This thesis investigates the livelihoods of people living beside the vast Sundarbans&nbsp;mangrove forest in Bangladesh. The study examines how household assets,&nbsp;livelihood strategies and outcomes vary among households and the roles played in&nbsp;those livelihoods of the mangrove resources and shrimp farming. It also examines the&nbsp;vulnerabilities of these livelihoods, particularly to the cyclones that periodically&nbsp;affect the region. Policy responses addressing these issues are also evaluated. The&nbsp;research is informed by the sustainable livelihood framework and is based on&nbsp;household surveys, key informant interviews, focus group discussions and policy&nbsp;analysis. The research found that lower income households depend heavily on forest&nbsp;resources which help alleviate poverty and reduce income inequality. Constraints on&nbsp;access, resource variability and attacks by pirates and wildlife were the principal&nbsp;vulnerabilities of the mangrove dependent households. In contrast, commercial&nbsp;shrimp aquaculture had widened inequality. While shrimp aquaculture was important&nbsp;to higher income households, particularly land-owning households, it has led to loss&nbsp;of agriculture, livestock and access to land of lower income households. After a&nbsp;cyclone, however, higher income shrimp-farming households were more vulnerable&nbsp;than the poorer mangrove resource collectors. The cyclone destroyed assets,&nbsp;displaced people and prevented delivery of services. It was concluded that polices&nbsp;related to forest, shrimp aquaculture and disaster are inadequate, inconsistent and&nbsp;irrelevant and institutions charged with resource management performed poorly with&nbsp;respect to livelihoods and conservation of resources. The study recommends that&nbsp;policy approaches be adopted that ensure equitable growth by creating a balanced&nbsp;asset base within a livelihood framework with multiple interventions working&nbsp;simultaneously. This would facilitate favourable livelihood outcomes for the&nbsp;households surrounding the Sundarbans and would be valuable to the managers of&nbsp;coastal communities in relation to poverty alleviation and promotion of&nbsp;environmentally sustainable livelihoods, not only in Bangladesh but in other parts of&nbsp;the world