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Management of Aquatic Ecosystems through Community Husbandry (MACH) in Bangladesh

A group of workers clear soil from a dry riverbed filled with siltation. Re-establishing the flow of this waterway will restore river, estuarine, and coastal ecosystem health.

In the vast wetlands of Bangladesh, inland fisheries provide food and income for perhaps 70 million rural households. Here, the extensive rivers and floodplain wetlands of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta rank third in global freshwater fish production behind China and India. In the 1990s, several projects working with the Department of Fisheries and national NGOs began addressing two negative trends affecting the wetlands: a decrease in area due to environmental degradation in the watershed, and the concentration of income among a handful of leaseholders. USAID designed and implemented a sustainable wetland resource management program through the MACH project (MACH translates as “fish” in Bengali). The USAID-funded MACH-I project (1998-2005) focused on ecologically sensitive integration of biologically diverse watersheds and habitats through participatory approaches that recognize the dependence of the local communities on these resources.

The MACH approach addressed larger problems from a policy viewpoint, with the work flowing from the demonstrated success of community-based approaches to enhancing and managing natural floodplain resources.

MACH-I activities focused on:

1. assisting project site communities and government in securing dry season surface water, establishing wetland sanctuaries, maintaining riparian areas, and protecting surrounding watersheds;
2. assessing the economic value of wetlands, particularly for the poor and worked to reduce fishing pressure through community development, including alternative income generating activities; and
3. influencing policy by working cooperatively, primarily through the Bangladesh Wetlands Network and also with the Government of Bangladesh, other projects, nongovernmental organizations and donors.

MACH II sought to build on work of MACH I to increase productivity, improve resource management and encourage more effective community awareness and involvement. The major goal is to prepare local communities to take responsibility for the long-term management of floodplain resources.

Through the MACH project, USAID and its implementing partners:

• Promoted policy-level coordination among the government ministries, the NGO community and donors. Encouraged and effected cooperative approach to policy change through the Bangladesh Wetlands Network.
• Helped form Resource Management Organizations around entire continuous wetlands or around portions of larger wetland areas bringing together diverse groups of resources users and local government representatives.
• Obtained a total of 24 water bodies handed over to MACH-supported Resource Management Organizations for improved management and conservation.
• Led development of partnerships at all governmental levels. Local government partners became members of the Resource Management Organizations.
• More than 333,000 trees were planted reducing siltation, providing future habitat and potentially boosting community yield from the trees alone to more than the original project cost.
• Effected changes in the views of industries toward wetlands and altered some harmful manufacturing processes they used.
• Worked on degraded hilly areas to address land use issues radically improving watershed management practices with selected.
• Prepared the first economic valuation of wetlands assets in Bangladesh showing that the very poor are the biggest beneficiaries of improved ecosystems.

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