1. es and livelihoods in the Sundarbans ecosystem:
South-west Bangladesh
Mostafa Aktheruzzaman
Shushilan
Bangladesh
Whole Decision Network Analysis for Coastal Ecosystems
(WD-NACE)
ESPA Programme Framework project
neela.matin@york.ac.uk 1
End-of-project workshop in London, 27 September 2012

2. The Coasts in Bangladesh
 The coastal people in
Bangladesh live in 710 km
long coastal belt with 86% of
the land having an elevation of
less than 5 metres.
 The realities of life includes
 magnificent creeks
 stunning forests
along with
 problems of salinity
 water logging
 storm surge inundation.
2

3. Majed Ali – a small shrimp farmer
• Owns 4 acre (1.5 hectare) of land
• Before shrimp
 paddy,
 livestock,
 chicken
 vegetable garden
 water plants (various spinach)
 herbal plants
 fish
• Now
 shrimp
 limited brackish water fish
• “Devastating ecological consequences
of shrimp culture makes it difficult to
make a living, particularly if there is a
natural disaster or a fall in the world
market”.
3

4. Jahanara Begum – a labourer
• Now
 Shrimp larvae collection
 Earth work for road / embankment
construction
 Cooking in the brickfields - migratory
work outside the area
• Earlier
 Housewife and mother
 Husband used to work as agricultural
worker, forest gatherer and fisher
 Husband and one son killed by tiger in
two separate incidents
• “Currently, there is no work for rice
processing, the shrimp larvae is also
greatly reduced, hardly any work
available in the area, so we often have
to starve.” Photo courtsey: 4
http://www.kolkatabirds.com/tiger_sundarbans.jpg

5. Shushilan
Programmes
• Socio-economic
development of the
under privileged
 Sustainable
environmental resource
management
 Education and Health &
Nutrition
 Human rights and good
governance
 Sustainable people’s
organisation