Access to common property resource and poverty reduction: inland open-water fisheries in Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, experiences from good practices for a Common Property Resources (CPR) identified that it is necessary to choose CPR members from the resource users with clearly defined rights to use the resource with defined physical boundary. The long-term security of tenure is a precondition for establishment of common property resources in the water bodies by the users (mainly fishers and adjoining agriculturists of the water body) themselves. The sustainability of such CPRs depends on the equity in sharing expenses and income; monitoring by the users themselves; graduated sanctions for violations of CPR rules; and development of local forums for resolving conflicts.