The Central Meghna Delta is a vast estuarine wetland system covering more than 590,000 hectares along the outer delta of the Meghna River in southern Bangladesh. The site comprises extensive intertidal mudflats, marshes, mangrove forests, estuarine waters, shallow marine areas, and sand islands locally known as chars, making it one of the largest and most dynamic coastal wetland landscapes in the country. These wetlands support large congregations of migratory waterbirds and regularly exceed international importance thresholds for several species, including the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper and the Endangered Spotted Greenshank. Two protected areas, Char Kukri Mukri Wildlife Sanctuary and Sonarchar Wildlife Sanctuary, form key biodiversity strongholds within the wider delta.

 

The Central Meghna Delta provides essential ecosystem services at local, national, and regional scales, including climate regulation, flood and storm hazard regulation, erosion control, and fisheries that underpin livelihoods across a densely populated and climate-vulnerable region. Hundreds of thousands of people depend directly or indirectly on fishing, agriculture, and natural resources from the delta. However, the site faces mounting pressure from unsustainable agriculture, land clearance, sedimentation, declining fisheries, and climate change impacts, including sea level rise and extreme weather events. Strengthening sustainable fisheries, restoring degraded wetlands, improving livelihood resilience, and enhancing site-level and landscape-scale management offer critical opportunities to safeguard biodiversity while supporting long-term human wellbeing across this nationally and globally significant delta system.