Abstract:
A partnership project of the Bangladesh Department of Fisheries, five NGOs and ICLARM has introduced community
management of inland fisheries in Bangladesh. Management arrangements and outcomes are compared in four waterbodies with
different property rights. In the closed lake fishers jointly stock, guard and harvest fish, non-members are excluded. Production
and incomes have fluctuated since the power of past fisher leaders has been challenged by more transparent decision making.
After government made rivers open access, fishers no-longer had any recognized right to limit fishing there and have failed to
develop institutions to limit fishing, effort has increased and increasingly small fish are caught using smaller nets. In two open
beels, similar fishery outcomes have emerged from different contexts. One is managed by many diverse fisher groups who have
agreed to protect fish and have seen catches and consumption increase. A similar pattern has emerged in a seasonal floodplain on
private land managed by a multi-stakeholder committee led by women. Here the existing seasonal common fishing rights for very
homogenous villages are maintained and overwintering fish have been protected by consensus. Local decisions and rules that
conserve fish in the dry season and early monsoon are feasible for communities but require external facilitation and recognition of
longer-term fisher or community use rights if they are to be sustainable.
