INTEGRATED PROTECTED AREA CO-MANAGEMENT (IPAC) - BIDS

The most difficult problem that had to be encountered is the collection of unofficial and illegal
tolls/expenses incurred in the process of undertaking the business, starting from resource
collection to final consumers. Some agents (except, perhaps, resource collectors) had the
tendency to conceal information, considering this to be a business secret. This was more evident
when there is illegal business. In such cases, some triangulation techniques from various
informal sources or some judgment had to be applied. Following that the collection of such
information is somewhat tricky, one has to be careful in digging out such illegal and unofficial
payments including expenses on account of ransoms 6 . In estimating the production costs of
collectors, family labor costs are imputed based on prevailing wage rates and considering 50
percent as opportunity costs of labor. Retailers' transport costs were estimated by taking
information on total transportation cost of all types of products bought at a time, and then
apportioning this for the selected items. This required some standardization of transportation
cost, which could have resulted in under or over estimation although this is assumed to be
counter balancing.
Given the multi-dimensional pattern of flows, the aggregate estimate of the “number of agents
involved”/“jobs created” from the Sundarbans would be tentative in this brief study. A stated
ban on timber felling remains in effect for the Sundarbans since1989. Some of the actors
associated with timbers have been displaced; some have altogether abandoned the profession.
The flows for timber were carried out with the help of some timber traders who used to be in
operation in the past. Some reported unofficial logging (e.g., in Patharghata) has been
contemplated to capture this. Fortunately, ban on golpata has been withdrawn and during our
survey the harvest of golpata was in full swing.
Lack of standardization of SRF products (e.g., crab, sada fish, gura fish, hilsha) in terms of size,
quality and grade posed a major difficulty in the investigation of value chains 7 . To surmount this
problem, this brief study had little option but to consider an average grade of the products.
Seasonality of SRF activities posed another major problem in conducting interviews. Except for
fish, different harvests have different time periods (see Figure).
A number of problem analyses were carried out with people, particularly at the bottom layers,
that is, collectors of a number of SRF products. The core of the problem was their “low income”.
The reason for which the study team did the problem analysis or constructed problem trees, was
to understand the reasons for the low income of the SRF collectors. The “cause and “effect”
relationships of the “low income of the SRF collectors” were elaborated in the problem trees.
The analyses were particularly important to upgrade the situation of the bottom layer actors of
the value chains. The subsequent objective analysis from the problem tree gave a clear
conception regarding potential interventions, some of which are suggested in the final chapter on
policy implications.
Structure of the Report
The report is organized in six chapters along the major theme of the study - value chain analysis
of SRF extraction activities. Starting with the Chapter 1 presenting the study background and
objectives and methodology, Chapter 2 presents SIZ district and upazila profiles. Chapter 3
presents the findings related to various aspects of economics of SRF extraction. Chapter 4 deals
with mapping for flows, actors, jobs and volume along the value chains. Chapter 5 deals with the
major theme of the study - value chain analyses. Finally, Chapter 6 presents policy implications.
6 SRF agents, by and large, became suspicious of the study aims and investigations, particularly so in the case of
Mahajans, Aratdars and money lenders.
7 For example, crabs have at least 16 grades according to sizes and weights.
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