Bangladesh’s pursuit of sustained economic growth relies on stronger trade, competitive exports, resilient infrastructure, and productive employment. Nevertheless, one of the country’s most valuable contributors to these objectives rarely features in economic policy discussions: the mangrove ecosystems of the Sundarbans.
As the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest and a Unesco World Heritage Site, the Sundarbans is an ecological treasure and a strategic economic asset. Its resilience, however, is increasingly being put under pressure. A recent study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment found that 10-15 percent of the Sundarbans (roughly 610 to 990 square kilometres) has been losing the ability to recover from climate stress over 25 years, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem services on which Bangladesh’s coastal economy depends. The forest protects coastal infrastructure and commercial activity from cyclones and storm surges, sustains fisheries that support food security and export earnings, generates an estimated $53 million annually through tourism, and underpins the livelihoods of millions of people living along the coast, with mangrove resources accounting for nearly 75 percent of the annual income of many low-income households. Recognising mangroves as productive natural capital rather than merely a conservation resource is therefore essential to Bangladesh’s long-term economic resilience, competitiveness, and sustainable growth.
While income from fisheries, honey, timber, and tourism is readily visible, the far greater contribution of mangroves lies in the economic losses they prevent. By reducing storm surges, limiting coastal erosion, and buffering cyclones, the Sundarbans protects ports, embankments, transport corridors, agricultural land, and the coastal enterprises which underpin Bangladesh’s economy. Evidence indicates that healthy mangrove belts can reduce storm damage by 50 percent, lowering disaster-related losses, easing pressure on public finances, improving business continuity, and strengthening investor confidence. Just like roads, ports, and power plants, healthy mangrove ecosystems function as critical economic infrastructure. Nonetheless, much of their value remains invisible in GDP and national accounts, causing development decisions to underestimate the true cost of ecosystem degradation while overstating the benefits of alternative land uses. Better economic decisions therefore require accounting systems that recognise the value of natural capital alongside conventional measures of growth.
Recognising this gap, many countries have begun incorporating natural capital into development planning through the United Nations’ System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). These complementary accounts measure the economic contribution of forests, wetlands, and mangroves, thus enabling governments to make better-informed decisions on infrastructure, land use, and public investment. Accordingly, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) is developing the country’s first Natural Resource Accounts (NRA), marking an important step towards linking environmental assets with economic decision-making. By systematically measuring the economic value of natural assets such as the Sundarbans and linking them to economic activity, these accounts can provide a stronger evidence base for climate-resilient fiscal planning and sustainable land-use decisions. As this work expands, ecosystem services and the costs of environmental degradation can be more fully reflected in economic policymaking, supporting more resilient, productive, and sustainable long-term growth.
Mangroves also represent one of Bangladesh’s most promising opportunities within the emerging blue-carbon economy. Unlike most terrestrial forests, mangroves store exceptionally large amounts of carbon, creating opportunities to generate verified blue carbon credits that can be traded in international carbon markets. Revenue from these markets could finance ecosystem restoration, strengthen coastal resilience, support local livelihoods, and attract private investment through public-private partnerships. This opportunity is increasingly being recognised in Bangladesh’s international engagement as well. At the recent ninth session of the Committee on Environment and Development (CED9), under the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific’s (ESCAP), in Bangkok, Bangladesh highlighted the potential of ecosystem valuation, carbon accounting, and blue carbon finance to mobilise investment in nature-based solutions (NbS).
Translating this policy interest into investable projects, however, will require credible systems for carbon measurement and verification, transparent governance, clear carbon rights, and equitable benefit-sharing so that coastal communities share fairly in the resulting economic gains.
Currently, Bangladesh is not only underinvesting in these ecosystems but also actively losing valuable natural capital due to weak governance and unplanned coastal development. The recent destruction in Sonadia’s mangrove forests, together with the continued degradation of mangroves in Moheshkhali, illustrates the high economic cost of treating mangroves as expendable land rather than productive assets. Expansion of shrimp farms, salt cultivation, land encroachment, and unplanned development have cleared thousands of acres of mangroves, weakening the coastline’s natural defense against cyclones and erosion, reducing ecotourism potential, and undermining coastal livelihoods. Ecological degradation is also increasing salinity across the delta, reducing agricultural productivity, worsening freshwater scarcity, and increasing the unpaid burden of water collection, particularly for women, thereby weakening labour productivity in coastal economies. Once mangroves are converted to serve short-term commercial gains, Bangladesh forfeits long-term economic benefits, including disaster-risk reduction, fisheries productivity, tourism income, biodiversity, and future blue carbon revenue, all while assuming substantially higher adaptation and reconstruction costs.
As Bangladesh advances towards upper-middle-income status, the quality of its growth will depend not only on expanding physical infrastructure but also on safeguarding essential natural assets that sustain economic activity. Recognising mangroves as strategic economic infrastructure and integrating their value into national development planning, infrastructure appraisal, and public investment through natural capital accounting should therefore become a national priority. At the same time, Bangladesh should accelerate the development of a credible blue carbon market supported by transparent governance and equitable benefit-sharing, while prioritising mangrove restoration alongside embankments, ports, and transport infrastructure and mobilising private investment through green finance.
The Sundarbans already generates substantial economic returns through fisheries, tourism, livelihoods, coastal protection, and emerging blue carbon opportunities. Treating it as productive natural capital rather than simply a protected forest would enhance productivity, safeguard trade and infrastructure, attract climate finance, and lay the foundations for a more competitive, resilient, and sustainable economy.
Dr Iftekhar Ul Karim is assistant professor at BRAC Business School, BRAC University. He can be reached at [email protected]. Views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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