Mangrove forests have enormous ecological and socio-economic importance for a number of different stakeholders and policy actors. Hence, a wide range of often conflicting material interests can be expected surrounding mangrove forest policy and management. These conflicts result in different issues of mangrove policy and management, on which different actors articulate their positions through publicly stated claims. It is unclear, in how far these publicly stated positions and claims resemble the formal interest of the actors only, or if they also reveal parts of their informal interests. In the Sundarbans mangrove forests, a number of issues have arisen, which are of contemporary policy concern. The aim of this study is to identify the most recent issues relating to the Sundarbans in Bangladesh and analyse the actors' claims/arguments on the identified issues which were publicly stated as an expression of formal or informal interest. In order to analyse these public claims, content analysis of selected Bangladeshi national newspapers, experts' deliberations and national policy documents was undertaken as an empirical method to ascertain relevant issues and actors' claims. A theory-based actor typology was applied to distinguish the relevant actors, and the concept of formal and informal interests was employed. The results indicate that the most salient policy issues around mangrove forest policy and management are: establishing Rampal power plant; protection of the Sundarbans forest area; environmental pollution; biodiversity conservation; reputation as a World Natural Heritage Site; relevance for climate change adaptation and mitigation; and local people's livelihoods. Government and Administration are found to be the most active actor in all the observed issues. Surprisingly, only very few administrations partake in public deliberations and the Prime Minister seems to dominate the public debate. This might be explained by the fact that the Rampal power plant project is perceived as the most contentious issue among all actors, with strong discursive support from the Prime Minister. In light of this issue structure, non-governmental actors as well as most bureaucracies are rarely found to actively engage in public debate on mangrove issues while informal interests were being displayed by Prime Minister and non-ruling political parties to a limited extent. Future empirical study to be conducted on the historical trajectory of Rampal power plant addressing the Prime Minister's arguments and environmental concerns of civil society actors. Also it would be worth to map the high degree of bureaucratic rivalry which can be assumed form the conflicting interest in mangrove forests between the responsible ministry—the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and other ministries in their struggle for power.
Full reference:
Khan, F., Rahman, S., Giessen, L. 2020. Mangrove Forest Policy and Management: Prevailing Policy Issues, Actors’ Public Claims and Informal Interests in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh. In: Ocean and Coastal Management, 186, (105090), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2019.105090