levels over the last few decades, 4) the resources of these vulnerable communities for achieving sustainable livelihood are deficient.

Capital H = Human S = Social N = Natural P = Physical F = Financial Livelihood assets Policies Livelihood Institutions outcomes Processes H Vulnerability context Levels of More income government Increased well- S N being Private Livelihood Reduced Shocke sector Strategies vulnerability Trends Improved food Seasonality P F Laws Culture security Policies More Institutions sustainable use of natural Influence resource base & access

Figure 4.3: Sustainable Livelihood Framework (DfID, 1999)

Another study has been conducted by Ahmed (2009) on development of fish farming in rural Bangladesh with sustainable livelihood approach. The study used the SLA framework as an analytical tool to identify ways to advance the livelihoods of fish farmers.

Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) framework has not been used in this study except the portion of five capitals theory. Because SLA does not present the Cause-Effect relationship. On the otherhand, Driving forces Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) framework represents the totality of the process including the causes, effects and also responses. That’s why DPSIR framework has been used in this study in stead of SLA.

4.6 Driving forces Pressure State Impact Response (DPSIR) 4.6.1 Background of DPSIR DPSIR is a causal framework for describing the interactions between society and the environment. This framework has been adopted for our study. The components of this model are: Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts, and Responses. As a first step, data and information on all the different elements in the DPSIR chain is collected. Then possible connections between these different aspects are postulated. Through the use of the DPSIR modelling framework, it is possible to gauge the effectiveness of responses put into place. Driving forces are underlying factors influencing a variety of relevant 39

variables. Pressure indicators describe the variables which directly cause (or may cause) environmental problems. State indicators show the current condition of the environment. Impact indicators describe the ultimate effects of changes of state. Response indicators demonstrate the efforts of society (i.e. politicians, decision-makers) to solve the problems.

4.6.2 DPSIR Framework Driving forces are underlying factors influencing a variety of relevant variables. Pressure indicators describe the variables which directly cause (or may cause) environmental problems. State indicators show the current condition of the environment. Impact indicators describe the ultimate effects of changes of state. Response indicators demonstrate the efforts of society (i.e. politicians, decision-makers) to solve the problems. The linkages among D-P-S-I-R are presented in Figure 4.2.

Driving forces Pressures

Responses State

Financial

Social Natural Impacts

Human Physical Figure 4.4: DPSIR framework

4.6.3 Application of DPSIR A DPSIR framework has been applied in Understanding Livelihoods Dependent on Inland Fisheries in Bangladesh by World Fish Center (2003). DPSIR analysis for Bangladesh Inland Fisheries is presented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1: DPSIR Analysis for Bangladesh Inland Fisheries

Sl. Driving Pressures Status of Livelihood Impacts Responses No Forces resources F/t fisher P/t Fish seller Driving Pressure State fisher forces 1 Increasing Over fishing Fish stock Low catch Some Selling Population Alternate Enforcem population & in land water and and changi culture control/creat income ent of law landlessness/p biodiversity income ng fish/chang e new generating (partly), overty/unempl declining changing occupat e employment activities fish oyment occupatio ion occupatio opportunities conservati n n on and stocking. 2 Agricultural Loss of fish Fish stock Low catch Some Selling Linking Enforcem intensification habitat and and and changi culture canals, fish ent of law , flood control interruption biodiversity income ng fish/chang pass under (partly), and drainage in migration declining changing occupat e project at fish and irrigation routes of fish occupatio ion occupatio very small conservati Unplanned Interruption n n scale on and construction of migration stocking. of network routes 3 Agric- Siltation of Fish stock Low catch Some Selling Aforestation cultivation water and and changi culture intensification bodies/loss biodiversity income ng fish/chang and of water declining changing occupat e deforestation habitat occupatio ion occupatio n n 4 Indiscriminate Degradation Increasing Low catch Some Selling Introducing use of of water diseases/natu and low changi culture IPM and use insecticide/ch quality/water ral mortality price ng fish/chang of organic emical pollution occupat e fertilizer fertilizers ion occupatio n 5 Short term Over Fish stock Low catch Some Selling Awareness Enforcem leasing of fishing/destr and and changi culture raising and ent of law Jalmohal and uctive biodiversity income ng fish/chang alternative (partly), increase of fishing declining changing occupat e livelihood fish lease value occupatio ion occupatio activities conservati Open access Over fishing n n on and to flowing stocking. river fisheries. Source: World Fish Center (2003)

Chapter 5 Results and Discussions

5.1 Physical Sustainability of Beels Sustainable means continuing without lessening. Development means improving or bringing to a more advanced state, such as in our economy. Sustainable development can be defined as a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals. In 1987 the Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, launched the book Our Common Future that effectively began the era of sustainability. In this report, the Commission offered one of the first definitions of sustainable development as: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987 p.43). Sustainability is an integrating process. It encompasses technology, ecology and social and political infrastructure of the system.

Physical sustainability is aprocess of change in the built environment which fosters economic development while conserving resources and promoting the health of the ecosystem.

5.2 Hydraulic Connectivity of the Beels The level of connectivity of floodplain habitats has a direct effect on fish species utilization and composition and other living organisms of the habitat. Reconnecting isolated habitats through re-excavation of intra and inter-connecting canals, by removing submersible dikes made bundh from the canals and by constructing controllable gates.

During the monsoon the haor basin seems a ‘mini sea’ and all connectivity flow water. But in the dry season, it is just reverse. Therefore, the beel connectivity needs to be revived/restored for the effective management of the haor based beels. The hydrology has great influence on the beel ecosystem and thus governs the whole system. White fish typically migrate upstream into floodplains, beels, haors through connectivity’s during spawning season. The restoration of beel connectivity has also some demerits such as narrowing of rice fields in some cases and drain out of water from the beel.

The Chatol Udaitara Beel is comparatively big. It is situated near Katakhali Village under South Sunamganj Upazila. It has vast floodplain adjacent to it where fish grows in wet season and paddy is cultivated in dry season. Chatol and Udaitara are two natural depressions but connected to each other by two different canals and a river Haribhanga. It is learnt from KII that adequate drainage is needed for Haribhanga River to improve fish migration during wet season. The dredging is needed by 500m in canals and beels to restore the habitat for fisheries improvement. Hydraulic connectivity of Boiragimara Beel and Chatol Udaitara Beel for 2003 and 2010 are presented in Figure 5.1 and 5.2 respectively.

Figure 5.1 : Hydraulic Connectivity of Boiragimara Beel

From the Figure 5.1, it is found that there is no fish sanctuary for Boiragimara Beel at 2003 and fish sanctuary with an area of 0.25ha is existed for the same beel for 2010. With the SCBRMP project interventions, the beel has been demarcated with beel boundary. Water occupied area of the beel is higher for 2010 than 2003. The Surma river is not shifted over the period from 2003 to 2010.

Figure 5.2 : Hydraulic Connectivity of Chatol Udaytara Beel

From the Figure 5.2, it is found that there is a fish sanctuary for Chatol Udaitara Beel with 0.15 ha and 0.36 ha for the year 2003 and 2010 respectively. With the SCBRMP project interventions, the beel has been demarcated with beel boundary. Water occupied area of the beel is higher for 2010 than 2003. A dredging of 500m is needed to connect the beel with Noya Surma River.

5.3 Sanctuary Establishment Sanctuaries are demarcated areas within a wetland that retain water throught the year and where the community has banned all fishing so that fish can safely feed and over-winter and then repopulate the winder floodplain during the monsoon. The required sanctuary area will ideally depend on many factors - present state of fish stocks, reproductive capacity of individual species, age at first maturity, longevity, fishing and natural mortality (spawn to maturity), productivity of the water body (carrying capacity), etc. Ahmad Khabir and Munir Ahmed (2002) reported from empirical knowledge and experience that the area required for fish sanctuaries may be 25% of the dry season area in case of beels and 10% in case rivers. They opined that the area might vary according to geographic condition, physiographic condition, hydrological condition, river network, species composition, target species, and fishing pressure on the aquatic resource. 44

Photo 05 : Fish Sanctuary of Boiragimara Beel (Dated : 17.07.2012)

Photo 06 : Fish Sanctuary of Chatol Udayatara Beel (Dated : 18.07.2012)

Shankar (2002) based on modeling of the fishery in Pabna floodplains found that while closing 30-40% of the dry season water area from all fishing was optimal for catch, setting aside 10% as sanctuaries would sustain a productive fishery. DOF’s draft strategy paper for inland capture fisheries management (DOF 2005) adopts this last figure and suggests that the sanctuary area should be around 10% of dry season area of water bodies. The existing fish sanctuaries size of the study beels are given in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 : Establishment of Fish Sanctuaries in Study Beels Name of Beel Area of Dry Season Area of % of Conserv. Beel (ha) Area of Beel Sanctuary area of Dry (ha) (ha) Season area Boiragimara Beel 46.58 9.50 0.25 2.63% Chatol Udaytara 58.20 14.50 0.36 2.48% Total 104.78 24.00 0.61 2.54%

20% of Dry season beel area should be conserve as fish sanctuary. Total dry season area of three beels under SCBRMP is 24.00 ha. According to fisheries policy 4.80 ha of land should be preserved as fish sanctuary. At present there is only 0.61ha (2.54%) of land is preserved as fish sanctuary. The existing and required fish sanctuary size are presented in Figure 5.3.

30 30

y y

20 20

10 10

Sanctuar area as % of Field Standard % of area as Sanctuar as area of % Standard

0 0 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel

Standard Field Figure 5.3 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Fish Sanctuary Size.

5.4 Impact of Sanctuary Establishment Catch per Unit Area (CPUA) has been calculated by the following formula. CPUA = C/A Eq. (5.1) Where, CPUA = Catch per Unit Area in kg/ha C = Catch of fish in a year in kg A = Area in ha

Table 5.2: Catch Per Unit Area Before Project During Project Beel Name Area (2003-2004) (2010-2011) (ha) Production CPUA Production CPUA (kg) (kg/ha) (kg) (kg/ha) Boiragimara Beel 46.58 5100 109 8638 185 Chatol Udaytara 58.20 12180 209 18968 326

Table 5.2 reveals that Catch per Unit Area for project site is much more than the national average. Catch per Unit Area of the study beel for during project period and pre-project period is presented in Figure 5.4.

Catch Per Unit Area (CPUA)

400

300

200

kg/ha

100

0 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara

Before Project (2003-2004) During Project (2010-2011)

Figure 5.4: Catch Per Unit Area

5.5 Kua Establishment Ahmad Khabir and Munir Ahmed (2002) reported that protecting a 20 decimal (0.08 ha) kua (ditch in floodplain beel) could support the fishery in a seasonal beel covering 200 ha in the wet season (protected area of 0.40% of the wet season beel area). The existing size of the Kua of the study beels are presented in Table 5.3.

Table 5.3 : Existing Size of the Kua of the Study Beels Name of Beel Area of Beel (ha) Area of Kua % of Sanctuary Area (ha) as Kua Boiragimara Beel 46.58 0.37 0.79 Chatol Udaytara 58.20 0.99 1.71

2.0 2.0

y 1.5 1.5

1.0 1.0

0.5 0.5

of area as Sanctuar Field % Standard % of area as Sanctuar area as of % Standard

0.0 0.0 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel

Standard Field Figure 5.5 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Kua Size of the Beels.

5.6 Sustainable Beel Management While discussing the issue of strategies for successfully implementation of community based fisheries management, participats of the FGD sessions provide the following information : a. Arrange alternative income generation activities during the non-fishing periods. b. Project has helped to pioneer and demonstrate nursery raising and planting out of - Hijal (Barringtonia aquatangula) and Koroch (Pongamia glabra) that are adapted to being inundated by a meter or more of water for up to half of the year. c. Arrange training to BUG, beel re-excavation and promote pro-poor participation. 48

d. Elections by secret ballot are most appropriate for choosing leaders. e. Community organizations are connected among one another. f. Sustainable beel management through restriction of over fishing. Total number of fisheries oriented population is more for Chatol Udaytara BUG compare with Boiragimara BUG. In Chatol Udaytara Beel, bio-diversity, species richness, fisheries production, profit distribution has been increased. Involvements of women have also been increased. Women member of BUG of Chatol Udaytara watering for the trees planted in the aile of beel. They also rear the goats. The voice of women has also increased in this BUG. They demanded a DTW to cultivate aman rice in their farming land. On the otherhand, participation of women in the beel fisheries process has been backwarded due to regilious reason. In this beel, BUG members are not the real fishers. In the actual situation they are small water loard. Based on the above discussion it can be concluded that the process of BUG members’ selection was not coincide with the requirement. Siltation of canals and beels is a major problem that results in a reduction in the volume of water stored in beels. To address this adverse trend, wetland habitat has been restored by re-excavating canals to improve flows, and re-excavating beels (mostly within areas declared by the BUGss as sanctuaries) to increase the depth to maintain water year round. Comparisons of two beels are presented in Table 5.4.

Table 5.4 : Comparative Findings of the Study Beels Performance Criteria Chatol Udaytara Beel Boiragimara Beel Fisheries oriented population More Less Women’s activity and voice More Less Selection of BUG members Justified Injestified DPUA (days/ha) 4 10 Road Density (km/sq.km) 1.07 1.42 CPUA (kg/ha) 326 187 Marketing Efficiency (Tk./kg) 96 115 Profit Distribution (Tk.) 16,000 8,500 Women Involvement (%) 21 10 Biodiversity Index (H') 3.086 3.101 Number of Species 58 61 Sanctuary Establishment (Acre) 0.36 0.25

There are number of income generation options to reduce the passer of dependence of wetland resources. The CBOs are practicing micro-credit schemes for their sustainability. With their own fund community lease wetlands from government and achieve some social change like, no use of destructive net/gear for harvesting of fish, no dewatering, no harvesting of fish from 15th April to 15 July, no use or rational use of pesticide and chemical fertilizer in the surrounding crop fields, no dumping of solid or liquid waste from industries and conserve 25% area of wetlands as Fish Sanctuary.

It was found that by following the above motioned rules the fish production of the wetlands have been increased significantly and the income of the CBO members has amplified. One of the major concept of the SCBRMP project is that BUG member would not fishing all the year round. In that case they should have some alternative income generating activities. Projection of yield due to BUG activities for study beels are presented in Figure 5.6.

500

400

300

Kg/ha 200

100

0 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2015-2016 2020-2021 2025-2026 2030-2031 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Figure 5.6 : Projection of Yield for the Study Beels

5.7 DPSIR Analysis Fisheries management in the past was mostly revenue oriented where the richer and influential persons of the society took lease of the water bodies. The government owned waterbodies were leased to the highest bidder as a source of revenue. Poor fishers were practically left out of participating in the process of bidding and thus the management of

fisheries. Poverty, vulnerability, weaken position of women, access to market by the poor and conflict minimization is the Driving forces of Community Based Fisheries Management system. Catch Per Unit Area, Marketing Efficiency, Profit Distribution, Gender Equality, Impact on Biodiversity, Protection of Ecosystem, Species Richness and Water Quality Parameters have been considered as the State of that Driving forces. The consequences of DPSIR are presented in Table 5.5.

Table 5.5: Consequence of DPSIR Livelihood Assets Driving force Pressures State Impacts Response Level of Literacy Skill Training BUG Human Labor return Labor force DPUA Received Federation Capital distribution Sanitation & Hygiene Development Awareness Conflict for Organizational Fishing Involvement Social Right’s, Organizational Gender Women Mobility Involvement Capital Weaken Unity Equality of LGIs Shearing of Position of Responsibility Women Land Use Vulnerability Natural Impact on Increae Land Prices Habitat to FAR Capital Biodiversity Access to Alternative Restoration Environment Resource Access to WatSan Permanent Facilities Sanctuary Physical Beel Species Beel Yield Condition of Houses Establishment Capital Management Richness & Post Project Access to Roads Activities Yearly Income Access to Access to Financial Fish Financial Marketing Market by the Road Density Loan Transporting Capital Efficiency Poor Access of women to & Marketing economic activities

5.8 Driving forces

5.8.1 Labor Force The physical conditions of the Haors are the root cause of the high levels of poverty in the region. The extended period of flooding means that infrastructure development is limited, cropping season is restricted to a single crop, housing is confined to cramped villages on high grounds and mobility is restrained which in turn limits access to livelihood opportunities and social sector services. The low level of agricultural productivity limits agricultural incomes and the demand for agricultural wage labour is low outside of the 51

peak harvest season when workers from other areas come in to help gather the crop before the floods arrive. There is also little space in the cramped island settlement to keep livestock or carry out other home-based enterprises. Lack of markets and basic utilities has limited the growth of the non-farm sector and new employment opportunities. Poor communications hinders access to schools, health facilities and markets. There is a high cost to pay to maintain water supply and sanitation facilities in functioning order. Before the project, the poor fishers have no organizational unity. After the project they formed BUG. But there is no linkage horizontally and vertically among BUGs at haor area. A Federation may overcome this problem and raise the voice of the poor fishers.

In our study beels, a large number of villagers spend their time during the rainy season with idle condition. They have no works to do. They had shown their interest to form Beel User Group to comsume their workless days in fisheries activities. Unutilized labor force acted as a driving force in SCBRMP. The Ministry of Land has announced a policy according to which the Government is willing to transfer the lease to registered cooperatives so that poor households can benefit from the fish resources of the Haors. In order to benefit from this opportunity, the poor fishing households need help in strengthening fishing cooperatives. Upazial-wise poverty level is presented in Table 5.6.

Table 5.6: Poverty Level in the Study Area Upazila of Sunamgonj Area (sq.km) Population Population below Upper Poverty Line (%) Bishwamberpur 194.25 126040 57.95 Chhatak 434.76 329260 41.50 Derai 420.93 202740 48.49 Dharmapasha 496.03 182980 53.58 Dowarabazar 281.40 176800 53.99 Jagannathpur 368.27 225980 34.50 Jamalgong 338.74 138940 53.85 Sulla 260.74 89400 45.48 Sunamgonj 560.76 366900 48.02 Sunamgong District 3689.58 1990360 47.91 Source: Planning Commission (2005)

Low productivity in agriculture and lack of other employment opportunities drives many men (and a few women) to seasonally migrate in search of work in other parts of Bangladesh. However, low levels of educational attainment mean that they can only get the lowest paid and least secure jobs.

5.8.2 Conflict for Fishing Right’s Before SCBRMP project started, conflict of interest occurred were existed among the water loard, real fishers and the middle man in the study beels. Both the study beels were leased out to the water loard by the Govt. The poor fishers had no rights to catching fish in the study beels. Sometimes the real fishers possess the right to catch fish in the study beels on the payment basis. SCBRMP was an opportunity for the real fishers to minimize the conflict. But the water loard are not happy with them. Beel guarding is essential to feel the pressure of power group. Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Sunamganj handed over the the beels to the genuine fishers based on the payment of leasing values. Local administrations (UNO) help them to determine the boundary of the beels. Through the Beel Management Committee (BMC) conflicts have been minimized in the study beels. Local Government Institutions (LGIs) like Union Parishad can play a vital positive role in this regards. Involvement of LGIs is an essential issue for further improvement of SCBRMP. They can help in determining the Beel boundary and worked as an enterprienor for fish marketing.

Weaken Position of Women Woman headed households account for up to 10% of the total households of the study area. The heads of women headed households are widows, divorced or ‘deserted by husbands’. Most of the woman headed households in the study area are poor. Women of these households often feel socially neglected and abused or harassed.

Birth of a girl child often does not make parents happy. The girls are neglected – in terms of education, and health care; because of this attitude, giving girl in marriage at early age is common in study area. Marriage of girls is a big economic burden on the parents. They have to give dowry in both cash and kind.

After marriage a minor girl turns into a highly responsible woman member of the family. Economic activities that women are engaged in are kitchen gardening, looking after ducks, chicken and cattle. But many families in the haor region do not have space for kitchen 53

garden or for rearing livestock and poultry. Because of poor education and social barriers, married women cannot go for jobs or wage-earning activities outside the household premises. However, women of poor families do some work in others’ houses, but within the courtyard; they are engaged especially in post-harvest activities – winnowing, drying and storing paddy. And, women of single adult households out-migrate to undertake various wage-earning activities.

Since many men seasonally go out of the haor region in search of work, the women who stay behind are often subject to sexual assault. Elderly women have another concern – sons may prefer to live separately from their mothers after marriage, and thus they become helpless. Again, when women are divorced or become widowed and have no male relative with them, they feel insecure; in the absence of male relatives, women are more likely to lack access to means of livelihood and are more vulnerable to social injustice.

The improvement of road communication would make it more possible for girls and women to access both educational and health facilities. But in addition specific attention needs to be paid to developing income-generating possibilities for women as an additional important contribution to reducing poverty and gender inequality. Besides the above, specific attention needs to be paid to women-headed households, particularly to providing employment to these women and enabling them to develop a fund, which could be subsequently invested in income-earning activities.

5.8.3 Vulnerability to Environment The vulnerability concerns refer to i) shocks, ii) adverse trends and iii) unfavourable seasonal patterns that can affect the livelihood of fish farmers. All these can have major impacts on capital assets of households and individuals, and consequently on their abilities to generate incomes. The key attribute of them is that they are not susceptible to control by the fish farmers themselves, at least in the short term. It is therefore important to identify means by which negative effects can be minimized - including building greater resilience and improving overall livelihood security. Over the yars siltation has occurred in the beels. Then re-excavation is essential for habitat restoration.

i) Shocks Shocks in the form of flash flood in fish farming communities can destroy assets. Other natural disasters like less rain can also have significant impacts on natural resources or environmental sustainability on which a farmer’s livelihood heavily relies. Poor farmers are especially vulnerable as shocks can force them to liquidate assets. The impacts for vulnerabilities are presented in Table 5.7.

Table 5.7 : Shocks, Trends and Seasonality faced by BUGs Level of impacts Vulnerability concerns (Total nos. of Household, n=90) High Medium Low Flash Flood 27 (30%) 45 (50%) 18 (20%) Shocks Inadequate Rain 36 (40%) 36 (40%) 18 (20%) Resource trends through cloflicts 18 (20%) 18 (20%) 54 (60%) Trends Sedimentation for climate change 27 (30%) 45 (50%) 18 (20%) Of production 36 (40%) 27 (30%) 27 (30%) Seasonality Of price 36 (40%) 27 (30%) 27 (30%) Source: Questionary Survey, 2011 ii) Trends Fish farmers’ livelihoods can be made more or less vulnerable depending on long-term trends. Climate changes, conflicts and cooperation may aggravate the problem of meager incomes. As poor farmers’ access to local natural resources declines, they are forced to use more less sustainable resources.

SCBRMP as an alternative to private managed command and control fisheries management is often suggested as a solution to the problems of fisheries resource use conflicts and overexploitation. Most of the conflicts found among the members (beneficiaries) and non-members in the project area. It is known that the groupings and inter-group conflicts among the people create continuous violence in the fishery. SCBRMP took some initiatives for reducing the conflicts in the fishery sector and following the strategies of compromise, negotiation, and collaborating for resolving the conflicts. The fishermen alleged that the elected representatives of the Union Council do

not play any effective role to extend cooperation to the fishermen in support of the implementation of the project. Even the Union Council does not play any role in order to reduce violent conflicts that exist in the beels.

Conflict at Boiragimara Beel of Sunamganj Sadar Conflict for complexity of law was found at Boiragimara Beel of Sunamganj Sadar. Beel Advisory Committee minimizes the conflict through initiating dialogues with both parties.

Conflict at Chatol Udaytara of South Sunamganj Disputes between the new users from the lowest strata of the social hierarchy and the local elites, who were former users, were one of the main challenges faced by the project. Bridging these two segments of the society by initiating dialogues and resolving their disputes properly.

The inland fishermen of haor area have limited scope of having employment opportunities except farming and fishing. Due to the initiative of SCBRMP project, the fishermen have got fishing rights in beels and they think that if they could fish in haor properly without conflicts and the project sustains, then they would be able to gain more profit from the fishery. It is their utmost desire to fish in a sound environment. iii) Seasonality Various types of seasonal stress emerge in fish production systems. Seasonal shifts in fish farming are one of the greatest and most enduring sources of hardship for poor farmers. Fish farming communities with predominantly natural resource-based livelihoods are subject to seasonal of production and or of price. Seasonal employment opportunities such as fry trading, fish harvesting and marketing, and day laboring all affect livelihoods of poor people. These people rarely have protection against seasonal stress periods due to lack of alternative sources of income.

5.8.4 Beel Management Dry season water management is one of the keys to sustainable fisheries resources in Bangladesh. People think fish is a free good and anyone can harvest anytime. Waterlords control water movement through sluice gates and prevent fish from migrating. Farmers intensify rice monoculture depending on agro-chemicals. The residual surface water that 56

aquatic life services in for the 6-month dry season is drained out by landowners to catch all of the fishes and few survive to populate the floodwaters in the wet season. Lack of coordination between different stakeholders’ activities and between different government’s institutions for development works has also decreased resource sustainability.

Beel development is an important part of the beel fisheries. The focus of the activity is basically on fish habitat restoration and restoring the beel environment. The initiative comprises two kinds of activities one is compensating and other is remedial. Planting swamp trees and re-introducing scarce fish species come under the compensating measure and re-excavation of beels to remove silt and restore the connectivity of beel with the mainstream haor system falls under the remedial measure. It is known from SCBRMP Office record, FGD and KII that impact of sanctuary establishment is highly significant. It plays the basic role of bio-diversity improvement and species richness.

Swamp tree like hizol, koroch and other wetland related trees and reeds to make the waterbody unique habitat for fish. Plantation time for such plant is in October onward. Siltation of canals and beels is a major problem that results in a reduction in the volume of water stored in beels. To address this adverse trend, wetland habitat has been restored by re-excavating canals to improve flows, and re-excavating beels to increase the depth to maintain water year round. The improved habitat provides better shelter for fish, and facilitates breeding and regeneration of aquatic plants and animals. Swamp tree plantation status is presented in Table 5.8.

Table 5.8 : Swamp Tree Plantation Status of the Study Beels Name of Beel Area of Beel (ha) Swamp Tree Planted Boiragimara Beel 46.58 1,000 Chatol Udaytara 58.20 3,453

5.8.5 Access to Market by the Poor There are five main problems that the households face in marketing: (i) the physical problem of poor access and the associated high cost of transport; (ii) poor functioning of markets leading to non-competitive pricing and high rents charged for access to markets;

(iii) advance sale at low prices due to dadon debt; (iv) high rate of spoilage in markets, due to poor infrastructure (unpaved open spaces and lack of drains); and (v) women’s additional losses due to their weakness in directly accessing markets. All of these factors reduce the prices and incomes realized by producers. The poor functioning of markets is thus a factor in poverty.

As pointed out, study beel areas lack even a paved road connecting to the market. The need to combine water transport with road transport increases marketing costs. Because farmers individually sell small quantities, it is expensive for them to take their goods to the wholesale markets where prices are higher than in the village. The small traders (paikars or farias) then buy from the farmers at the village, collect produce from various farmers and take them all together to the wholesale markets.

Apart from lack of physical access and poor infrastructure, public markets in the haor area are often controlled by a handful of the local elite, who are often not traders themselves. The government policy of leasing out markets as revenue collection centers to lease- holders, allows them to extract rents from traders and other sellers in the market. Temporary traders, coming in to the market only on the weekly or bi-weekly hat days are more disadvantaged than permanent shop owners. The percentage of turnover paid as market tolls (rent) relates to the strength or otherwise of the traders. The strongest traders pay the least (some pay nothing at all), while the weakest (women and girls) pay the most, with most other producers somewhere in between. It is learnt from FGD and KII that there is no marketing channel for fish marketing through BUGs. It is essential for fish processing, fish grading and fish transporting.

Facing seasonal deficits, most small farmers borrow from moneylenders on the dadon system. In return for a loan, the producers pledge to sell their goods to the lender/trader at prices that are substantially lower than those prevailing at the time of sale. Dadon is a system where transactions in two separate markets, those for credit and output, are inter- linked. The weak food security position of marginal producers forces them to accept this linkage. As a result they pay effective rates of interest of 100% or more for a season, six months or less. Some of this is paid directly as interest, while some of it is paid through lower prices.

5.9 Pressure

5.9.1 Fishing Days Per Unit Area (DPUA) Fishing Intensity / Fishing Days per Unit Area (DPUA) has been calculated by the following formula.

DPUA = D/H Eq. (5.2)

Where, DPUA = Fishing Days per Unit Area in days/ha D = Person Fishing Days in days A = Area in ha The calculated DPUA is given in Figure 5.7. Table 5.9 : Days Per Unit Area Before Project During Project Beel Name (2003-2004) (2003-2004) days/ha days/ha Boiragimara Beel 0 4 Chatol Udaytara 0 10

Fishing Days Per Unit Area (DPUA)

days/ha 0 3 0 (2003-2004), (2003-2004), (2003-2004), Before Projec Before Before Projec 0

Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara

Before Project (2003-2004) During Project (2010-2011)

Figure 5.7: Fishing Days per Unit Area

SCBRMP is an opportunity for the fishers to use their days in fishing activities in the study beels. Before the project, they spend a lot of days with jobless or arrange temporary 59

migration from their living village to nearby town for searching a job. But their family members stay their village home. By doing the fishing activities in the study beels, the fishers will get a yearly benefit that would be distributed at the end of the year. Beside this, they can catch fish on the the basis of payments.

5.9.2 Organizational Unity It has been found out from FGD and KII that BUG consists of less than 50 members is not workable. Usually no. of BUG members depends on beel size. BUG members 50 is recommended for the beel area occupied greater than 20 acres. Comparison of BUG members of the study beels are presented in Figure 5.8.

Table 5.10 : Organizational Unity of BUG Recommended Minimum Beel Name Total Members in BUG Members in BUG Boiragimara Beel 69 50 Chatol Udaytara 51 50

75 75

s s

50 50

Field nos. of BUG member

member nos.Standard BUG of

25 25 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel

Standard Field

Figure 5.8 : Numbers of Members in BUG.

5.9.3 Flooded Area Ratio (FAR) Flooded Area Ratio (FAR) has been calculated by the following formula. FAR = DA/FA Eq. (5.3)

Where, FAR = Flooded Area Ratio in % DA = Dry Season Area of Beel in ha FA = Flood Season Area of Beel in ha

Table 5.11 : Flooded Area Ratio Flood Season Dry Season Area Beel Name FAR (%) Area (ha) (ha) Boiragimara Beel 46.58 9.50 20.40% Chatol Udaytara 58.20 14.50 24.91%

Table 5.11 reveals that FAR value of Chatol Udaytara exceeds the standards FAR value. Flooded Area Ratio of the study beel is presented in Figure 5.9.

50 50

% %

25 25

Field FAR in Standard FAR in

0 0 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel

Standard Field

Figure 5.9 : Flooded Area Ratio (Ref. for Standard, MACH 2007)

5.9.4 Species Richness Species richness is one of the important indicators for positive changes of biodiversity. Fishing communities reported catching species of fish which they had not seen for some time i.e. some species reappeared in the catches which were recorded as endangered species or were reportedly absent in the waterbody for long time. A comparison of total number of species in each 2008, 2009 and 2010 of waterbodies with fish sanctuary is shown in Table 5.12 and in Figure 5.10. Table 5.12 reveals that fish biodiversity was

significantly higher in 2009 than in 2008. Average number of species was found to be 37 in 2008, 47 in 2009 and 54 in 2010. The increasing trend of species suggest that fish species are likely to benefit from the establishment of sanctuaries in the water bodies, as they are protected during vulnerable parts of their life cycle.

Table 5.12 : Number of species found in Sample Beels Number of species in Organized Fishing Name of Beel 2008 2009 2010 Boiragimara 58 60 61 Chatol Udaytara 38 54 58 Average 37 47 54

40 Number of Species

20 2008 2009 2010

Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara

Figure 5.10 : Number of species found in Study Beels

5.9.5 Road Density Transportation and communication improvements are among the most significant driving forces that will shape the future economy and sustainability of the haor region. Use of mechanized country boats and improved road networks are contributing factors in improving accessibility. Based on on-going, committed and planned road programmes and projects, road network improvements are likely to reflect initiatives in rehabilitation and maintenance rather than network extension.

Improved physical linkage between rural areas and larger settlements will increase access of outsiders to local rural resources while at the same time improve the economic bargaining positions of the rural residents. If not planned carefully, highways can alter drainage patterns, impede navigation and create other negative environmental or economic impacts. Similarly, effort to improve navigation such as straightening of river courses could cause unexpected hydrological impacts with negative environmental and /or negative consequences. The road density of the study Upazilas are presented in Table 5.13.

Table 5.13 : Road Density of the Study Upazilas Name of Upazila Road Density (Road Length in km/ Upazila Area in sq.km) Before SCBRMP After SCBRMP Sunamganj Sadar 1.27 1.42 South Sunamganj 0.93 1.07

The above table reveals that road connectivity has been increased in the study areas. It is learnt from SCBRMP Office that a total about 300km road has been constructed in Sunamganj District under SCBRMP project. Improvement of road connectivity has given to fishers an opportunity of marketing fisheries. From Focus Group Discussion, it is learnt that produced fieheries in study beels is transferred even to Dhaka for consumer through retailers.

5.10 State

5.10.1 Labor Return Distribution A value chain is a chain of activities for a firm operating in a specific industry. Products pass through all activities of the chain in order, and at each activity the product gains some value. The chain of activities gives the products more added value than the sum of the independent activities values. Value Chain Analysis for fish marketing of the study areas are presented below in Figure 5.11.

Fishermen

Primary Market

Nikeri

Bepari/Paikers

Secondary Market

Aratdar

Retailer

Retail Market

Consumer

Figure 5.11 : Value Chain Analysis for Fish Marketing Systems

In fisheries sector the marketing channel stars from the fishermen and ultimately it reaches to the consumer through the hands of intermediaries; those intermediaries create place utility to fishes. The length of marketing channel basically depends on the nature and number of fishermen and consumers as well as socio-economic infrastructures. Again, marketing channel may be direct from fishermen to consumers as well as indirect, by passing through several intermediaries.

Fish Intermediaries A suitable context requires to channeling fish from production point to the consumption point and for this purpose a strong marketing structure is essential. Only a substantial portion of the total produce is consuming by the fishermen themselves, and the remaining is to sale in the market. So, the marketing is the important part of fisheries sector. Fish 64

marketing channels started from the fishermen. They sold their catches to either Nikeries or Paikers. In each village of the study area some fishermen were found who sell approximately 10 percent of their catches to their local consumers.

Nikeries Some sort of intermediaries in fish marketing channel, who purchased fish from fishermen at the place of fishing or at any assigned and adjacent ghat, in Bishwambarpur area they are known as Nikeries. They normally sold their collections to the Beparis and to the secondary market consumers.

Beparis The professional fish traders most of whom run their business independently, is called as Beparis. They earn profit by selling and buying fish. Beparis are both local and non-local persons and not possessed the valid license.

Aratdars The most organized and powerful fish traders are locally called Arardars in the study areas. Basically they are located at secondary markets at thana level and in higher secondary markets those are located in nearest city/town at district level. In this study all the Aradars are of the latter type, are chosen from Sylhet town/Dhaka Jatrabari & Nabinagar because the inhabitants of this city consume most of the catches of the study areas. The Aratdars are commission agents who had fixed establishments in the markets and did the function of negotiated transaction between retailers and Beparis of fish on receipt of Aratdars’ commission. Their commission is normally 3% of the selling price. Aratdars give advance loan to the Beparis on the condition that the Beparis would sell their collection through them. They hired labor to load and unload fish baskets from the transport and possessed the legal business license. They also belong the storage facilities for their own.

Retailers The last set of intermediaries involved in the fish-marketing channel is retailers, who do not have any permanent establishment to sit but have fixed place to sit on the market center. These retailers are found to buy fishes from Aratdars and sell to consumers. They

purchased fish from Aratdars mostly on cash but for a short time they also used to buy in credit. The function of the retailers is to coordinate between Aratdars and consumers.

a) Marketing Costs and Marketing Margins of Boiragimara Beel Marketing costs are include transportation, grading, storage, market tolls, wastage, commission (3% of selling price), personal expenses, packaging, wages, rent & electricity, clearing cost etc. Marketing margin is the price of all utilities, adding activities and functions that are performed by intermediaries. Marketing margin includes costs of marketing and loss or profit of all intermediaries in the marketing channel. Marketing margins can be expressed in absolute monetary terms or as the percentage of the commodity at different stages. The Marketing Costs and Marketing Margins of Nikeries, Beparies, Aratdars and Retailers are presented in Table 5.14 and in Figure 5.12.

Marketing Costs & Marketing Profit of Nikeries The Nikeries who bought fish from the fishermen and sold to the Beparies had a marketing margin of TK.1,000.00 per 100 kg. of fish. They incurred a marketing cost of TK. 400.00 per 100 kg. of fish. Thus the Marketing Profit for the Nikeries is Tk.600.00.

Marketing Costs & Marketing Profit of Beparies The Beparies who bought fish from the Nikeries and sold to the Aratdars had a marketing margin of TK.1,300.00 per 100 kg. of fish. They incurred a marketing cost of TK. 800.00 per 100 kg. of fish. Thus the Marketing Profit for the Beparies is Tk.500.00.

Marketing Costs & Marketing Profit of Aratdars The Aratdars who bought fish from the Beparies and sold to the Retailers had a marketing margin of TK.1,200.00 per 100 kg. of fish. They incurred a marketing cost of TK. 600.00 per 100 kg. of fish. Thus the Marketing Profit for the Aratdars is Tk.600.00.

Marketing Costs & Marketing Profit of Retailers The Retailers who bought fish from the Aratdars and sold to the Consumers had a marketing margin of TK.1,000.00 per 100 kg. of fish. They incurred a marketing cost of TK. 500.00 per 100 kg. of fish. Thus the Marketing Profit for the Retailers is Tk.500.00.

Table 5.14 : Value Chain Analysis for Boiragimara Beel Intermediaries Purchase Sale Marketing Marketing Marketing Share of Marketing Price Price Margin Cost Profit Consumer Margin (%) Price (%) PP SP (MM = (MC) (MP = (SCP = SP – PP) MM - MC) PP/CP) Nikeries 12,500 13,5001,000 400 600 74% 79%-74% = 5% Bepari 13,500 14,8001,300 800 500 79% 87%-79% = 8% Aratdar 14,800 16,0001,200 600 600 87% 94%-87% = 7% Retailer 16,000 17,0001,000 500 500 94% 100%-94% = 6% Source: Field Survey with KII, 2011 Note : Marketing Margin = Sale Price – Purchase Price Marketing Profit = Marketing Margin – Marketing Cost

Boiragimara Beel 1500

1200

900

600 Tk./100 Kg Tk./100

300

0 Nikeries Bepari Aratdar Retailer

Marketing Margin Marketing Cost Marketing Profit

Figure 5.12: Marketing Margin, Marketing Costs and Marketing Profit for Boiragimara Beel

Price Spread and Fisher’s Share in Retail Price for Boiragimara Beel The intermediaries gave the market information on per 10Kgs (they called per 10 KGs as changa) of fish and then it was also converted into 100 Kgs as a marketing convenient cost unit. Along with fish transaction price, the other marketing costs of fish were collected and after converting this cost for per 100Kgs, the marketing costs were estimated. And by subtracting the fishermen’s received price from the retail price the gross marketing margins was calculated, and the net marketing margin was the difference between the marketing costs and the gross margins. To calculate the fishermen’s share to retail price the following formulae was used:

Farm gate Price Farmer’s share to consumer’s price = ± 100% Retail sale price

In the marketing channel,

Farmer’s share to consumer’s price = (Tk.12,500/Tk. 17,000)*100%

= 73.53%

Dividing the net amount received by the fishermen with the total amount paid by the consumer and then multiplying it by 100 has worked out the fishermen’s share in retail price. Under the channel of Boiragimara beel (Fishermen - Nikeries - Beparis - Aratdars - Consumers), Fishermen’s share was 73.53% of what was paid by the consumer as the retail price. b) Marketing Costs and Marketing Margins of Chatol Udaitara Beel

Marketing costs are include transportation, grading, storage, market tolls, wastage, commission (3% of selling price), personal expenses, packaging, wages, rent & electricity, clearing cost etc. Marketing margin is the price of all utilities, adding activities and functions that are performed by intermediaries. Marketing margin includes costs of marketing and loss or profit of all intermediaries in the marketing channel. Marketing margins can be expressed in absolute monetary terms or as the percentage of the commodity at different stages. The Marketing Costs and Marketing Margins of Nikeries, Beparies, Aratdars and Retailers are presented in Table 5.15 and in Figure 5.13. 68

Marketing Costs & Marketing Profit of Nikeries The Nikeries who bought fish from the fishermen and sold to the Beparies had a marketing margin of TK.1,400.00 per 100 kg. of fish. They incurred a marketing cost of TK. 600.00 per 100 kg. of fish. Thus the Marketing Profit for the Nikeries is Tk.800.00.

Marketing Costs & Marketing Profit of Beparies The Beparies who bought fish from the Nikeries and sold to the Aratdars had a marketing margin of TK.1,400.00 per 100 kg. of fish. They incurred a marketing cost of TK. 800.00 per 100 kg. of fish. Thus the Marketing Profit for the Beparies is Tk.600.00.

Table 5.15 : Value Chain Analysis for Chatol Udaitara Beel Intermediaries Purchase Sale Marketing Marketing Marketing Share of Marketing Price Price Margin Cost Profit Consumer Margin (%) Price (%) PP SP (MM = (MC) (MP = (SCP = SP – PP) MM - MC) PP/CP) Nikeries 12,000 13,4001,400 600 800 71% 79%-71% = 8% Bepari 13,400 14,8001,400 800 600 79% 87%-79% = 8% Aratdar 14,800 16,0001,200 600 600 87% 94%-87% = 7% Retailer 16,000 17,0001,000 500 500 94% 100%-94% = 6% Source: Field Survey with KII, 2011

Note : Marketing Margin = Sale Price – Purchase Price Marketing Profit = Marketing Margin – Marketing Cost

Chatol Udaitara Beel

1500

1200

900

600 Tk./100 Kg Tk./100

300

Nikeries Bepari Aratdar Retailer

Marketing Margin Marketing Cost Marketing Profit Figure 5.13: Marketing Margin, Marketing Costs and Marketing Profit for Chatol Udaytara Beel

Price Spread and Fisher’s Share in Retail Price The intermediaries gave the market information on per 10Kgs (they called per 10 KGs as changa) of fish and then it was also converted into 100 Kgs as a marketing convenient cost unit. Along with fish transaction price, the other marketing costs of fish were collected and after converting this cost for per 100Kgs, the marketing costs were estimated. And by subtracting the fishermen’s received price from the retail price the gross marketing margins was calculated, and the net marketing margin was the difference between the marketing costs and the gross margins. To calculate the fishermen’s share to retail price the following formulae was used:

Farm gate Price Farmer’s share to consumer’s price = ± 100% Retail sale price

In the marketing channel,

Farmer’s share to consumer’s price = (Tk.12,000/Tk. 17,000)*100%

= 70.59%

Dividing the net amount received by the fishermen with the total amount paid by the consumer and then multiplying it by 100 has worked out the fishermen’s share in retail price. Under the channel of Chatol Udaitara beel (Fishermen - Nikeries - Beparis - Aratdars - Consumers), Fishermen’s share was 70.59% of what was paid by the consumer as the retail price.

5.10.2 Gender Equality Under SCBRMP women in the study beels have got an opportunity to involve in BUG as a member. On the other hand, no woman is involved in Beel Management Committee for non-SCBRMP beel as discussed during the field visit. Gender Equality is presented in Table 5.16.

Table 5.16: Women Involvement in Beel User Group BUG Members Beel Name Male Female Total % of Total Boiragimara Beel 63 6 69 10% Chatol Udaytara 42 9 51 21%

5.10.3 Impact on Biodiversity (Shannon-Weiner Index H') The biodiversity index is a non-parametric tool used to describe the relationship between species number and abundance. Biodiversity is the indicators of the well-being of ecological systems. It is used to detect differences between habitat types and time periods. The value of Shannon diversity is usually found to fall between 1.5 and 3.5. Biodiversity Index (H') has been calculated with Shannon-Weiner Index by the following formula and is presented in Table 5.17 and in Figure 5.14.

Shannon-Weiner Index, H' = -∑ P * loge P Eq. (5.4) Where, H' = Biodiversity Index P = Proportion of Individuals in the ith species.

Table 5.17 : Biodiversity Index Name of Water Body Shannon Index Shannon Index Shannon Index (H') (H') 2008 (H') 2009 2010 Boiragimara Beel 1.952 1.926 3.101 Chatol Udaytara 2.004 2.977 3.086

Shannon-Weiner Index H'

4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00 2008 2009 2010

Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara

Figure 5.14: Biodiversity Index

Table 5.17 and Figure 5.14 reveal that Biodiversity has been increased from 2008 to 2010.

5.10.4 Beel Yield According to Master Plan of Haor Area, beel fisheries yield of Bangladesh is 200 kg/ha. Compare this yield to the study beel, it is found that beel fisheries yield for the study area is less than the nation haor area beel fisheries yield. The Catch Per Unit Area of the study beel is presented in Table 5.18. Comparison of existing and standard yield are presented in Figure 5.15.

Table 5.18 : Catch Per Unit Area for Study Beels Name of Beel Yearly Yield (kg/ha) 2009 2010 2011 Average Boiragimara Beel 86 50 187 108 Chatol Udaytara 182 258 326 255

300 300

)

) 200 200

100 100 Field Yield (kg/ha Yield Field

(kg/ha Standard yield

0 0

Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel

Standard Field

Figure 5.15 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Fish Yield.

5.10.5 Marketing Efficiency

Marketing Efficiency has been calculated by the following formula. ME = M/P Eq. (5.5) Where, ME = Marketing Efficiency in Tk./kg M = Marketing Price of fish in a year in Tk. P = Total Production in a Beel in kg

Table 5.19: Marketing Efficiency Quantity Sale (kg) Selling Price (Tk) Beel Name ME (Tk./kg) 2010-11 2010-11 Boiragimara Beel 5865 673703 115 Chatol Udaytara 14996 1436199 96

Table 5.19 reveals that Marketing Efficiency for study beel is much more than the general marketing or non-SCBRMP beel as discussed during the field visit. Marketing Efficiency is presented in Figure 5.16.

Marketing Efficiency (ME)

120

Tk./kg

0 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara

Figure 5.16 : Marketing Efficiency

5.11 Impacts on Livelihood

5.11.1 Human Capital Human capital represents the skills, knowledge, ability to work and good health that enable people to pursue their livelihood strategies and achieve their livelihood objectives (DFID, 1999). Fish farming practice has developed as an indigenous technology and farmers have built up skills through their own knowledge. Professional fishers are usually poor, landless and illiterate. In most areas they live in unhygienic condition. The number of primary schools both in government and non-government schools are very few compared to requirement.

Due to complex geo-physical conditions of Sunamganj district, access to educational institutions is not easy despite the SCBRMP interventions to establish better road networks at the village level. Compared to during project with pre-project, literacy rate increased slightly at all levels. The level of education is presented in Table 5.20.

Table 5.20 : Level of Education of Sample BUG (n=90 Household) Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Education During-project Pre-project During-project Pre-project (2004) Level (2011) (2004) (2011) (Schooling aged (Schooling aged (Schooling aged (Schooling aged children = 95) children = 113) children = 102) children = 122) None 30 (32%) 25 (22%) 36 (35%) 31 (25%) Primary 38 (40%) 52 (46%) 47 (46%) 58 (48%) Secondary 27 (28%) 36 (32%) 19 (19%) 33 (27%) 95 113 102 122 Total (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)

Level of Education (%) 60 48 46 46 45 40 35 32 32 28 30 25 27 22 19 15

Pre-Project During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Boiragimara) (Boiragimara) (Chatol)

None Primary Secondary

Figure 5.17 : Level of Education of Sample BUG

The above Table and Figure reveal that the level of education has been increased for the during project period compared with pre-project period. This has been done because of awareness built up and family income has been increased through BUG.

Training related to Team Building, Organization Operation Method, Fish Culture, Fish Marketing and preservation were provided to the BUG. The level of satisfication about the trainings was asked to BUG and result of question is presented in the Table 5.21.

Table 5.21: Level of Satisfaction about SCBRMP Training (n=90 Household) Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Level of Satisfection (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) High 12 (27%) 22 (49%) Medium 26 (58%) 17 (38%) Low 7 (15%) 6 (13%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Level of Training Satisfaction (%) 58 60

45 38

27 30

15 13 15

Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

High Medium Low Figure 5.18 : Level of Satisfaction about SCBRMP Training

The above Table and Figure reveal that the level of satisfaction about SCBRMP training is better for Chatol Udaytara than Boiragimara beel BUG. The reason behind the findings is that fishers of Chatol Udaytara are living far distance from town area. The numbers of training were the same for the both beels.

Awareness campaign about Sanitation and Hygiene were conducted by SCBRMP through Social Organizer (SO) and providing latrine facilities to the BUG. The level of sufficiency for awareness campaign was asked to BUG and result of question is presented in the Table 5.22.

Table 5.22: Level of Sufficiency about SCBRMP Awareness Campaign Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Level of Sufficiency (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Highly Sufficient 10 (22%) 24 (54%) Sufficient 21 (47%) 15 (33%) Moderately Sufficient 14 (31%) 6 (13%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Training Sufficiency (%)

60 54 47 45 31 33 30 22 13 15

Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

Highly Sufficient Sufficient Moderately Sufficient Figure 5.19: Level of Sufficiency about SCBRMP Awareness Campaign

The above Table and Figure reveal that the level of sufficiency about SCBRMP awareness campaign is better for Chatol Udaytara than Boiragimara beel BUG. The reason behind the findings is the fishers of Boiragimara have received some training before SCBRMP provided training. Fishers of Chatol Udaytara have received training attentively and organized way.

5.11.2 Social Capital Social capital in the form of networks, cultural norms and other social attributes have significantly helped in exchanging experiences, sharing of knowledge and cooperation among rural households. However, lack of social capital has affected the livelihood of fishers.

Membership and participation in institutions function as a good proxy of social capital, because it provides members with network access to material and non-material goods and services. The most commonly accessed institution/projects is SCBRMP and other local NGOs. Table 5.23 presents the involvement of different organizations within sample households.

Table 5.23 : Organizational Involvement of Sample BUG Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n =45 Household) (n =45 Household) Organization 1 2 Pre-project During-project During-project Pre-project (2004) (2004) (2011) (2011) SCBRMP - 30 (100%) - 30 (100%) BRAC 8 (26%) - 7 (23%) - ASA 5(17%) - 3 (10%) - Grameen Bank 9(30%) - 8 (27%) - Krishi Bank 2(7%) - 3(10%) - None 6(20%) - 9 (30%) - Total 30 (100%) 30 (100%) 30 30 (100%) (100%)

Organizational Involvement (%)

SCBRMP , 1 0 0 SCBRMP, 100 100

30 Bank, Grameen 30 None, Grameen Bank, 27 Bank, Grameen BRAC, 26 BRAC, 23

25 None, 20 ASA, 17 ASA, 10 10 Bank, Krishi Krishi Bank, 7 Bank, Krishi SCBRMP, 0 SCBRMP, 0 BRAC, 0 ASA, 0 Grameen Bank, 0 0 Bank, Krishi None, 0 BRAC, 0 ASA, 0 Grameen Bank, 0 0 Bank, Krishi None, 0 0 Pre-Project During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Boiragimara) (Boiragimara) (Chatol) SCBRMP BRAC ASA Grameen Bank Krishi Bank None

Figure 5.20: Organizational Involvement of BUG

The above Table and Figure reveal that organizational involvement during the project period is higher than the pre-project period. The progress has been achieved for SCBRMP through BUG. Women mobility in the study beels is presented in Table 5.24.

Table 5.24 : Women Mobility of the Sample BUG Visited Places Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Pre-project During-project Pre-project During-project (2004) (2011) (2004) (2011) (Nos. of Women (Nos. of Women (Nos. of Women (Nos. of Women = 64) = 73) = 66) = 77) Market/Bazar 10 15 15 22 Union Parishad 8 13 12 15 Upazila Head Quarter 7 12 10 14 Hospital / Clinic 15 21 14 20 Went to Beel / 18 26 28 30 Agriculture Field No Mobility 14 8 12 8

Level of Mobility 40

30 28 30 26 22 21 20 20 18 15 14 15 15 14 15 14 13 12 12 12 10 10 10 8 7 8 8

0 Pre-Project During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Chatol) (Boiragimara) (Boiragimara) Market/Bazar Union Parishad Upazila Head Quarter Hospital/Clinic Went to Beel No Mobility Figure 5.21 : Women Mobility

The above Table and Figure reveal that women mobility for the project period is better than the pre-project period. Social Organizer (SO) under SCBRMP worked closely with the Beel User Group (BUG). This is the reason of the findings.

This achievement has been done by SCBRMP through BUG. The status of women, especially the poor women, has changed within the family and the society as a result of their increasing, social participation and economic contribution to the family. They have become equal partners in a traditionally male dominated family. Additional income in a poor family means better living conditions and more opportunities for the children. Women have also gained respect and a voice even in places that were previously considered a man's space.

Shearing of responsibilities about beel guarding and fish catching are the two major activities of BUG. But the condition is not same for all BUG. In some cases those activities were performed by rented people. Rationality of shearing responsibility was asked to BUG and result of question is presented in the Table 5.25.

Table 5.25 : Rationality of Sharing Responsibility Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Level of Rationality (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Highly Rational 7 (16%) 28 (62%) Rational 18 (40%) 15 (34%) Moderately Rational 20 (44%) 2 (4%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Sharing Responsibility (%) 75 62

50 44 40 34

25 16 4 0 Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara Highly Rational Rational Moderately Rational Figure 5.22: Rationality of Sharing Responsibility

Table 5.25 and Figure 5.22 reveal that the level of rationality for shearing responsibility about beel guarding and fish catching is better for Chatol Udaytara than Boiragimara beel BUG. The progress is achieved for the closely work of Social Organizer (SO) under SCBRMP.

5.11.3 Natural Capital Natural capital in the form of land, water, wild fry and wider environmental goods are critical for farmers in fish production. Small ponds, water and natural resources have been used for fish production. Farmers relied on rainfall, ground water and sometimes canal water for fish farming. Rapid population growth in fish farming communities has accelerated natural capital depletion that has affected fish production.

Average landholding per household in Sunamganj district is 2.6 acres (BBS, 2006). Use of total land holding per household is bigger in Sunamganj district than the national average which is 0.83 acres (Statistical Pocket Book 2008). Average land owned by project site is much smaller than land owned by average household. Average land uses by households is presented in Table 5.26.

Table 5.26 : Average Land Uses by BUGs per Household in Decimals Land Uses Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n1=30 Household) (n2=30 Household) Pre-project (2004) During-project Pre-project During-project (2011) (2004) (2011) Own homestead land 4 5 6 6 Own pond or ditch 2 2 4 4 Land owned and 9 9 10 10 cultivated by the household Land owned but 2 2 4 7 cultivated by others Land cultivated but 8 6 9 5 owned by others Own non-cultivated 4 2 5 3 land

The Table 5.26 and Figure 5.23 reveal that BUG members are involved more in fisheries related activities than non-fisheries activities. The progress is achieved by SCBRMP through BUG awareness, mobilization and involvement.

Average Land Uses by BUGs (decimal) 12 10 10 99 9 8 8 7 6 66 5 5 5 4 4 444 4 3 22222

0 Pre-Project During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Chatol) (Boiragimara) (Boiragimara) Own Homestead Own Pond Own & Self Cultivated Own & Not Self Cultivated Not own & Self Cultivated Non Cultivated Land Figure 5.23 : Average Land Uses by BUG

Land has been used in a more productive way during the project implementation period in the study area. That’s why land values have been raised in this period. Question regarding land values increased due to project implementation was asked to BUG and result of question is presented in the Table 5.27.

Table 5.27 : Increasing Land Prices due to Project Implementation

Land values increases Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara due to project (n =45 Household) (n =45 Household) implementation 1 2 Strongly agree 19 (42%) 26 (58%) Agree 22 (49%) 16 (35%) Disagree 4 (9%) 3 (7%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Table 5.27 and Figure 5.24 reveal that the values of land have been increased in the study area. This is achieved due to project implementation in the study area.

Land Prices (%) 58 60 49 42 40 35

20 9 7

Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Figure 5.24 : Increasing Land Prices

The concept of community based co-management fisheries system is fishers will dependent on fisheries resources not for all the year round. Due to enrich biodiversity, fishing restrictions have been applied. Question regarding the necessity of access to alternative resources like livestock rearing and others income generating activities was asked to BUG and result of question is presented in the Table 5.28.

Table 5.28 : Importance of Access to Alternative Resources

Necessity of access to Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara alternative resources for (n =45 Household) (n =45 Household) enriching bio-diversity. 1 2 Strongly agree 22 (49%) 24 (54%) Agree 18 (40%) 15 (33%) Disagree 5 (11%) 6 (13%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Access to alternative resources (%)

60 54 49 40 40 33

20 11 13

Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree

Figure 5.25: Importance of Access to Alternative Resources

The Table 5.28 and Figure 5.25 reveal that access to alternative resources for enrich biodiversity is necessary to enrich bio-diversity in the study area. Awareness about biodiversity has been achieved trough campaign, meeting and mobilization.

5.11.4 Physical Capital Transport, road, market, electricity, water supply, sanitary and health facilities are the physical capital of fish farming that enable people to pursue their livelihood strategies. However, the study found that fishers were often disadvantaged due to poor physical capital. Access to quality drinking water is a prime need to minimize ill health.

SCBRMP working area is situated in the low laying haor basin where traditionally people are used to hanging latrines near the flowing river adjacent to each residence. Due to this, water borne diseases are very prominent. The sanitation status of the study area is presented in Table 5.29.

Table 5.29 : Sanitation Status for the BUG Latrine Type Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Pre-project During-project Pre-project During-project (2004) (2011) (2004) (2011) Pucca 6 (20%) 14 (47%) 5 (17%) 11 (37%) Kutcha 17 (57%) 16 (53%) 13 (43%) 15 (50%) Hanging 7 (23%) 0 (0%) 12 (40%) 4(13%) Total 30 (100%) 30 (100%) 30 (100%) 30 (100%)

Sanitation Status (%) 60 57

47 46 48

45 40 35 27 30 23 25 20 19

13 15

Pre-Project During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Boiragimara) (Boiragimara) (Chatol)

Pucca Kutcha Hanging

Figure 5.26: Sanitation Status of Sample BUG

The Table 5.29 and Figure 5.26 reveal that sanitation condition for during project period is better than the pre-project periods. The progress is achieved by SCBRMP through BUG awareness, motivation, financial contribution and ring slub distribution to the BUGs.

At present more households are using tin wall and brick wall houses and on the other hand the use of roof materials among sample households has improved. Table 5.30 shows the housing materials in the study area.

Table 5.30 : Percentage of Wall Materials of Sample BUG Wall materials Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Pre-project During-project Pre-project During- (2004) (2011) (2004) project (2011) Brick 8 (27%) 13 (43%) 3 (10%) 8 (27%) Tin 15 (50%) 16 (53%) 16 (53%) 15 (50%) Earth 7 (23%) 1 (4%) 11 (37%) 7(23%) Total 30 (100%) 30 (100%) 30 (100%) 30 (100%)

Wall Materials (%) 60 53 53 50 50 43 40 37 27 27 23 23

20 10 4

Pre-Project During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Boiragimara) (Boiragimara) (Chatol)

Brick Tin Earth

Figure 5.27: Wall Materials of Sample BUG

The above Table and Figure reveal that wall materials condition during project period is better than pre-project period. The progress is achieved by SCBRMP through yearly benefit distribution, increase of working days and access to alternative resources.

Improvement of road communication is the prime factor for rural development of Bangladesh. Road communication in the SCBRMP project area has been increased during the project implementation period. Question regarding importance of road communication to improve the quality of poor BUG livelihood in the study area was asked to BUG and result of question is presented in the Table 5.31.

Table 5.31 : Importance of Road Communication to Improve Livelihood

Importance of road Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara access to improve (n =45 Household) (n =45 Household) livelihood. 1 2 Strongly agree 30 (67%) 32 (71%) Agree 13 (29%) 11 (24%) Disagree 2 (4%) 2 (4%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Importance of Road Communication (%) 100

71 75 67

50 29 24 25

44 0 Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree

Figure 5.28: Importance of Road Communication

Table 5.31 and Figure 5.28 reveal that BUG members have been strongly agree that access to road is an important factor to improve fishers livelihood. The awareness has been achieved due to SCBRMP improve the road communication and marketing efficiency has been increased consequently.

5.11.5 Financial Capital Financial capital refers to incomes, savings and credit. Fish culture has the potential to generate considerable amounts of financial capital. Farmers spent most of their incomes on basic items (food, housing, clothing, medication), marriage of their sons and daughters, dowry payments and fish farming. Professional fishers are mostly landless and poor. They do not have access to institutional credit due to lack of collateral. So they are to depend on

private credit or credit from money lender/ mohajan/ aratdar at a high rate of interest. Fishing is the income source with the highest contribution for both study periods but there are differences amongst the other categories. Average household income (Taka) of different categories is presented in Table 5.32.

Table 5.32 : Average BUG Member Yearly Income (Tk.) Source of Income Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara (n1=45 Household) (n2=45 Household) Pre-project During-project Pre-project During-project (2004) (2011) (2004) (2011) Fishing 18000 27000 17000 30000 Agriculture labor 6000 4000 5000 3000 Non-agriculture labor 5000 3000 4000 2000 Fish and fish related trading 2000 3000 5000 7000 Income from Major Fishing 3000 4000 5000 8000 Business 1240 2000 1240 3000 Service 2500 3500 1500 3000 (private/NGO/government) Agricultural income 8500 10000 1500 2000 Other 6300 7900 6300 8900

Yearly Income ('000 Tk.) 30 30 27

20 18 17

10 8.9 10 8.5 7.9 8 6 6.3 6.3 7 5 5 5 4 4 4 5 3 2.5 3 3 3.5 3 3 3 2 1.2 2 1.21.51.5 2 2 0 Pre-Project (Boiragimara) During Project Pre-Project (Chatol) During Project (Chatol) (Boiragimara) Fishing Agriculture Labor Non-Agriculture Fish Related Trading Major Fishing Business Service Agriculture Other Figure 5.29 : BUG Yearly Income

The Table 5.32 and Figure 5.29 reveal that Family income during project period is better than pre-project period. The achievement is done by SCBRMP through yearly income distribution, alternative income generating activities, awareness raising and micro credit operation.

Involvement of BUG in the SCBRMP poject would help them to access to financial loan. Question regarding SCBRMP project would help them to access to financial loan for BUG members in the study area was asked and result of question is presented in the Table 5.33.

Table 5.33 : Assist SCBRMP Project to Access Financial Loan

Assist SCBRMP Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara project to access (n =45 Household) (n =45 Household) financial loan 1 2 Very High 26 (58%) 30 (66%) High 14 (31%) 12 (27%) Not at all 5 (11%) 3 (7%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Access to Financial Loan (%) 100

75 66 58

50 31 27 25 11 7 0 Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

Very High High Not at all

Figure 5.30: Assist to Access Financial Loan

Table 5.33 and Figure 5.30 reveal that BUG members have been strongly agree that SCBRMP assist BUG members to access financial loan. The progress has been achieved through SCBRMP interventions of micro credit operation, yearly income improvement and organizational involvement.

Access of women to economic activities is an important factor for improvement of BUG members’ livelihood. Question regarding importance of access of women to economic activities to improve the quality of poor BUG livelihood in the study area was asked and result of question is presented in the Table 5.34.

Table 5.34 : Access of Women to Economic Activities

SCBRMP project assist Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara to access of women to (n =45 Household) (n =45 Household) economic activities. 1 2 Very High 21 (47%) 25 (56%) High 18 (40%) 18 (40%) Not at all 6 (13%) 2 (4%) Total 45 (100%) 45 (100%)

Access to Economic Activities (%) 60 56 47 40 40 40

20 13 4 0 Boiragimara Chatol Udaytara

Very High High Not at all

Figure 5.31: Access of Women to Economic Activities

Table 5.34 and Figure 5.31 reveal that BUG members have been strongly agree that SCBRMP assist of women to access economic activities in the study area. The progress has been achieved through women involvement in BGU, arranage training for women and awareness generation by Social Organizer under SCBRMP.

5.12 Status Change of Livelihood State Using Pentagon Change of status of livelihood state has been calculated based on data collected from study beel area as per five capitals and various indicators discussed earlier through DPSIR and shown in Table 5.35 and Table 5.36.

Table 5.35 : Livelihood Polygon (Change of State) for Boiragimara Beel Indicators Livelihood Maximum dimension 2004 2011 Attainable Farmer’s share at Farmer’s share at Farmer’s share = Human Capital 2004 = 69% 2011 = 75% 80% Women Women Involvement Women Social Capital Involvement at at 2004 = 4% Involvement =20% 2011 =10% Shannon-Weiner Shannon-Weiner Shannon-Weiner Natural Capital Index H' at 2004 = Index H' at 2011 = Index H' = 3.250 1.926 3.101 Beel Yield at 2004 = Beel Yield at 2011 Beel Yield = 350 Physical Capital 86 kg/ha = 187 kg/ha kg/ha Marketing Marketing Marketing efficiency Financial Capital efficiency at 2011 = efficiency = at 2004 = Tk.80/kg Tk.115/kg Tk.150/kg

Table 5.36 : Livelihood Polygon (Change of State) for Chatol Udaytara Beel. Indicators Livelihood Maximum dimension 2004 2011 Attainable Farmer’s share at Farmer’s share at Farmer’s share = Human Capital 2004 = 66% 2011 = 70% 80% Women Women Involvement Women Social Capital Involvement at at 2004 = 10% Involvement =20% 2011 =18% Shannon-Weiner Shannon-Weiner Shannon-Weiner Natural Capital Index H' at 2004 = Index H' at 2011 = Index H' = 3.250 2.977 3.086 Beel Yield at 2004 = Beel Yield at 2011 Beel Yield = 350 Physical Capital 182 kg/ha = 326 kg/ha kg/ha Marketing Marketing Marketing efficiency Financial Capital efficiency at 2011 = efficiency = at 2004 = Tk.75/kg Tk.96/kg Tk.150/kg

Afterwards, pentagon was constructed for the two BUGs under study and shown in Figure 5.32. The figure Pentagon shows the status of livelihood improvement in the two beels run by BUGs through SCBRMP.

Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel Human Capital Human Capital 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 Financial Capital Social Capital Financial Capital Social Capital 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.0

Physical Capital Natural Capital Physical Capital Natural Capital

Maximum Attainable 2011 2004 Maximum Attainable 2011 2004

Figure 5.32: Pentagon of Improvement of Livelihood Status of Study Beels

5.13 Response

5.13.1 BUG Federation Development Community based beel resource management is getting increased attention from all concerned with establishing better natural resource management. Its contribution to increased production, restoring natural diversity and benefiting genuine fishing communities are highly appreciated. The success of such management basically lies in its values and the interest of the community and support from the concerned institutions. It gives the community rights and responsibilities to take care of their resource base and make their livelihood on it by a process under their control. The ultimate success of it largely depends on better coordination and cooperation among the concerned policy institutions, administrations, intermediary organizations and the community. People’s capacity and access in decision of natural resource management is crucial to attain a sustainable resource management. A federation is needed to make a liaison with eatch other, disseminate the success story of individual BUG and voice raised for large number of fisher group.

5.13.2 Involvement of Local Government Institutions Local Government Institutions can play a vital role to minimize the conflicts among interested groups. Union Parishad chairman/members can work in the area of Beel Management Committee (BMC).

5.13.3 Habitat Restoration Habitat to be restored for better fish biodiversity through protection, migration enhance and production. This plan is to aim for minimum 30 years time span not for 10 years. Usually in study beel area 2 meters siltation occurs over 30 years range so depth of re- excavation should be 3 meters at least in 3 step excavation pattern. Fish movement/migration path to be re-excavated and concerned sluice gates to be operated fish friendly way or fish-pass should be constructed. One of the main reason for fish decrease is that the connectivity loss with Surma River is made by an embankment (SCBRMP, 2006). The volume of re-excavation of the study beels are presented in Table 5.37.

Table 5.37 : Volume of Re-excavation of the Study Beels Name of Beel Area of Beel (ha) Re-excavation Depth of Earth (Earth Work, cft) Work (m) Boiragimara Beel 46.58 3,29,265 1.34 Chatol Udaytara 58.20 4,27,471 1.64 Source : SCBRMP Field Office, 2009

3 3

m ) 2 2

1 1

Field excavation depth (m Standard excavation depth (

0 0 Boiragimara Beel Chatol Udaytara Beel

Standard Field Figure 5.33 : Comparison of Existing and Standard Re-excavation Depth.

5.13.4 Permanent Sanctuary Establishment Declaration of permanent sanctuaries in selected waterbodies is also a good step. The Ministry of Land set aside some waterbodies outside of leasing for all time subject to without payments by the BUG responsible for ensuring that there is no fishing.

5.13.5 Post Project Activities Income derived from fishing activities (major fishing) depend upon several factors (marketing linkage, high valued species, grading, distance from urban market etc.) which were reflected in the variations of average prices (Tk) per kg of fish. The main factors influencing improved production at most sites are habitat type, water extension during monsoon, compliance in fishing regulation, fish sanctuary, higher species diversity, presence of professional fishers around water bodies, fisher density, good links with other water bodies or big Haor, no restriction during monsoon & nearby beel areas, and interruption of major fishing. During the post project, the following rules and regulations that were find out through FGD and KII, would be followed to maintain the beel fishery as a sustainable way. i) Clearly defined social boundaries: a set of individuals with rights to use the resource and its physical boundary itself being defined; ii) Secure and medium- to long-term lease at an affordable cost; iii) Beel Users’ Groups (BUGs) take all decisions regarding fishery management; rotation of leadership has been organized through secret ballot election. iv) Villagers and fishers are allowed to fish beyond the core area and establish khatas in the beels during the monsoon period. v) Main (group) fishing is undertaken by BUG fishers. In large beels or Haors, professional skilled fishing teams from outside are engaged on daily wage or on catch share base (35% to fishing teams). vi) BUG members on rotation perform guarding; a few hired guards are involved for only 4/5 months during the main fishing season. vii) Of the total income from fish sale, a minimum of 50% is distributed equally to all BUG members and the rest of the income is used to pay the lease fee, guard salary, wages for group fishing, etc. viii) Monitoring by the users themselves, backed up by neutral external agencies; ix) Conflict-resolution mechanism, such that there can be quick access to low-cost, local forums for resolving conflicts. 94

x) BUGs may build local support by helping other local poor people, and also by contributing to local religious institutions, schools, etc. xi) Support from relevant government departments and officials for BUGs to establish secure user rights and the boundaries of their resource; and xii) Infrastructure development is helpful to meet the new needs of increased fish production and to bring the waterbody into the orbit of the state.

5.13.6 Fish Transporting and Marketing Road developments in the study Upazilas are not well developed. It creates an obstruction of fish transporting and marketing. There is no linkage of Bapari of Sylhet or Dhaka with the BUGs. It is essential to develop a close linkage to the BUG with fish marketing system to get better benefits from the business.

Chapter 6 Conclusions and Recommendations

6.1 Conclusions Education level of the schooling aged children, organizational involvement, women mobility, land uses for fisheries activities, sanitation status, improvement of wall materials, average yearly income of BUG, has been increased for the during project period compered with pre-project period. Under the marketing channel of study beels (Fishermen - Nikeries - Beparis - Aratdars - Consumers), Fishermen’s share was 74% and 70% for Boiragimara and Chatol Udaytara Beel respectively of what was paid by the consumer as the retail price. This figure indicates that BUGs would be more benefited with proper marketing measures have been taken by SCBRMP. According to questionnaire survey, major dimensions of vulnerability of BUGs are flash flood, inadequate rain, conflicts between interested groups, sediment deposition due to climate change impacts and seasonality impacts on production. Production efficiency as DPUA, Organizational Unity, FAR, Species Richness and Road Density are better condition for study beels for during project periods compared with pre-project period. Elected representatives of Union Council do not participate in the SCBRMP Project Activities. Union Council does not play any role to settle the conflicts. Hydraulic connectivity of the beels would be improved through re-excavation. Sanctuaries have been established for both beels and impact of sanctusries is positively significant.

6.2 Recommendations Ensuring proper participation of LGIs for conflict management, beel boundary deparcation and development of fish marketing channel. Development of Federation of BUGs to ensure secure access for those BUGs that have a legal identity, community rules, compliance to rules, equitable access for poor stakeholders to decision making and resources, self assessment procedure, transparent accounting and that improve the resource base. Declaration of permanent sanctuaries in selected waterbodies. The Ministry of Land set aside some waterbodies outside of leasing for all time subject to without payments by the BUG responsible for ensuring that there is no fishing. Local Government Institutions can play a vital role to minimize the conflicts among interested groups. Union Parishad chairman/members can work in this area along with Beel Management Committee (BMC). Low and unstable price is a serious problem against any profitable trading. Almost all the traders like beparies, nikeries, aratdars, retailers suggested that the govt. should take proper steps to ensure stable and reasonable price for fish. There should have some specific places for fish marketing in the primary and secondary markets with proper physical facilities such as adequate water supply, drainage facility, tin shed etc. improvement of physical market facilities was suggested by most of the intermediaries were interviewed. The nikeries, the beparies specially suggested to improve the roads and communications system, because the backward roads and communication system increases the cost of marketing fish. Siltation has been occurred as a product of climate change impacts. Proper attention would be taken for beel re-excavation as a sustainable management of beel resources. Permant sanctuary would be established for habitat restoration and adequate number of Hijol, Koroch Tree will enhance the haor ecology.

References

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Appendix A : Questionnaire for BUG

cvwb I eb¨v e¨e¯’vcbv Bbw÷wUDU evsjv‡`k cÖ‡KŠkj wek¦we`¨vjq (ey‡qU), XvKv|

(GB cÖkœcÎwU ïaygvÎ M‡elYv Kv‡R e¨eüZ n‡e|)

µwgK bs t ZvwiL : we‡ji bvg t ‰eivMx gviv wej/PvZj D`qvZviv wej Dc‡Rjv t m`i/ `t mybvgMÄ

DËi`vZvi cwiwPwZ bvg t †RÛvi t ■ cyi“l ■ gwnjv cwiev‡ii m`m¨ msL¨v t ■ < 4 ■ 4-6 ■ > 6 eqm t ■ < 31 ■ 31-45 ■ > 45 ‡ckv t wk¶vMZ †hvM¨Zv t ■cov‡jLv Rv‡b bv ■co‡Z cv‡i ■ cÖv_wgK ■gva¨wgK ■>gva¨wgK

[BUGs Livelihood Capital related Question] 1. eZ©gv‡b Avcbvi evwoi 5-20 eQ‡ii †gvU †Q‡j‡g‡qi msL¨v KZ ? ------Zv‡`i cov‡jLvi eY©bv w`b|

■ c‡o bv ------Rb

■ cÖvBgvwi ¯‹z‡j c‡o ------Rb

■ nvB ¯‹z‡j c‡o ------Rb

■ K‡j‡R c‡o ------Rb

■ Ab¨vb¨ ------Rb

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■ c‡o bv ------Rb

■ cÖvBgvwi ¯‹z‡j c‡o ------Rb

■ nvB ¯‹z‡j c‡o ------Rb

■ K‡j‡R c‡o ------Rb

■ Ab¨vb¨ ------Rb

2. SCBRMP cÖKí †_‡K †h cÖwk¶Y †`Iqv n‡qwQj †m wel‡q Avcwb KZUzKz mš‘ó ? ■ Lye mš‘ó ■ mš‘ó ■ †Zgb mš‘ó bq

3. SCBRMP cÖKí †_‡K †h m‡PZbZvg~jK Kg©kvjvi Av‡qvRb Kiv n‡qwQj †m wel‡q Avcwb KZUzKz mš‘ó ? ■ Lye mš‘ó ■ mš‘ó ■ †Zgb mš‘ó bq

4. eZ©gv‡b Avcwb wK †Kvb ms¯’v / NGO-Gi mv‡_ hy³ Av‡Qb ? ■ nu¨ ■ bv DËi nu¨v n‡j, ms¯’vi bvg t SCBRMP cÖKí ïi“i c~‡e© 2004 mv‡j Avcwb wK †Kvb ms¯’v / NGO-Gi mv‡_ hy³ wQ‡jb ? ■ nu¨ ■ bv DËi nu¨v n‡j, ms¯’vi bvg t

5. eZ©gv‡b Avcbvi evwoi †gvU gwnjvi msL¨v KZ ? ------Rb| eZ©gv‡b cvwievwiK cÖ‡qvR‡b Avcbvi evwoi gwnjv‡`i‡K wb‡æv³ ¯’v‡b hvq wK ? ■ gv‡K©U ev evRvi ■ BDwbqb cwil` ■ Dc‡Rjv †nW †KvqvUvi ■ nvmcvZvj ev wK¬wbK ■ gv‡Qi wej ■ gv‡Vi K…wl Rwg

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6. wej e¨e¯’vcbvi †¶‡Î gwnjv‡`i AskMÖnb KZUzKz †hŠw³K ? ■ Lye †hŠw³K ■ †hŠw³K ■ †Zgb †hŠw³K bq

7. eZ©gv‡b Avcbvi cwiev‡ii †gvU Rwg eënv‡ii cwigvb KZ ? t ------kZvsk| GB Rwg eënv‡ii eY©bv w`b| ■ emZ evwo t ■ cyKzi/Rjvkq t ■ wb‡R‡ì Rwg wb‡Riv Pvl K‡i t ■ wb‡R‡ì Rwg A‡bïv Pvl K‡i t ■ A‡bï Rwg Pvl K‡i t ■ A-K…wl Rwg t

SCBRMP cÖKí ïi“i c~‡e© 2004 mv‡j Avcbvi cwiev‡ii †gvU Rwg eënv‡ii cwigvb KZ wQj ? t ------kZvsk| GB Rwg eënv‡ii eY©bv w`b| ■ emZ evwo t ■ cyKzi/Rjvkq t ■ wb‡R‡ì Rwg wb‡Riv Pvl K‡i t ■ wb‡R‡ì Rwg A‡bïv Pvl K‡i t ■ A‡bï Rwg Pvl K‡i t ■ A-K…wl Rwg t

8. Rwgi g~j¨ e„w×i †¶‡Î SCBRMP cÖKí KZUzKz f~wgKv †i‡L‡Q e‡j Avcwb g‡b K‡ib ? ■ Lye fwgKv †i‡L‡Q ■ †gvUvgywU fywgKv †i‡L‡Q ■ †Zgb f~wgKv iv‡L bvB

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10. eZ©gv‡b Avcbvi evwoi cvqLvbv N‡ii Ae¯’v wb‡æi †KvbwU ? ■ cvKv ■ AvavcvKv/KuvPv ■ Szjš— SCBRMP cÖKí ïi“i c~‡e© 2004 mv‡j Avcbvi evwoi cvqLvbv N‡ii Ae¯’v wb‡æi †KvbwU wQj ? ■ cvKv ■ AvavcvKv/KuvPv ■ Szjš—

12. SCBRMP cÖK‡íi gva¨‡g wbwg©Z moK Rxeb hvÎvi gvb Dbœq‡b KZUzKz f~wgKv †i‡L‡Q ? ■ Lye fwgKv †i‡L‡Q ■ †gvUvgywU fywgKv †i‡L‡Q ■ †Zgb f~wgKv iv‡L bvB

13. eZ©gv‡b Avcbvi cwiev‡ii evwl©K Avq wb‡æi LvZIqvix eY©bv w`b ? ■ grm¨ t ■ K…wl kÖg t ■ A-K…wl kÖg t ■ grm¨ weµq t ■ cÖavb grm¨ weµq t ■ e¨emv t ■ PvKzwi t ■ K…wl t ■ Ab¨vb¨ t

14. SCBRMP cÖKí FY MÖn‡bi †¶‡Î KZUzKz f~wgKv †i‡L‡Q ? ■ Lye fwgKv †i‡L‡Q ■ †gvUvgywU fywgKv †i‡L‡Q ■ †Zgb f~wgKv iv‡L bvB

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15. SCBRMP cÖKí gwnjv‡`i‡K A_©‰bwZK Kg©Kv‡Û KZUzKz m¤ú„³ K‡i‡Q ? ■ Lye m¤ú„³ K‡i‡Q ■ †gvUvgywU m¤ú„³ K‡i‡Q ■ †Zgb m¤ú„³ K‡i bvB

[Vulnerability related Question] 16. SCBRMP cÖKíwU wb‡æi bvRyKZv Øviv KZUzKz cÖfvwš^Z n‡q _v‡K ? bvRyKZv †ewk †gvUvgywU Kg nVvr eb¨v Ach©vß e„wócvZ msNvZ Rjevqy cwieZ©b Kg Drcv`b Kg g~j¨ cÖvwß

17. SCBRMP cÖKí †_‡K †h wej cybtLbb Kiv n‡q‡Q, ‡m¸wj Avcbvi Kv‡Q wK g‡b nq? ■ ch©vß ■ ch©vß bq 18. SCBRMP cÖKí †_‡K †h AfqvkÖg ˆZix Kiv n‡q‡Q, ‡m¸wj Avcbvi Kv‡Q wK g‡b nq? ■ ch©vß ■ ch©vß bq 19. nVvr eb¨v n‡j wK ¶q¶wZ n‡q _v‡K ? t ...... nVvr eb¨v †gvKv‡ejvq wK e¨e¯’v MÖnb K‡i _v‡Kb ? t ......

20. SCBRMP cÖKí DbœZ Kivi Rb¨ Avi wK e¨e¯’v MÖnb Kiv †h‡Z cv‡i? K. t ...... L. t ...... M. t ......

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Questionnaire for FGD

21. SCBRMP cÖKíwUi mdj ev¯—evq‡bi †¶‡Î †Kvb †KŠkj ¸i“Z¡c~Y© wQj e‡j g‡b K‡ib? K. t ...... L. t ...... M. t ...... N. t ......

22. SCBRMP cÖKí ev¯—evq‡b †Kvb mgm¨v ev msNvZ †`Lv w`‡j Avcbviv Zv wKfv‡e mgvavb K‡ib? K. t ...... L. t ......

23. SCBRMP cÖKí ev¯—evq‡b †Kvb mgm¨v ev msNvZ †`Lv w`‡j BDwbqb cwil‡`i †Pqvig¨vb ev †g¤^vi †Kgb f‚wgKv cvjb K‡i? ■ mgm¨v mgvav‡b GwM‡q Av‡m| ■ mgm¨v mgvav‡b GwM‡q Av‡m bv ■ SCBRMP cÖKí m¤ú‡K© weiƒc aviYv K‡i / wbiærmvwnZ K‡i|

24. wb‡Pi †Kvb c×wZ‡Z Avcbvi we‡j gvQ aiv nq? ■ BUG wb‡RivB gvQ a‡i ■ ¯’vbxq grm¨Rxweiv gv‡Qi Ask wb‡q a‡i t ...... % ■ ¯’vbxq grm¨Rxweiv gRyixi wewbg‡q gvQ a‡i t gRyix ...... UvKv| ■ ¯’vbxq grm¨Rxweiv gvQ aivi AwaKvi µq K‡i‡Q t ...... UvKv| ■ BUG KZ©„K fvov Kiv grm¨Rxweiv gvQ ai‡Q t fvov ...... UvKv|

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Questionnaire for KII

25. we‡ji 100 †KwR gvQ wb‡æi e¨emvqxiv KZ `v‡g wewµ K‡ib? K. t ‡R‡j `vg t L. t wb‡Kwi `vg t M. t cvB‡Ki `vg t N. t Avor`vi `vg t O. t ¶z`ª we‡µZv `vg t P. t mvaviY †µZv `vg t

26. SCBRMP cÖKí mdj ev¯—evq‡bi †¶‡Î wK wK evav ev Aš—ivq wQj e‡j Avcwb g‡b K‡ib? K. t ...... L. t ...... M. t ......

27. SCBRMP cÖKí DbœZ Kivi Rb¨ Avi wK e¨e¯’v MÖnb Kiv †h‡Z cv‡i? K. t ...... L. t ...... M. t ......

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Appendix-B Photograph taken during field visit

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Photo 01 : Surma River of Sunamganj District (Dated : 05.01.2012)

Photo 02 : Bill Board for Fisheries Conservation (Dated : 05.01.2012)

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Photo 03 : Sampla Saluk in the Beel (Dated : 05.01.2012)

Photo 04 : Swamp Tree (Dated : 05.01.2012)

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Photo 05 : Karoch at Chatol Udaytara Beel (Dated : 18.07.2012)

Photo 06 : Beel Investigation at Boiragimara (Dated : 17.08.2012)

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Photo 07 : Observing Fishing Catch at Chatol Udaytara Beel (Dated : 18.08.2012)

Photo 08 : Fish Catching and Selling Register (Dated : 18.08.2012)

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Photo 09 : Location of Pond and Sanctuary on Resource Map (Dated : 18.08.2012)

Photo 10 : Local Fishing Market (Dated : 18.08.2012)

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