Shahima Islam is a senior lecturer at the School of Environmental Science and Management, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). She has completed her Master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, USA and bachelor’s degree from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. She published 4 publications on reputed peer-reviewed journals. \r\n\r\nTanvir Ahmed Haroon is a lecturer at the School of Environmental Science and Management, Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). He completed his Master’s degree from the Independent University, Bangladesh, and bachelor’s degree from same university. \r\n

Coastal communities are blessed with abundance of natural resources, yet they remain poor especially in developing countries. The livelihoods of the inhabitants of these areas are mainly based on the coastal resources. They lack proper economic growth due to increased population, loss of employment and income from only tourism season, this problem often worsened due to natural hazards that left the community with nearly no definite alternative source of income. The present source of livelihood there is not sufficient and socio-economic assessments are required to ensure sustainable development and improvement. Also what to do to improve their living needs to be sought out. Coastal communities of Bangladesh like Cox’s Bazar and St. Martin’s Island known to have a significant number of commercially valuable seaweeds (can be used as a source of food, fodder, cosmetics and pharmaceutical products reported previously) naturally grown on coastal shores due to geographical and climatic disposition. The community here knows the value of seaweed, but lacks the understanding of how to harness it as an alternative source of income. Despite all the potentiality of seaweed culture there is no established seaweed farm in here. The current study recorded the potential of seaweed farming as an alternate income generation activity to improve the livelihood which depends on future research in this field. Thus, this untapped resource requires exploration as it can be a sustainable income generation activity along with the regular income activities to raise the socio-economic status of the community.