Nijhum Dwip is a remote coastal island in the Meghna estuary of Bangladesh, where the boundaries between land and water shift with each monsoon season. In Mollagram village, 60-year-old Md. Mehraz Uddin has spent his adult life on this island, watching its shoreline change around him. Like many residents here, his experience reflects a pattern common across the Bay of Bengal: gradual land loss to riverbank erosion, reduced fish stocks, and the steady pressure these changes place on households that have long depended on the water for their livelihoods.
Mehraz was a young man in 1986 when erosion first displaced his family. As the banks of the Meghna River collapsed, their home was lost to the river. His parents gathered their possessions and sought refuge in Nijhum Dwip. "We came here looking for a place to stand where the ground wouldn't move,” recalled Mehraz.
Mehraz grew up fishing, learning the trade from his grandfather and working on his boat using traditional cotton nets, locally known as Suttar Jal. In those years, fish stocks in the Bay of Bengal were more abundant, and Hilsa, the national fish of Bangladesh, was a reliable catch. Over five years of fishing, he saved enough to purchase 20 decimals of land in Nijhum Dwip and a fishing vessel, which gave his family a degree of stability.
Today, Mehraz heads a household of six children – four sons and two daughters. Yet, the stability he labored so hard to secure has grown increasingly fragile. The economic pressures of 2026 weigh far more heavily than those he faced in the 1980s, with fishing costs rising while fish stocks continue to decline.
The sea Mehraz worked in as a young man has also changed. To find a good catch now, his boats must travel 20 to 50 kilometers away from the coast into the open water. Mehraz points to one of the bigger threats to declining fish stock: industrial trawlers. Under Bangladesh's Marine Fisheries Act 2020, shallow coastal waters up to 40 metres deep are legally reserved for artisanal and small-scale fishers. However, Bangladesh's Marine Fisheries Management Plan acknowledges extensive encroachment of inshore fishing zones by industrial trawlers, and notes that increasing competition and conflict over depleted resources is expected to worsen.
To address these pressures, Nijhum Dwip was declared a Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 2019. Spanning over 3,188 km², the MPA was established to protect the biologically rich ecosystem that supports dolphins, rays, marine turtles, and the crucial Hilsa stock. A 15-year management plan, approved in 2021 and led by the Department of Fisheries with support from organisations like IUCN and WorldFish, was put in place to provide a framework for conservation that also considers the needs of the 30,000 people who depend on these waters.
The MPA brings concrete measures to tackle the very challenges locals like Mehraz describe. It establishes management zones and clarifies the legal ban on industrial trawlers encroaching into shallow coastal waters that are reserved for artisanal fishers. On the ground, the MPA has set in motion through a Union Conservation Committees that include fishers, traders, and women to help draft and enforce local fishing regulations. Community-led "Fish Guard" teams now monitor the waters, while citizen scientists collect data on catch and sightings of marine life. Youth-led "Blue Guard" teams remove ghost nets, educate peers, and rescue trapped marine life, building a gradual sense of shared responsibility for the island's marine resources.
Following a national consultation in early 2024, Nijhum Dwip was identified as a priority site for the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystems Phase II (BOBLME II) project jointly implemented with FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP), Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) and Bay of Bengal Programme Inter-Governmental Organisation (BOBPIGO). Recognising the Nijhum Dwip's strong local government support, existing management plan, and accessibility, the project is designed to fill the gaps that remain in its MPA implementation, including ensuring communities have access to livelihood opportunities when fishing bans are enforced during hilsa breeding season annually.
BOBLME II will also work with local stakeholders to improve fisheries data and monitoring, building on the citizen science initiatives already in place to better understand stock levels and the impact of fishing. Nijhum Dwip is one of several priority sites across the Bay of Bengal where BOBLME II is working to show that marine conservation and community livelihoods can be pursued together. Mehraz hopes that communities like his will continue to benefit from training and alternative livelihood opportunities that align with conservation efforts across the region.
