Assessing policy-oriented research: case study of community-based fisheries management in Bangladesh

Fish from Bangladesh’s inland waters are a vital source of income and nutrition to millions of people, but catches and species diversity have been declining due to habitat degradation, increased fishing pressure, and destructive fishing methods. This has been exacerbated by short-term, revenue orientated leasing of 12,000 government owned water bodies which excludes poor fishers and encourages leaseholders to over-exploit the fisheries. To improve the resource status and enhance income and livelihoods of smallholder fishermen, research on community-based fisheries management (CBFM) were initiated in the mid 1980s. Under the CBFM approach, the control of the resource is handed over to community groups for an extended period. The major focus of this study is to i) outline and provide evidence for the pathways to policy influence, and ii) document and attribute changes in awareness and opinion of policy makers to activities or outputs of the CBFM project.