Legal status of Bangladesh fisheries: Issues and Responses

Abstract

Based on secondary data, this paper examines the current legal status of Bangladesh fisheries and constraints in the implementation of fisheries laws. It is identified that twelve fisheries regulations are executed for the regulation and management of the fisheries resources in Bangladesh. Among these laws, a few are historically important for the regulating and managing of fisheries. These laws are implemented with some amendments for the development of legal mechanisms for fisheries development of Bangladesh. The implementations of these laws often met limited success due to a number of shortcomings in the legislations. The constraints in the implementation are the lack of clear policy guidelines and strategy; inadequacy of existing regulatory framework, non-enforcement of legislation and jurisdictional conflicts, the absence of regular law review and updating mechanism and formulation of by-laws, rules, orders etc. Finally, this study submits that for sustainable management of fisheries resources of Bangladesh a comprehensive legal framework is required.