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Fisheries constitute an important source
of livelihoods for tens of thousands of poor people in the
southwest coastal region of Bangladesh living near the
UNESCO Heritage Sundarbans mangrove forest, and they supply
a significant portion of protein for millions. Among the
various threats fisheries in the southwest coastal region
and Sundarbans mangrove forest will face because of climate
change, adverse impacts from increased aquatic salinity
caused by sea level rise have been identified as one of the
greatest challenges. This paper focuses on 83 fish species
consumed by poor households in the region. Using the
salinity tolerance range for each species, 27 alternative
scenarios of climate change in 2050 were investigated to
assess the possible impacts of climate change and sea level
rise on aquatic salinity, fish species habitats, and the
poor communities that consume the affected fish species. The
results provide striking evidence that projected aquatic
salinization may have an especially negative impact on poor
households in the region. The estimates indicate that areas
with poor populations that lose species are about six times
more prevalent than areas gaining species.
