Coastal Zone Policy 2005.

The Government considers the following three reasons for initiating the Coastal Zone Policy: the coastal zone is lagging behind in socio-economic developments on many aspects; Poor initiatives to cope with different disasters and gradual deterioration of the environment; the coastal zone has the potential to contribute much to national development (4.4). The coastal development process aims to meet National Goal for Economic Growth, Poverty Reduction & Social Development; Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and other international conventions and treaties including to achieve the targets of the MDGs. The goal of integrated coastal zone management is: to create conditions, in which the reduction of poverty, development of sustainable livelihoods and the integration of the coastal zone into national processes can take place. Programmes for intensification of agriculture and crop diversification for improving the economic conditions of both male and female farmers and increasing food security at local and regional level shall be supported. Women’s development and gender equity: A gender sensitive and participatory approach will be adopted that focuses at the reduction of gender inequalities and that takes into account differences in needs and interests between men and women; Efforts will be made to close the gender gap, giving priority to women’s education, training and employment and special support for broadening their coping capacity, etc. (4.7).
Sustainable management of natural resources Coastal zone is full of diverse natural resources: inland fisheries & shrimp, marine fisheries, mangrove and other forests, land, livestock, salt, minerals, sources of renewable energy like tide, wind and solar energy (4.4). Medium and long term Government policy to ensure sustainable management of coastal resources will be as follows: Every possible steps and measures shall be taken to ensure sustainable use and management of water; Sustainable use of renewable resources and, limit harvesting, extraction or utilization to the corresponding cycles of their regeneration; Sustainable use of coastal resources shall be ensured. Combination of resource use, e.g. agriculture, forestry and fishing including aquaculture is often the major economic activity in a sustainable way; Optimum utilization of resources will be ensured by taking advantage of the trade-offs between competing uses; Rigid enforcement of conservation regulations will affect the livelihoods of many people and such conservation efforts will be linked, as far as possible, with alternative opportunities of employment; Initiation of plan and its implementation will be ensured by participation of people of all sectors.
Effective measures will be taken to realize the objectives of poverty reduction through enhancing economic growth in the coastal zone. Policies in this context are: Efforts shall be made to enhance annual growth rate to a level required to achieve national goal for poverty reduction and economic growth; Available opportunities of the coastal zone will be used through sustainable management to enhance standard of living of coastal communities by investing in different sectors like marine fisheries, salt production, shrimp culture, crab culture, shell culture, pearl culture, livestock development, area-based agricultural development and agro-based industries, transport, ship building, ship-breaking, tourism, extraction of beach minerals, renewable and non-renewable energy, etc; A strategy shall be formulated covering all routes to development taking multidimensional nature of poverty. However, priority would be accorded to: labor-intensive and low technology investments should be given importance where the poor and the disadvantaged can find employment, as well as to promote those industries and activities that will reasonably use manmade coastal resources as basic raw material; Emphasis will be given on building efficient power, transportation and telecommunication links, particularly with islands; Special emphasis will be given to utilize gas-based power, manufacturing and processing industries; Settled isolated chars and islands will be brought under ‘special rural development programmes’; Necessary measures will be taken to increase the flow of investments in the coastal zone including direct foreign investment (DFI), especially by setting up more export processing zones (EPZ); Cox’s Bazar, Nijhum Dwip, St. Martin Island and Kuakata sea beaches and Sundarban will be further developed to attract tourists and those areas and islands will be developed as ‘Special Zone for Tourism’. Private sector initiatives will be encouraged in this respect; Steps will be taken for medium and small private investments for coastal development (4.1).
5.2 A Coastal Development Strategy for poverty reduction, economic growth and social development will be formulated and implemented. This strategy will be a time and resource-bound specification of the priority actions in coastal development, but it will be about building a process to implement the policies, not preparing a classic master plan. Such a strategy makes critical choices, for example in relation to targeted regions, disadvantaged groups and issues. Focus is on implementation, including a set of indicators and corresponding monitoring arrangements to assess performance.