Click here to watch our Rita of the Sundarbans film.

In coastal Bangladesh, communities living beside the Sundarbans depend on healthy mangrove forests for food, protection, and their way of life.

The Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) works alongside local people to restore mangroves, protect biodiversity, and strengthen climate resilience in some of the most vulnerable coastal areas of the country. Mangrove Action Project (MAP) partnered with BEDS to support community-based mangrove restoration and sustainable livelihoods in the Sundarbans region.

MAP first visited in November 2023, working alongside BEDS and community members on small-scale mangrove restoration and knowledge sharing. When MAP returned in February 2025, they came back to listen; to learn from the community and understand the long-term impact of this work.

This film tells Rita’s story; a fisher, mother, and now a community leader whose life is deeply connected to the river and the mangroves that protect it. Through training and hands-on restoration led by BEDS, and supported by MAP, Rita and her community have planted mangroves, restored degraded riverbanks, strengthened local livelihoods, and built hope for a more secure future.

The film is a collaboration between Mangrove Action Project (MAP), Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS), and the community of Laudove, Dacope.