Community based risk assessment and adaptation to climate change in the coastal wetlands of Bangladesh

Abstract

In recent decades, community based adaptation to climate change has gained enormous attention from scientists, policy makers and development professionals. This paper presents community based risk assessment for identification of risk and local adaptation practices as a response to climate change. The south-western coastal region of Bangladesh was selected as the study area and historical change-chronology study was conducted using statistical analyses and studying community perception. The community’s experience suggests risks are shifting both in magnitude and direction with the increasing frequencies of hydro-meteorological events and their irregularities are threatening adaptation capacities as they are affecting the sensitivity and production of the ecosystem of the region. Communities are increasingly depending on non-agricultural activities while the required time to be spent earning livelihoods is increasing. People are migrating from their traditional occupations towards non-agricultural ccupations. In such cases, local adaptation practices are almost absent in the region except for the application of more incentives to compensate production losses. Concerned authorities need to understand the nature of community adaptation and perceptions of climate change in coastal Bangladesh if the country wants to stride forward to negotiate climate change.

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