Participation of Coastal Fishermen in Alternative Livelihood Activities under a Development Intervention in Teknaf Peninsula

The paper attempts to make a preliminary evaluation of the Coastal and Wetland Biodiversity Management Project (CWBMP) in terms of coastal fishermen’s participation in alternative livelihood activities towards biodiversity conservation. The study was conducted in Teknaf Peninsula under Cox’s Bazar district while 112 randomly selected coastal fishermen from a population of 455 were interviewed by using a structured interview schedule in April 2008. A 4-point rated scale was used to measure the extent of participation of the respondents in eight alternative livelihoods activities which included cultivation of field crops, cultivation of vegetables in homestead, cultivation of vegetables in field, cultivation of fruits in homestead, cultivation of fruits in fields, plantation of timber plants in hilly areas, plantation of other plants in hills and homestead, and other alternative livelihood activities. The result showed that the coastal fishermen had highest participation in cultivation of vegetables in fields followed by fruits in homestead, cultivation of field crops and other livelihoods activities. The remaining alternative livelihood activities were not significantly practiced by the respondent fishermen. Majority (56.3%) of the fishermen had moderate level participation while 33.9% had low level participation in different livelihoods activities. Among the ten selected characteristics of the respondents, education, farm size, family size, annual income, extension media exposure, and social participation were positively and significantly related to their level of participation in alternative livelihood activities. On the other hand, age, cosmopoliteness, organizational participation, and training exposure did not show any significant relationship with the respondents’ participation in alternative livelihood activities.