Aquatic Biodiversity Conservation

In this project, the GEF aims at financing the incremental costs of promoting wetlands and aquatic biodiversity conservation and sustainable use in Bangladesh. It will do so by complementing the IV IDA's Fisheries Project. The GEF approach relies on removing barriers for successful mainstreaming of aquatic biodiversity and wetlands conservation within the fisheries sector through demonstration, capacity building, enhancement of the information base for sound decision making, incentive development, and policy development. The GEF components will contribute to support the piloting of community-based aquatic sanctuaries; enhance local capacity for addressing aquatic ecosystem management issues; enhance the knowledge base for sound ecosystem management and decision-making, including monitoring and evaluation for sustainable long-term aquatic ecosystem management; and develop policy and action plans for aquatic biodiversity conservation, mainly by mainstreaming it within the fisheries sector. It is expected that these activities will have substantial multiplicative effects both in Bangladesh and in other Asian countries.