BOBLME II builds on success with steps toward ecosystem monitoring and management
The Bay of Bengal region is vital source of food and livelihoods globally. Nearly 90 percent of the 450 million people that live around the Bay depend on it for food and its produces more than seven percent of the global marine fisheries catch.
This growing region, however, is suffering from overexploitation, unsustainable agriculture and coastal development, and climate change, straining its rich resources. The Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem Project Phase II (BOBLME II) addresses these challenges, focusing on the health and resilience of coastal marine ecosystems. Launched in 2024, BOBLME II fosters cooperation between government agencies, civil society organisations and the private sector to build a consortium for the Bay’s marine conservation and restoration. Bay of Bengal bordering countries have stepped up to identify two sites per country on the Bay where ecosystem targets will be monitored to ensure site health and progress. These sites will focus on strengthening the ecosystems approach to fisheries management (EAFM) and improving the management of marine areas (MMAs).
BOBLME II will advance sustainable fisheries management, restoration and conservation of critical marine habitats and protection of biodiversity, improving marine ecosystem health through pollution management, improved livelihoods, and a regional mechanism for Bay coordination, monitoring and assessment. The project is now finalising the country sites, and will begin identifying site challenges, needs and context.
As it moves from the organisational to implementation phase in 2025, implementing organization FAO and executing partners IUCN, Bay of Bengal Programme Intergovernmental Organisation (BOBPIGO) and Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) have launched a partnership with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) to provide expertise on gender mainstreaming. Women, youth and underrepresented communities play invaluable roles in Bay of Bengal fisheries and ecosystems. SEI Asia’s years of work on gender in their natural resources, energy, food systems and bioeconomy focus topic, as well as related topics such as climate change, will help ensure these communities are an integral part of project actions and solutions.
BOBLME II follows the first BOBLME project that ran from 2009 to 2015 and focused on a transboundary diagnostic analysis for the Bay that helped identify its major shared issues, leading to a strategic action plan for fisheries and marine management. It builds on the first phase’s four main themes of marine resources, critical habitats, water quality and social and economic considerations through enabling its MMA and EAFM approaches.
For more on BOBLME, see the website here. The newly released BOBLME II short video can be found on FAO YouTube here.
About the project
The Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem (BOBLME) is one of the world’s most significant LMEs with an area of about 2.6 million square kilometers - 66% of which lies within the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The Bay of Bengal harbours rich biodiversity and critical habitats with natural resources holding significant social and economic value for surrounding countries. Fisheries and aquaculture play pivotal roles in ensuring food security, employment, and trade within the region.
However, small-scale farmers are among the poorest and most vulnerable in the world. This is further compounded by the overexploitation of marine living resources as well as the increasing impacts of climate change which is being felt across all eight countries. More than 20% of mangroves have been lost since the 1980s due to expanding agriculture and coastal development, unregulated fishing practices, and pollution that is disrupting water quality.
BOBLME II takes urgent action to conserve the Bay and its resources through five main actions: advance sustainable fisheries management, restoration and conservation of critical marine habitats and protection of biodiversity, improving marine ecosystem health through pollution management, improved livelihoods, and a regional mechanism for Bay coordination, monitoring and assessment.
For more information, please contect, Rishi Sharma, FAO RAP at Rishi.Sharma@fao.org.
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Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMka916zf18
Words by Jamie Kemsey. Photo cover: BOBLME II
