Impact of Climate Change and Aquatic Salinization on Fish Habitats and Poor Communities in Southwest Coastal Bangladesh and Bangladesh Sundarbans

Dasgupta, Susmita ; Huq, Mainul ; Mustafa, Md. Golam ; Sobhan, Md Istiak ; Wheeler, David

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: FISH PRODUCTION;    FISH;    FISH HABITAT;    LAND USE ZONING;    DETERMINANTS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7593
RP-ID  :  WPS7593

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Fisheries constitute an important sourceof livelihoods for tens of thousands of poor people in thesouthwest coastal region of Bangladesh living near theUNESCO Heritage Sundarbans mangrove forest, and they supplya significant portion of protein for millions. Among thevarious threats fisheries in the southwest coastal regionand Sundarbans mangrove forest will face because of climatechange, adverse impacts from increased aquatic salinitycaused by sea level rise have been identified as one of thegreatest challenges. This paper focuses on 83 fish speciesconsumed by poor households in the region. Using thesalinity tolerance range for each species, 27 alternativescenarios of climate change in 2050 were investigated toassess the possible impacts of climate change and sea levelrise on aquatic salinity, fish species habitats, and thepoor communities that consume the affected fish species. Theresults provide striking evidence that projected aquaticsalinization may have an especially negative impact on poorhouseholds in the region. The estimates indicate that areaswith poor populations that lose species are about six timesmore prevalent than areas gaining species.