**6. Challenges in dealing with such an emerging threat in Bangladesh**

Degradation of the marine and coastal environment can result from various sources. A precautionary and anticipatory rather than reactive approach is necessary to prevent the further degradation of Bangladesh's coastal and marine environments. These require the integration of social and economic components along with environmental components. Environmental concerns, experimental programs, sustainable livelihood, economic considerations, poverty reduction, coastal development, and other stakeholders' involvement are the key objectives of the national management strategy for LMP control in Bangladesh [10].

Innovative strategies and practices compatible with environmental sustainability are required to protect Bangladesh's overall coastal and marine environment from land-based activities. Developing and implementing conservation practices aiming at harmonizing the efforts from different sectors with environmental conservation as the ultimate goal targeted. Strengthening and upscaling the ongoing conservation program activities and strategies are necessary. Moreover, efforts should have been made to protect the marine ecosystems of Bangladesh from further degradation by proposing and improving the application of legal instruments to protect the marine environment and strengthen existing control systems. Large-scale shrimp farming and disposal contribute to high coastal and marine pollution. Organic shrimp farming should practice and develop a sustainable model like the mangroves—aquaculture. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) formulated its 1995 GPA to protect land-based activities' coastal and marine environment. In 2003, a meeting was held in Sri Lanka on GPA for South Asia Region. Several projects like coastal mangrove ecosystem, adverse impact on the marine environment and human health, shipbreaking activities, Coastal fisheries management, solid waste management, environmental flow requirement, assessment, etc., are funded by UNEP/GPA at an experimental scale.

Marine and coastal protection strategies would necessitate interventions to improve people's capacity for sustainable livelihood. To conserve and preserve natural resources, including agriculture and fisheries, management activities would include education, training, and awareness of the local people to sustainable production concepts. To improve coastal water quality, the Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper (PRSP) set the strategic goals by installing (Effluent Treatment Plant) ETP in all industries, including shipbreaking. To ensure the proper utilization of resources and comprehensive development of the coastal and marine areas, the Bangladesh government approved the 2005 'Coastal Zone Policy'. The policy focused on the economic development of the coastal area, including livelihood improvement, mitigation, coastal resources management, land utilization planning, Protection of salinity intrusion, etc.

The MoEFCC of Bangladesh has developed relevant environmental laws like Environment Policy 1992, Environment Conservation Act 1995, Environment Conservation Rules 1997, and Environment Court Act 2000. It has also set up offices at the divisional level to implement environmental rules and regulations. It appears that the existing institutional capacity and allocated resources are inadequate compared to the scale and magnitude of the prevailing environmental problem. Addressing environmental problems related to land-based activities in Bangladesh is new and institutional collaboration and integration with other sectoral programs are limited.

Globally, LMP control has specific problems due to geographical location, ecological factors, social structure, economic activity, and scientific evidence [59]. Besides the lack of scientific and technical data, industrial production restrictions on sovereignty are also fundamental obstacles to controlling LMP [41]. Besides the concept of marine pollution and its impacts, lack of legislation, separate marine environmental protection department, political wellness, an unstable political situation, lack of coordination of the government officials, institutional incapacity, etc., make the challenges to control LMP in Bangladesh. This section also discusses the scientific, economic, and transboundary problems and issues to control the LMP in Bangladesh. Data collection, source identification, and damage determination from land-based sources are the main elements of scientific problems. Industrial production versus marine environmental pollution issues are elements of economic problems. Types of contaminants, regional consensus, and social priorities are the main factors for transboundary problems.
