Sustainability Through an Alternative Property‐Rights Regime for Bangladesh's Mangrove Forest^*

* We acknowledge our thanks to the editor of the Geographical Review, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful thoughts and suggestions.

Abstract

This study examines the challenges of achieving sustainable management of the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, in Bangladesh. The Sundarbans is currently managed by the Bangladesh Department of Forest, under a state property‐rights regime, while our study explores an alternative property‐rights regime. We employed a mixed‐method approach to examine the prospects of alternative management and livelihood strategies to achieve sustainability. Both focus groups and household surveying were used to assess the opportunities for, and barriers to, achieving sustainability. It was found that two conflicting groups—forest‐dependent communities and foresters—are responsible for policy failures due to the absence of power‐sharing arrangements, nor is it likely a common property‐rights regime will be enough to cap degradation and achieve sustainability, while supply‐and‐demand policy interventions may well could help achieve sustainable management of the Sundarbans.

• alternative livelihoods
• Bangladesh
• demand‐side policies
• property rights
• Sundarbans

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anjan Kumer Dev Roy

Dr. Roy is an adjunct research fellow of the School of Commerce, Faculty of Business, Education, Law & Arts at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia [[email protected]];

Khorshed Alam

Dr. Alam is a senior lecturer at the School of Commerce, Faculty of Business, Education, Law & Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia [[email protected]];

Jeff Gow

Dr. Gow is a professor at the School of Commerce, Faculty of Business, Education, Law & Arts, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia; Dr. Gow is a Professor of Economics at the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia and a Research Associate at the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa [[email protected]].