Conservation of marine biodiversity, co-management and responsible fishing for boat owners

Abstract

USAID's ECOFISH II is a five-year (2019-2024) project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by WorldFish Bangladesh in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries (DoF) of Bangladesh Government. The project is working to improve the social and ecological resilience of coastal fisheries, securing equitable food, nutrition and livelihood benefits for artisanal fishing communities in the Zone of Resilience (ZOR- Cox's Bazar district), some important areas of Meghna River Ecosystem (MRE- Patuakhali, Barguna and Bhola districts) and Nijhum Dwip Marine Protected Area (MPA- Hatiya, Charfasson, Rangabali upazila). The project has a plan to develop the capacity of the target beneficiaries/groups and different awareness building initiatives to achieve the project objectives. This module is developed to train the boat owners and those who are directly involved with the system. This is a one-day course module. The objective of the training module is to create awareness among the boat owners about biodiversity conservation, motivating them about responsible fishing and introduce the concept of co-management . Boat owners role is very important in co-management activities. All the topics are selected based on the training needs of the boat owners. The session plans of each topic with a handout is available to conduct the session smoothly.