Fisheries policy in Bangladesh is still trying to get to grips with the major (universal) dilemmas of maximizing benefits from natural resources while, at the same time, ensuring an acceptable degree of equity in distribution of benefits and protecting the ecosystems that support the resources. During the twentieth century Bangladesh adopted one-sided production-oriented policies in the agricultural sector to feed the rapidly growing population. This strategy included increasing fish production, which was in decline mainly as a result of environmental degradation brought about by the expansion of agriculture. The solution was aquaculture development and later the promotion of culture-based fisheries and large scale stocking in the floodplains and beels (lakes) that previously sustained the capture fisheries. Although fish production perse in many cases may have increased as a result of this type of intervention, benefits are not socially and environmentally sustainable.

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