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Examining the Role of Social Capital in Community Collective Action for Sustainable Wetland Fisheries in Bangladesh

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Abstract

Internationally, the decentralization of property rights is becoming an increasingly common policy intervention for sustainable natural resource management. In the context of decentralized wetland fisheries policy in Bangladesh, this paper examines the role that social capital plays in cooperation building and collective action among diverse households seeking to obtain fisheries property rights. It considers how some households are able to develop collective action in the form of a community-based organization to access wetland fisheries, and why other households are not. Using the Local Level Institution (LLI) study technique, our analysis highlights that the financial capacity of community members plays a crucial role in accessing resources when the government’s decentralization policy also seeks to generate State revenue through fees. In this situation, information access and communication with external agencies were found to be prerequisites for earning the wetland fisheries property rights, with local leaders able to take advantage of their position to dictate collective decision making. This situation resulted in undemocratic decentralization and devolution of wetland fisheries rights, undermining transparency, accountability and the equitable distribution of natural resources.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and IPCC for their financial support. The comments of the paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and under no circumstances may be considered a reflection of the position of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and/or the IPCC. We would also like to acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on the earlier draft of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Macdonald Campus, 21,111 Lakeshore Road, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, H9X 3V9, Canada

    H. M. Tuihedur Rahman & Gordon M. Hickey

  2. Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, School of Agriculture and Mineral Science, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, 3114, Bangladesh

    H. M. Tuihedur Rahman & Swapan K. Sarker

  3. Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine (IBAHCM), College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Graham Kerr Building, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Swapan K. Sarker

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  1. H. M. Tuihedur Rahman
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Correspondence to H. M. Tuihedur Rahman.

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Rahman, H.M.T., Hickey, G.M. & Sarker, S.K. Examining the Role of Social Capital in Community Collective Action for Sustainable Wetland Fisheries in Bangladesh. Wetlands 35, 487–499 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-015-0635-5

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