Vulnerabilities of coastal and inland fisheries to climate change: Assessing adaptation policy to improve resiliency of social ecological system of Bangladesh

Fisheries are vital for the food security and livelihoods of coastal nations but are particularly susceptible to impacts of climate change. Bangladesh’s fisheries sector is especially vulnerable, given its geography and population density, with millions at risk for climatic impacts and, consequently, food insecurity. This chapter assesses the climate change policy of Bangladesh with regard to their effort to integrate capacity building and adaptation policies to build climate resilient fisheries. Using an adaptive pathway framework to increase resiliency, with considerations toward limits and barriers to access that can reduce adaptive capacity, this chapter closely analyzes the opportunities and pitfalls of fisheries policy of Bangladesh. This initial assessment concludes that, although relatively progressive and thorough, Bangladesh’s fisheries policy plans fall into several maladaptive pathways and normative assumptions that actually reduce resiliency. Furthermore, the plans do not acknowledge the many limits and barriers to access that prevent the most vulnerable communities from increasing their adaptive capacity, which can lead to a reduction of general community-level resilience overall.