Coastal Community in Fostering Blue Economy of Bangladesh
Author : Afifat Khanam Ritika, Research Officer, BIMRAD
24 May 2022

It's well known that Bangladesh is a maritime nation, both geographically and historically. Mainly, after the successful demarcation of the maritime boundary from the neighbouring countries, Bangladesh has pronounced an attested maritime perspective with the inauguration of the national Blue Economy Initiative. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has identified about 26 sectors of the Blue Economy and among those fisheries is an already developed sector with tremendous prosperity in Bangladesh. Besides, the country has a substantial coastal area along the 710 km coastline, almost onethird of the country's total land area. One-third of country's population living in the coastal region mostly depends on marine fishing or related activities for their livelihood, either parttime or full time. In Bangladesh, the fishers, fish farmers and those supplying services and goods to related industries assure the livelihoods of as many as around 17 million people, with about 1.5 million women.....