CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY AND RESPONSES OF FISHERFOLK COMMUNITIES IN THE SOUTH-EASTERN COAST OF BANGLADESH

Prabal Barua,Syed Hafizur Rahman,Ismail M.M Rahman,Suman Barua

doi:10.26480/wcm.01.2020.20.31

Prabal Barua, Syed Hafizur Rahman + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.26480/wcm.01.2020.20.31

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Abstract

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.

Highlights

Worldwide, nearly half a billion people derive their income from fisheries and fisheries products provide about 15% of the animal protein and support the livelihoods of 10-12% of the world’s population
During the household survey with fishermen communities regarding the vulnerability of climate change in their profession, they responded that they observed changes in the climate and in extreme events over time (Table 4)
Some fishermen added that their main concern was deficient egg production, and wondered whether or not that was due to climate change

Summary

Introduction

Nearly half a billion people derive their income from fisheries and fisheries products provide about 15% of the animal protein and support the livelihoods of 10-12% of the world’s population. Most people who depend on fisheries live in developing countries where incomes are low, food resources limited, and residents have few opportunities to substitute occupations and diets. In both cases large-scale environmental change can pose a serious threat to the lives and livelihoods of people who depend on marine resources (Islam et al, 2014). The majority of the world’s 200 million full and part-time fisherfolk (fishers, fish processors, traders and ancillary workers) and their dependents live in areas vulnerable to human-induced climate change, or depend for a major part of their livelihood on resources whose distribution and productivity are known to be influenced by climate variation.

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