Fisheries Co-management and Conflict Management in Inland Openwater Fisheries in Bangladesh

Abstract Community based management of inland openwater fisheries in Bangladesh has introduced and practiced through the Community Based Fisheries Management ( cbfm ) approach with partnership arrangement of government and non-government organisations, fisher communities and other stakeholders. One of the principles behind the community based fisheries management is to improve fisheries conflict management and its resolution. The implementation of the cbfm approach has experienced a significant contribution towards fishers’ conflict management. cbfm arrangement introduced fisher led, community led and women led approaches. Community based organisations ( cbo s) as local institutions have been established through community participation under cbfm approach to mitigate conflict and its reducing and resolution. This paper assesses the impact of cbfm approaches on fishers’ conflict management in inland openwater fisheries in Bangladesh. It identifies the nature and causes of conflicts and develops ways of communicating good practice and reducing conflicts through fisheries co-management arrangement. This study might have policy implication to scale up cbfm approaches to promote fishers’ conflict resolution and its affective management of inland open water fisheries with a long- term commitment.