Sustainability of Community-Based Organizations in Bangladesh

Community-based management of commons is now widely promoted, but the sustainability of project based institutions has been questioned. In Bangladesh since the mid-1990s many community-based organizations (CBOs) have been formed to manage fisheries and water, empower local communities, and achieve a fairer distribution of benefits. Assessment of 153 CBOs receiving limited facilitation to share lessons revealed that most improved the productivity of their commons and broadened their management activities. They also strengthened governance (transparency in financial management and elections of leaders), and empowerment of the poor including access to natural resources. CBOs involving a range of stakeholders managing larger diverse floodplains and rivers have sustained and improved their practices just as well as where smaller communities manage small, well-defined water bodies. CBOs were able to reduce local conflicts despite complex natural resource interactions, but the long-term future of these achievements depends on an enabling co-management policy.