Bangladesh’s socially and economically valuable domestic fisheries are being subjected to increasingly sophisticated IUU. The industrial commercial trawling sector is having the largest negative effect on the fishery, making minimal economic contribution, likely extensive environmental impact and reducing resource availability for the artisanal sector. This problem is contributed to by weak fisheries management institutions, weak accountability, and weak institutional capacity. At the operational level, these weaknesses and knowledge gaps reduce MCS and enforcement capacity to curb industrial IUU, limits informed integrated monitoring of both the industrial and artisanal fleets, and limits the application of effective MCS technology solutions for licensing and monitoring the artisanal fleet.
The World Bank wish to continue support through their long-term fisheries sector reform program so must better understand the current threats and available innovative solutions in order to make informed and effective investment decisions. If successfully implemented, the tasks covered by this consultancy will greatly contribute to reducing critical knowledge gaps.
