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Nomadic Fishers in the Hilsa Sanctuary of Bangladesh: The Importance of Social and Cultural Values for Wellbeing and Sustainability

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Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries

Part of the book series: MARE Publication Series ((MARE,volume 17))

Abstract

This chapter employs a social wellbeing approach to assess the importance of small-scale fisheries in delivering viable livelihoods for a fishery-dependent nomadic community on the Ramgati coast in the Meghna River system of Bangladesh. The nomad communities of focus (known as Bede) are a fishing people, living on houseboats and travelling throughout the river ways. In recent decades, they have faced numerous threats and stressors affecting their traditional occupations and livelihoods, including growth in population as a result of the material success of their fishing occupation. The fishing Bede have persevered amidst these pressures, however, with positive relational and subjective benefits. The hilsa fishery has been very important as a basis for perpetuating the Bede community and culture. The identification of the social, cultural and livelihood contributions of small-scale fisheries through the social wellbeing lens has important implications for poverty alleviation and for the importance of securing sustainable small-scale fisheries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    To protect the hilsa fishery from overfishing of juveniles and brooder fish, the government of Bangladesh declared four hilsa sanctuaries in 2005. A fifth sanctuary was added in 2011.

  2. 2.

    The export of hilsa to West Bengal is sometimes put on the agenda of bilateral discussion between Bangladesh and India. Hilsa is often sent as a gift of well wishes to India at the state level.

  3. 3.

    Some nomads trace their origin from the Bedouin of Arabia, so their name is derived as Bede.

  4. 4.

    Fish catches are largely influenced by the lunar cycle of spring and neap tides. Depending on the lunar cycle and on fish availability, nomadic fishers shift their whole fishing fleet and families to different parts of the river bank.

  5. 5.

    A few fishers in the interviewed community came to mobile fishing profession by marriage, or due to loss of home from riverbank erosion.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter is drawn largely from a previous version of the manuscript, prepared for the PhD thesis of the first author, submitted to the University of Bremen, Germany. The PhD project was funded by German Research Foundation’s Excellent Cluster Initiative. The authors would like to thank the two editors, Derek Johnson and Julie Urquhart, for their very useful comments.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Coastal and Marine Fisheries, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, 3100, Bangladesh

    Mohammad Mahmudul Islam

  2. Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences (GLOMAR), University of Bremen, Bremen, D - 28359, Germany

    Mohammad Mahmudul Islam

  3. Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, A1B 3X9, Canada

    Ratana Chuenpagdee

Authors
  1. Mohammad Mahmudul Islam
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  2. Ratana Chuenpagdee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mohammad Mahmudul Islam .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

    Derek S. Johnson

  2. Department of History, Politics and Social Sciences, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

    Tim G. Acott

  3. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia

    Natasha Stacey

  4. Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

    Julie Urquhart

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Islam, M.M., Chuenpagdee, R. (2018). Nomadic Fishers in the Hilsa Sanctuary of Bangladesh: The Importance of Social and Cultural Values for Wellbeing and Sustainability. In: Johnson, D., Acott, T., Stacey, N., Urquhart, J. (eds) Social Wellbeing and the Values of Small-scale Fisheries. MARE Publication Series, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60750-4_9

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