Our new publication on impacts and adaptation in coastal Bangladesh is now out

A new paper in collaboration with the DECCMA project on Deltas and livelihoods in the face of climate change is now out in Science of the Total Environment. Elena Ojea has collaborated with Mostafa Hossain from Bangladesh Agricultural University, Jose A. Fernandes from Azti (Basque Country), and Munir Ahmed (TARA, Bangladesh) in this new study that is now available online. Our contribution has been to understand the different adaptation strategies that livelihoods have been adopting in the face of environmental change affecting coastal livelihoods.

The study uses a series of focus group discussions to evaluate the impacts of extreme events in  biodiversity and livelihoods, in small communities in the Atulia region, South-West Bangladesh. These communities have several coastal related livelihoods including fishing from river and mangroves, and a system of ponds and ghers where they grow shrimp, crabs and other fish species for food and feed. As a result, we find that biodiversity greatly decreased in the most natural systems, rivers and ponds, while the productivity of crab points is increasing after the extreme events. Adaptation responses are not necessarily improving long term sustainability of the livelihoods and the system. People have diversified livelihoods and even migrated to other areas of the country, abandoning the social-ecological system.  We conclude by highlighting the need for biodiversity conservation, and to address gender and poverty gaps identified in the region to allow for the sustainability of the systems.