Environment Management Plan for Sonadia Island
Client: Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB)
Partner: CEGIS
Sonadia Island is a crescent shaped small island of Cox’s Bazar and considered as stronghold for a huge range of threatened wildlife and migratory birds. The sandy beaches and sand dunes of Sonadia Island are preferable nesting sites for sea turtles namely Olive Ridley and Green Turtle that travel thousands of kilometers to come to nest here. Majority of the inhabitants here depend on fishing and agriculture for their livelihood and so illegal harvesting of turtle eggs, bycatch in offshore fisheries, alterations of sand dunes and nesting beaches are some main threats to turtles in Sonadia island. Though Red list of Bangladesh (IUCN 2015) stated this species as Vulnerable, currently this species become endangered with numerous threats. In this island, we focused on breeding of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles mostly found in the hottest waters around the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
