Abstract
This study empirically assesses the impacts of climatic events on the inland fishers (i.e., migratory and non-migratory) in Bangladesh and explores their responses to those events. Here, the migratory refers to the fishers who change their fishing location seasonally and voluntarily, whereas the non-migratory fishers fish in the same area. It is assumed that there exist differences in both the impacts of an event and the responses to the event between migratory and non-migratory fishers and therefore, a ‘difference triangle’ conceptual framework is developed and tested empirically under this research. Employing mix-method (qualitative and quantitative), a field study was conducted during July–October 2015 from the Padma River depended fishers. Identified climatic events under this study are: storms, changes in rainfall and temperature and riverbank erosion. The migratory and non-migratory fishers were affected quite similarly by storms and changes in rainfall and temperature. However, riverbank erosion affected only non-migratory fishers. Both the migratory and non-migratory fishers adopted different strategies to cope with different climatic events, like, they took shelter in safe places, sold productive assets, reduced food consumption, took credit from informal sources and employed their school-going children. As adaptation strategies, they modernized their fishing boats, intensified fishing, built embankments and diversified livelihoods. Unlike the impacts, considerable differences were found in their coping and adaptation strategies. Comparing to non-migratory fishers, a smaller number of migratory fishers sold their assets, took informal credit and intensified fishing and diversified their livelihoods. The result of this study indicates the significance of differences in the impacts of climatic events for the migratory and non-migratory fishers and therefore, this research has policy implication for the betterment of fishers’ community in general.
Highlights
In quest of better livelihood, human mobility is primitive but nowadays a lot of new challenges induced by environmental degradations lay emphasis on migration
Scientific evidences claim that the magnitude/frequency of environmental hazards and disasters has been increasing as a result of climate change (IPCC 2014) and people are facing new challenges in their livelihoods (Black et al 2011; Mallick and Vogt 2012)
The results provide detailed information on the differences in the impact and responses caused by the climatic hazards in the selected fishers communities
Summary
In quest of better livelihood, human mobility is primitive but nowadays a lot of new challenges induced by environmental degradations lay emphasis on migration. Scientific evidences claim that the magnitude/frequency of environmental hazards and disasters has been increasing as a result of climate change (IPCC 2014) and people are facing new challenges in their livelihoods (e.g., changes in local social structure, income, assets distribution, etc.) (Black et al 2011; Mallick and Vogt 2012). These new challenges differ greatly in the ways they perceive and adapt with the risks (Sjöberg 2000; Grothmann and Patt 2005; Patt and Schröter 2008). The number of fishing grounds and amount of fishing yields are declining and the frequency of fishing at distant places by the fishermen in general has been increasing (Allison et al 2009; Badjeck et al 2010)
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