The dilemma of prioritizing conservation over livelihoods: Assessing the impact of fishing restriction to the fishermen of the Sundarbans

Abstract

Over two million people depend on the Sundarbans for direct or indirect subsistence. Most of the poor and resource-dependent populations rely significantly on fishing for their subsistence in the absence of alternative work and income possibilities. Various global conventions impact national policy, putting pressure on state forest officials to maintain the Sundarbans in order to protect the flagship faunal species, the Royal Bengal tiger, and the pristine ecology. This article examines how the limits imposed on the Sundarbans to protect its biodiversity have affected fishermen's access to forest resources, as well as how the locals have reacted to these constraints in order to maintain their way of life. Given the paucity of research on the subject, we anticipate that the findings of this study will be practical and beneficial to policymakers and practitioners alike. Interviews with key informants, stakeholder input in the form of focus group discussions, documentary research (news reports and government documents), and uncontrolled personal observation were the primary empirical data gathering methods using a semi-structured questionnaire. Inductive contentment analysis was used to examine data with NVivo 12 software. Consequently, the text is organized around four thematic focuses. It begins with a brief history of forest management from the viewpoint of fisheries to demonstrate how the state's intervention to limit local access to fisheries resources exacerbated the socioeconomic vulnerabilities of the local populace. The second piece explores conventional fishing activities in the Sundarbans, while the third section investigates the fishing community's response to the imposed restriction. We discovered that the restrictions imposed to ensure conservation had a severe impact on the livelihood of locals, resulting in unsustainable fishing in the Sundarbans through the adoption of a negotiated system between the forest department and fishermen, i.e., corruption. In Section 4, the article wraps up by discussing a few crucial ideas that can be used to address issues brought on by restrictions.