The importance of Bangladesh's inland fisheries resources for the livelihoods and food security of the poor and landless is widely acknowledged. The management of these resources, based upon a combination of short-term leased access to water bodies or supported by a combination of conventional management interventions, has, however, often excluded the poorest fishers and encouraged leaseholders to effectively 'mine' resources at non-sustainable levels of exploitation. To address these concerns, the Department of Fisheries of the Government of Bangladesh and the WorldFish Center, with funding from the Ford Foundation (1994-1999) and the UK's DFID (2001-2006), have been working in partnership with 11 NGOs and fisher communities, to test a range of community-based approaches to fisheries management at pilot sites throughout Bangladesh covering 23,000 direct beneficiaries. The aim of the Project is to promote the sustainable use of, and equitable distribution of, benefits from inland fisheries resources by empowering communities to manage their own resources.