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Assessing the status and challenges of vulnerability to viability transitions: small-scale fisheries in the transboundary Sundarbans mangrove forest

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Abstract

Small-scale fisheries around the world are confronted with multidimensional vulnerabilities related to social, natural, economic, institutional and political aspects. The issues around vulnerability are even more intense when it comes to transboundary fisheries systems. This study assesses the vulnerabilities of small-scale fisheries and the challenges in facilitating their transitions to viability in the transboundary Sundarbans mangrove forest shared between India and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. Data were collected using household surveys, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. The results reveal that small-scale fisheries face diverse vulnerabilities sourced from social (e.g., reduced income and increased social injustices), natural (e.g., decreased fish stock) and governance systems (e.g., increased restrictions and limited access) of the forest. Several factors, for example, a lack of common governing action and mismatches of governance goals and implementation, cause barriers to transitions toward viability. The study suggests that increased participation of relevant stakeholders and their voices is crucial to make comprehensive governing actions from both sides of the forest and to facilitate the viability transitions.

Data availability

The qualitative datasets (transcripts from interviews and focus groups) and survey data generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because they contain information that could compromise the privacy and consent of research participants. Anonymized data supporting the findings are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

No custom code or software scripts were used to generate or analyze data in this study. Qualitative data analysis was conducted manually using content and thematic analysis techniques as described in the Methods section.

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Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken as part of the project Vulnerability to Viability (V2V): Global Partnership for Building Strong Small-Scale Fisheries Communities, University of Waterloo, Canada. The V2V Global Partnership is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada (Grant Number: 895-2020-1021) under its Partnership Grants Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Enterprise and Development, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Md. Ruyel Miah, Prateep Kumar Nayak & Simron J. Singh

  2. School of Planning, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Jeremy Pittman

  3. Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, NL, Canada

    Ratana Chuenpagdee

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  1. Md. Ruyel Miah
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  2. Prateep Kumar Nayak
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  4. Simron J. Singh
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M.R.M. and P.K.N.: conceptualization and methodology; M.R.M.: analysis of data and writing draft; M.R.M., P.K.N., J.P., S.J.S., and R.C.: review and editing; All authors read, edited and approved the final manuscript.

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Miah, M.R., Nayak, P.K., Pittman, J. et al. Assessing the status and challenges of vulnerability to viability transitions: small-scale fisheries in the transboundary Sundarbans mangrove forest.
npj Ocean Sustain (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44183-026-00189-y

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