Recent changes in ecosystem services and human well-being in the Bangladesh coastal zone

Abstract

This study takes an historical approach in order to establish how the form and function of the social-ecological system that represents the Bangladesh south-western coastal zone has changed over recent decades. Time series data for a range of ecosystem services and drivers are analysed to define the range of trends, the presence of change points, slow and fast variables and the significant drivers of change. Since the 1980s, increasing gross domestic product and per capita income mirror rising levels of food and inland fish production. As a result, the size of population below the poverty line has reduced by *17 %. In contrast, non-food ecosystem services such as water availability, water quality and land stability have deteriorated. Conversion of rice fields to shrimp farms is almost certainly a factor in increasing soil and surface water salinity. Most of the services experienced statistically significant change points between 1975 and 1980, and among the services, water availability, shrimp farming and maintenance of biodiversity appear to have passed tipping points. An environmental Kuznets curve analysis suggests that the point at which growing economic wealth feeds back into effective environmental protection has not yet been reached for water resources. Trends in indicators of ecosystem services and human well-being point to widespread non-stationary dynamics governed by slowly changing variables with an increased likelihood of systemic threshold changes/tipping points in the near future. The results will feed into simulation models and strategies that can define alternative and sustainable paths for land management.

Differential livelihood adaptation to social-ecological change in coastal Bangladesh

“…Although shrimp cultivation is often touted as an effective adaptation to salinisation and climate change, it has no significant relationship with poverty reduction at local level, as most of the profits are reaped by a few, often absentee, farmers (Johnson et al 2016). On the contrary, continuation of brackish water shrimp farming, and associated mangrove clearance, river siltation and land subsidence within polders, are likely to push the salinity front further inwards, and exacerbate ecosystem regulating services, such as water quality maintenance and hazard protection (Abdullah et al 2016;Faruque et al 2016;Hossain et al 2016). Thus, to ensure resilient livelihoods and equitable distribution of well-being, processes of incremental or transformational adaptation should account for the needs of different stakeholders.…”

Resilience, political ecology, and well-being: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding social-ecological change in coastal Bangladesh

“…Factors and processes that do not fit within the boxes and arrows of the system model are sometimes ignored. For instance, in studying the interrelationships between ecosystem services and well-being in coastal Bangladesh, Hossain et al (2016Hossain et al ( , 2017 used indicators such as percentage of population below the poverty line, gross domestic product, and production https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol22/iss2/art45/ cost as measures of material well-being; education as a proxy for freedom of choice; and water and sanitation facilities, housing conditions, and birth by a skilled health trainer as measures of quality of life. Analysis of aggregate indicators at a regional level reflected strong positive relationships between provisioning services and material well-being, and weak relationships with regulating services.…”

Widespread infilling of tidal channels and navigable waterways in the human-modified tidal deltaplain of southwest Bangladesh

“…Further research into the changes documented here and general sediment transport and hydrodynamic processes within this region of the delta are needed for developing viable land management strategies and restoring tidal waterways and their critical ecosystem services of water and sediment delivery, floodwater drainage, fisheries, and transportation (Mallick and Vogt, 2012;Hossain et al, 2016;Alam et al, 2017).…”