SOCIAL VULNERABILITY OF COASTAL COMMUNITY DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF COASTAL REGION OF SINDH

Tahir Iqbal,Ameer Ali Abro

doi:10.52567/pjsr.v3i3.231

Abstract

Climate change is neither an overnight phenomenon nor does it spans on days and months. It is a gradual process that takes years to makes coastal communities socially vulnerable. Social vulnerability is the susceptibility of individuals to the natural disasters. It has been witnessed that global coastal communities have social vulnerability due to climate change. Similarly, the coastal community of Sindh is also linked to social vulnerability due to climate change. The current study intends to explore the social vulnerability of fishermen of coastal communities due to climate change. The qualitative research is widely accepted to find out the social vulnerability. The research population of this study is fishermen living in the Thatta, Sujawal, and Badin districts of Sindh province, Pakistan, selected through the purposive sampling. In each district, 10 IDIs ((In-depth Interview) and 3 FGDs (Focus Group Discussion) were conducted with fishermen after building rapport among them. The sample size included 30 IDIs and 9 FGDs in the study. The study revealed that climate change (cyclone, flood, etc.) and decrease in freshwater lakes have a tremendous effect in lowering fishermen socioeconomic status; reducing their livelihood resources, low income, and poor health of fishermen. Moreover, the increases in expenditure to sail for fishing, and the exploitation by middlemen have also been noticed by this study. Keywords: Social Vulnerability, Climate Change, Fishermen, Coastal Region, Sindh

Highlights

The twenty-first century has witnessed climate change as a major challenge to life, wellbeing, livelihood and health of human beings (Adger, 2006)
The findings of the current study are limited to the climate change effect on fishermen's social vulnerability
The study has found that fishermen of the coastal region of Sindh demonstrate social vulnerability

Summary

Introduction

The twenty-first century has witnessed climate change as a major challenge to life, wellbeing, livelihood and health of human beings (Adger, 2006). Efforts have been made to recognize that climate change is a reality (Fussel, 2007), and it cast bad impacts on the economic and Social Vulnerability of Coastal Community Due to Climate Change social life of coastal communities mainly, and others generally (Felsenstein & Lichter, 2014) It has disturbed the ecosystem, and the lives of the global community are at risk (Pakistan, 2016). There are evidences of the US denial about severe impact of climate change around the globe (Collomb, 2014) Keeping this in view, environmental sociologists are trying for the mitigation of climate change and are making efforts to minimize the impact of climate change on the society. RESEARCH OBJECTIVE To explore the social vulnerability of the coastal community of Sindh due to climate change

Methods

Results

Conclusion