Experiences and opinions of mollusk fishers in the Cox's Bazar coast, Bangladesh

Abstract

The coastal and maritime ecosystem of Bangladesh provides an array of diverse range of mollusks which support millions of fishery dependent livelihoods. Human dependency on maritime resource is increasing day by day. There are lots of livelihood options for coastal communities whereas they have given topmost priority in fishing as their principal economic activity. Fishermen community is an integral part of the coastal areas of Bangladesh which is mostly dominated by small-scale fishermen. This study was conducted along the two coastal regions of Cox's Bazar-Caufaldandi besides Moheskhali Channel and Shahpori Island besides the Naaf River Estuary. The main objective was to indentify the challenges faced by the fishers involved in mollusk fishery. Several survey methods were adopted including questionnaire, interview and field visit. This research revealed that different environmental and socio-economic factors have had significant impact on the coastal livelihood. These impacts scored ranging from moderate (3) to very high (5) in the scale of 0-5. Mollusk fishery in Cox's Bazar region has been dominated by Rakhain community with a great influence on their livelihood. However, the tribal community of Bangladesh is still lag behind due to lack of proper facilities and opportunities. In this situation, different ecological as well as socio-economic challenges make the tribal fishers more vulnerable. Therefore, it is time to take proper initiative for the livelihood management plan and coping strategies. This kind of approach will be useful to mitigate the identified ecological and socio- economic challenges of small-scale fishermen in the Cox's Bazar region.