Assessing Institutional Responses to Climate Change Impacts in the North-Eastern Floodplains of Bangladesh

Rahman, H. M. Tuihedur; Hickey, Gordon M.

doi:10.1007/s00267-019-01155-w

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 95 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Most of the climate stresses were intensified by the changing biophysical properties of the floodplain like the declining water discharge capacity of watersheds, increasing sediment loads and gradual decline of small canals and beels. However, going beyond the general considerations and assumptions of the climate models, community members also considered crop variety, seasonality, harvesting season and crop rotations when describing their livelihood exposure [162,164,165].…”

Section: Step 2: Assessing Livelihood Exposure To Climate Impacts In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability

Rahman

Hickey

2020

Sustainability

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Reviewing both conceptual and empirical studies on climate vulnerability and adaptation assessment, this paper offers an analytical framework to help better understand how context-specific adaptation strategies could be developed. The framework systematically assembles the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and the Vulnerability Assessment frameworks to develop its structural and analytical components. The resulting five-step approach involves: (i) identification of context along with understanding what aspect of vulnerability need to be studied; (ii) assessment of livelihood exposure to climate impacts involving both community perspectives and meteorological data-based climate forecasts; (iii) characterization of available capital asset usages to help buffer climate sensitivity; (iv) analysis of formal and informal institutional impetus to enhance adaptive capacity; and (v) evaluation of gaps between context-specific vulnerability and institutional and policy responses to avoid maladaptive trajectories. Drawing on published research and policy documentation, we apply the framework to the livelihood systems operating in the northeastern floodplain community of Bangladesh to demonstrate the utility of the approach and then discuss its potential to inform adaptation strategies.

show abstract

Section: Step 2: Assessing Livelihood Exposure To Climate Impacts In ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability

Rahman

Hickey

2020

Sustainability

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To compare planned and autonomous adaptation processes and to specifically note the potential for learning from autonomous adaptation, we organize the following discussion according to the policy themes of institutional development, resource availability and use, and the use of technologies for adaptation actions (Table 1). Like many other countries, the institutional process of national policy making in Bangladesh tend to be centralized and hierarchical, and therefore prone to problems with generalization and limited information that inspires more linear and outcome-based interpretations of vulnerability (Paul, 1997;Choudhury et al, 2004;Rahman and Hickey, 2019). However, public participation is one of the technical mandates of the COP-guided adaptation planning process, a process that the Bangladesh government strictly followed when developing the NAPA.…”

Section: Learning From Autonomous Adaptation To Inform Planned Adapatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, community participation in national adaptation planning processes have generally aimed to help define climate vulnerability, rather than focusing on how the affected communities were autonomously adapting to vulnerability . As a consequence, most of the adaptation projects implemented under national plans are heavily dependent on external inputs and technologies (Rahman and Hickey, 2019). Bezuneh et al (1995), Mog (2006), and Fazey et al (2010) noted that external input-dependent adaptation actions generally require heavy government subsidies and can reduce local innovation capacity, eroding the potential for sustainable adaptation.…”

Section: Learning From Autonomous Adaptation To Inform Planned Adapatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Community members acknowledge this change, and are shifting their land use practices accordingly by, for example, cultivating short-rotation crops and diversifying crop varieties on suitable land (Anik and Khan, 2012;Rahman et al, 2018c). However, the government plans are not aiming to support such local interventions, rather emphasizing the potential for external input-based innovation (e.g., adoption of potato cultivation) (Rahman and Hickey, 2019). Therefore, the planned adaptation strategies may actually undermine local adaptation potential if more local autonomous adaptations go unnoticed (Fazey et al, 2010).…”

Section: Criteriamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

What Does Autonomous Adaptation to Climate Change Have to Teach Public Policy and Planning About Avoiding the Risks of Maladaptation in Bangladesh?

Rahman

Hickey

2019

Front. Environ. Sci.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate vulnerability represents a highly complex public policy challenge for government due to its interaction with diverse social, political, economic, and ecological factors across scale. The policy challenge is further exacerbated when rural livelihood opportunities depend on multiple land use practices within shared social-ecological systems and adaptation actions related to one practice affects the others. In such cases, it becomes likely that national and regional-level adaptation plans will result in maladaptive trajectories if local context and properties are not carefully considered. This review highlights the importance of this issue to public policy using the case of climate change adaptation planning in Bangladesh to highlight how national and regional-level planned adaptation processes could benefit from paying closer attention to the autonomous adaptation processes occurring at local levels. Focussing on the northeastern floodplain region, an area dominated by wetland ecosystems, high climate vulnerability, and diverse and complex land use practices, we examine some of the community-level adaptation actions that are being undertaken in response to climate change and contrast these with national-level adaptation planning strategies and actions. We then analyze how the planned adaptation actions taken by government may actually end up being maladaptive, either by shifting or rebounding vulnerability. We conclude that government adaptation planning would benefit from a greater focus on learning and scrutinizing the autonomous adaptation of communities to climate stress before making significant resource allocation decisions.

show abstract

“…Rather, NbCA calls for institutional innovation and change to incorporate advanced knowledge on environmental problems like SLR and novel solutions into decision, implementation and monitoring actions [41]. Institutions in conventional bureaucratic systems have hierarchically distributed power and authority structures [42,43] that can constrain the flow of new knowledge and thus limit the capacity of institutional actors to develop appropriate adaptation strategies [44]. For example, while local government officials in Bangladesh observe that hard flood protection infrastructures are counter-productive to long-term climate adaptation and wildlife habitat conservation, they cannot influence the government's decision of building embankments in the wetlands of the country's north-eastern floodplain because of their limited power and access to decision-making processes [45].…”

Section: Institutional Innovation For Nbcamentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional Innovation for Nature-Based Coastal Adaptation: Lessons from Salt Marsh Restoration in Nova Scotia, Canada

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sea-levels have been rising at a faster rate than expected. Because of the maladaptive outcomes of engineering-based hard coastal protection infrastructure, policy makers are looking for alternative adaptation approaches to buffer against coastal flooding—commonly known as nature-based coastal adaptation (NbCA). However, how to implement NbCA under an institutional structure demonstrating ‘inertia’ to alternative adaptation approaches is a question that seeks scientific attention. Building on a case study derived from a highly climate-vulnerable Canadian province, this study shows how the entrepreneurial use of scientific information and institutional opportunities helped institutional actors overcome the inertia. Drawing on secondary document analysis and primary qualitative data, this study offers five key lessons to institutional actors aiming at implementing NbCA: (i) develop knowledge networks to help avoid uncertainty; (ii) identify and utilize opportunities within existing institutions; (iii) distribute roles and responsibilities among actors based on their capacity to mobilize required resources; (iv) provide entrepreneurial actors with decision-making autonomy for developing agreed-upon rules and norms; and (v) facilitate repeated interactions among institutional actors to develop a collaborative network among them. This study, therefore, helps us to understand how to implement a relatively new adaptation option by building trust-based networks among diverse and relevant institutional actors.

show abstract

Assessing Institutional Responses to Climate Change Impacts in the North-Eastern Floodplains of Bangladesh

Cited by 15 publications

References 95 publications

An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability

An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability

What Does Autonomous Adaptation to Climate Change Have to Teach Public Policy and Planning About Avoiding the Risks of Maladaptation in Bangladesh?

Institutional Innovation for Nature-Based Coastal Adaptation: Lessons from Salt Marsh Restoration in Nova Scotia, Canada

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About