Coastal Wetlands Essay

Half of all the spaces in Bangladesh are wetland that occupied 7 to 8 million hectares of land. Floodplain regions have open and closed lake which inundated every year during the rainy season and this type of land is 5.4 million hectares. The area covered by the coastal wetlands is about seven lakh hectares.

Coastal wetland act as an ecotone due to the variation of natural resources and high use of land. Because of abundant natural resources, public activities are also high in this wetland which threaten the ecosystem.

Habitats of wildlife are degraded due to the extensive logging of coastal plants, especially for the shorebirds as they used those as a shelter during the night fall. To protect wetlands from the wrath of natural hazards

The funnel-shaped Bay of Bengal is responsible for creating devastating storm surges that can raise the sea level through high tide in the low-lying coastal wetland of Bangladesh.

Sea level rise (SLR) can be put the wetland area in a more dangerous situation. From the assessment of the IPCC, it was found that if sea level just increased one meter from the present level, 17 to 20 percent inland areas will be completely inundated by sea water and turned almost 3 crores people into climate refugee. Moreover, it also affected the habitat and breeding ground of fish.

Shrimp culture is one of the primary activities in the coastal wetland area. The combination of salt water and fresh water creates a favorable environment for breeding and development of shrimp. The change of sea level interferes in the natural habitat of shrimp. It may help the shrimp farmer to cultivate at the inner side of coastal areas through salinization but flooded existing shrimp pond. There are more than 60 shrimp hatcheries and 120 shrimp processing plant located at Cox’s Bazar district. People who depend on this form may need to migrate to another