Open AccessCLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND RESPONSES OF FISHERFOLK COMMUNITIES IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN COAST OF BANGLADESH
Author(s) -
Prabal Barua,
Syed Hafizur Rahman,
Suman Barua,
Ismail M.M. Rahman
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
water conservation and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2523-5672
pISSN - 2523-5664
DOI - 10.26480/wcm.01.2020.20.31
Subject(s) - livelihood , adaptive capacity , vulnerability (computing) , fishing , climate change , context (archaeology) , psychological resilience , geography , vulnerability assessment , environmental resource management , natural capital , government (linguistics) , natural hazard , business , capital asset , environmental planning , natural resource economics , fishery , agriculture , ecosystem services , ecology , economics , ecosystem , finance , philosophy , computer security , psychotherapist , linguistics , archaeology , computer science , biology , psychology , meteorology
Climate change is an ongoing threat across the earth–especially those who depend on fishing. This study aims to understand how fishery-dependent communities in the South-Eastern coast of Bangladesh build resilience against environmental stresses, and in what ways their strategies sometimes fail. A composite index approach has been used to calculate livelihood vulnerability. Results reveal that exposure to floods and cyclones, sensitivity and lack of adaptive capacity concerning physical, natural, and financial capital and diverse livelihood strategies construe livelihood vulnerability in different ways depending on the context. The study reveals that over the last ten years, 20% household heads have changed their fishing profession, where dependency to non-fisheries livelihoods such as rickshaw pooling and small business is growing in the studied fishing villages. However, many of them are applying their traditional knowledge to cope with the changing climate stress and in conserving the biodiversity of the coast. In order to strengthen adaptive capacity and to build resilience, government and the external agencies need to facilitate the existing traditional knowledge and systems with which the fishermen communities have been historically responding to the environmental stresses.