Ecosystem-Based Approaches to Adaptation Evidence from Two Sites in Bangladesh

Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

Hannah Reid and Sarder Shafiqul Alam

Working Paper Climate change Keywords: November 2014 ecosystem-based adaptation; adaptation; ecosystems; Bangladesh; community-based adaptation About the authors Partner organisations Dr Hannah Reid is a research associate with IIED’s Climate Action Research for Community Adaptation in Bangladesh Change Group and Natural Resources Group, currently based (ARCAB) is a long-term programme focused on Community in Johannesburg, South Africa. Based Adaptation to Climate Change. Sarder Shafiqul Alam is a researcher at the Bangladesh Centre The International Centre for Climate Change and Development for Advanced Studies. (ICCCAD) aims to be a global centre of excellence on climate change and development research based in Bangladesh. Corresponding author: Hannah Reid [email protected] The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Published by IIED, November 2014 organisations or institutions involved. Hannah Reid and Sarder Shafiqul Alam. 2014. Ecosystem- based Approaches to Adaptation: Evidence from two sites in Produced by IIED’s Climate Change Bangladesh. IIED Working Paper. IIED, London. Group http://pubs.iied.org/10115IIED The Climate Change Group works with partners to help ISBN 978-1-78431-119-3 secure fair and equitable solutions to climate change by combining appropriate support for adaptation by the poor in Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. low- and middle-income countries, with ambitious and practical mitigation targets. The work of the Climate Change Group focuses on achieving the following objectives: • Supporting public planning processes in delivering climate resilient development outcomes for the poorest. • Supporting climate change negotiators from poor and vulnerable countries for equitable, balanced and multilateral solutions to climate change. • Building capacity to act on the implications of changing ecology and economics for equitable and climate resilient development in the drylands.

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Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation (EbA) involve the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Those who are most vulnerable to climate change are often highly reliant on the natural environment for their lives and livelihoods, and ecosystems and the services they provide are already central to many adaptation strategies. This paper describes two components of effective EbA: ecosystem resilience and the maintenance of ecosystem services. Research assesses how effectively EbA supports community adaptive capacity and resilience at two Action Research for Community Adaptation in Bangladesh (ARCAB) sites. Findings suggest that more attention should be paid to EbA as an important response to climate change.

Contents

Summary 4 6 Methodology 19

1 Introduction 5 7 Results 20 Ecosystem Services Provision 20 2 Using ARCAB to learn more about EbA Ecosystem Resilience 27 Effectiveness 7 8 Discussion 31 3 Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Principles 10 Resilience from Diversity 31 Maintenance of ecosystem services 11 Shifts and Thresholds in Ecosystems 32 Ecosystem resilience 11 Reaching the Most Vulnerable 32 Trade-offs 33 4 Links between the Maintenance of Ecosystem Institutions, policies and governance 34 Services and Resilient Ecosystems, and Human Adaptive Capacity and Resilience 13 9 Conclusions 35

5 ARCAB Research Sites 15 References 37 Goalgram Village, Chanda Beel Wetland 15 Balukhali Village, Rangamati District, Chittagong Hill Tracts 17

www.iied.org 3 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh Summary

Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation (EbA) Beel. Such shifts have important consequences for involve the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services adaptive capacity and have led to a number of trade- to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate offs. For example, wetland ecosystem degradation change. Those who are most vulnerable to climate in Chanda Beel has provided opportunities (and change are often highly reliant on ecosystems and consequent increases in wealth and resilience) from ecosystem services for their lives and livelihoods, and agriculture, interestingly for women and the poor ecosystems and the services they provide are already too, who it is generally assumed suffer most from central to many successful adaptation strategies. This ecosystem degradation. Short-term adaptive benefits research looks at two components of effective EbA: from agriculture-related ecosystem services could, ecosystem resilience and the maintenance of ecosystem however, be replaced by longer-term costs following services. It assesses EbA effectiveness in terms of how the degradation of other services. For example, disaster it supports community adaptive capacity and resilience risks could increase, salinity levels and unsustainable at two Action Research for Community Adaptation agricultural practices could reduce longer-term soil in Bangladesh (ARCAB) study sites: Chanda Beel fertility and wetland resources, and social safety wetland, and Balukhali Village in the Chittagong Hill nets could decline. The lack of effective institutions, Tracts. Research findings suggest that more attention good governance and enabling policy at both sites should be paid to EbA as an important response to has limited potential gains in resilience from sound climate change. Results show that the many diverse ecosystem management. natural resources available and utilised at each site have increased the number of different subsistence and livelihood options available the community and hence local adaptive capacity, especially for poorer households. Major structural shifts in ecosystem functioning observed at each site can be attributed primarily to non-climate change related factors, although climate change related factors increasingly threaten to dramatically change ecosystems, especially in Chanda

4 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 1 Introduction

Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation (EbA) 56 per cent of priority NAPA projects reviewed had are defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity significant natural resource components. In Bangladesh, (CBD) 2nd Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on six out of 15 priority NAPA projects have a significant Biodiversity and Climate Change as “the use of natural resources component (Reid et al. 2009a). biodiversity and ecosystem services to help people Jeans et al. (2014) argue that although Community adapt to the adverse effects of climate change as part Based Adaptation (CBA) and EbA evolved separately of an overall adaptation strategy” (CBD, 2009, p.41). (largely from development and environment groups This definition was elaborated by the CBD decision respectively), and emphasise different adaptation X/33 on Climate Change and Biodiversity as including strategies, both have the end goal of increasing the “sustainable management, conservation and restoration ability of vulnerable people to adapt to climate change. of ecosystems, as part of an overall adaptation strategy Further to this, just as a strong understanding of that takes into account the multiple social, economic ecosystems and biodiversity can dramatically increase and cultural co-benefits for local communities” (CBD, CBA effectiveness, a poor understanding of EbA can 2010, p.3). lead to maladaptation (Reid and Schipper 2014). Many now acknowledge the importance of ecosystems Central to the concept of EbA is the importance of and ecosystem services as a key component of seeing beyond the role of ecosystems as providers of adaptation (IPCC 2014; Colls et al. 2009; Reid 2011; a set of static ‘natural resources’ and instead seeing 2014a; Girot et al. 2012; UNEP 2012; Munroe et al. them as providers of a number of interconnected 2011; 2012; Doswald et al. 2014). This is because many ecosystem services such as water provision, erosion of those who are most vulnerable to climate change protection, climate regulation, disaster risk reduction are also highly reliant on ecosystems and ecosystem and genetic diversity. Proponents of EbA argue that a services for their lives and livelihoods. Ecosystems and holistic approach to maintaining ecosystem structure the services they provide are already the foundation and functioning and ecosystem service provision can of many successful adaptation strategies, especially support adaptation. Recognising that ecosystems have for poor people, and many also deliver livelihood and limits, undergo change (due to climate change and climate change mitigation co-benefits. There is also other stressors) and are interconnected is central to some evidence that EbA can be cost effective (Rao this approach (Girot et al. 2012). Reid and Schipper et al. 2013). (2014) argue that CBA needs to take account of the A study of the National Adaptation Programmes of complexity of ecosystems and ecosystem services to Action (NAPAs) of the Least Developed Countries ensure initiatives are more successful. Equally, many (LDCs) shows that many LDCs recognize and prioritize EbA initiatives could account better for the social the role that biodiversity, ecosystems and natural complexities that good CBA addresses. habitats play in adaptation. The study found that some

www.iied.org 5 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

Action Research for Community Adaptation in Bangladesh (ARCAB) is a long-term action research programme that aims to address knowledge gaps and provide evidence for the effectiveness of Community Based Adaptation (CBA). ARCAB Action Partners include ActionAid, CARE, Caritas Bangladesh, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Oxfam GB, Islamic Relief Worldwide, Plan International, Practical Action and WaterAid, all of which work with poor communities in specific locations to address climate change. The ARCAB programme has a number of core action research themes, one of which is EbA. This paper describes research conducted under ARCAB that seeks to improve the evidence relating to EbA effectiveness from two ARCAB study sites.

6 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 2 Using ARCAB to learn more about EbA Effectiveness

The ARCAB programme has a well-developed theory of change (ARCAB 2012). This encompasses broader issues relating to the scaling up and out of CBA that are central to ARCAB as a whole and its goal of achieving ‘transformed resilience’ for the climate vulnerable poor at scale. The theory of change proposed here (Figure 1) for the EbA theme focuses more specifically on the roles that ecosystems and ecosystem service provision can play in increasing the capacity of the climate vulnerable poor to adapt to climate vulnerability and climate change in specific ARCAB sites rather than at scale. Although anecdotal evidence of the benefits of EbA is strong, there is little rigorous evidence relating to EbA available in the scientific literature (Reid 2011; Doswald et al. 2014), so this research seeks to assess evidence from specific ARCAB sites to test the hypothesis that resilient ecosystems and continued ecosystem service provision can contribute to community adaptive capacity and resilience. ARCAB uses a number of key climate change concepts, based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) definitions and other sources. See Box 1. Research described here is based on these definitions.

www.iied.org 7 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh climate climate change relevant access to to access poor have have poor vulnerable and locallyand meaningful information Target climate climate Target basic disasters to climate climate to cope with with cope poor have have poor vulnerable capacity to capacity to and respondand development development variability and and variability Target climate climate Target and needs poor are are poor vulnerability trends and EbA options generated options vulnerability EbA and trends vulnerable adaptation adaptation Local knowledge of climate change and climate climate and change climate of knowledge Local to articulate to empowered empowered development development Target climate climate Target change Increased capacity of poor adapt to climate to vulnerability climate and target climate vulnerable vulnerable climate target change variability to enable enable to to climate climate to access to to access poor have have poor vulnerable institutions institutions and climate climate and them to adapt adapt to them Target climate climate Target resources and DRR Action Action climate climate ARCAB Partners to manage manage to variability and and variability have capacity have Increased capacity of ARCAB Action Partners to supportto effective EbA Action Action change ARCAB capacity to capacity to use climate climate use knowledge in in knowledge EbA planningEbA Partners have and sustained ecosystem services to adaptation services to ecosystem sustained and

ew knowledge on the contributions of ecosystem resilience N climate climate change and skillsand have EbA have to manage manage to institutions institutions knowledge Relevant local are and poor vulnerable accessible accessible institutions institutions responsive to theto climate Relevant local on EbA generated support EbA usual Improved scientific information information scientific Improved function Local institutions have have Local institutions exist and and exist institutions institutions resources, mandate and and mandate resources, capacity to integrate and and integrate capacity to business asbusiness according to according to Relevant local Source: adapted from the ARCAB theory of change (ARCAB ARCAB change 2012) theory the Source: of from adapted Figure Theory 1: of Change for the ARCAB EbA theme

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Box 1: ARCAB Key Concepts and Terms Vulnerability: ARCAB uses the definition of Adaptive capacity: The Intergovernmental Pan- vulnerability developed by Wisner et al. (2004): el on Climate Change (IPCC) defines adaptive “The state that determines the ability of indi- capacity as “The ability of a system to adjust to viduals or social groups to respond to, recover climate change (including climate variability and from, or adapt to, the external stresses placed extremes) to moderate potential damages, to on their livelihoods and wellbeing by (climate) take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with hazards”. Vulnerability is therefore determined by the consequences”. ARCAB Action Partners the climate change hazard that defines exposure describe adaptive capacity in different ways, but to climate change impacts, and also the social, common components used by all Action Part- economic, cultural and political factors that de- ners include access to the necessary assets, termine resilience to climate change impacts. livelihoods and institutional systems that enable people to adapt to climate and other stresses. Climate vulnerable poor: the poorest and most marginalised groups who are vulnerable Resilience: ARCAB uses the definition pro- to the impacts of climate variability and climate posed by Dodman et al. (2009) that sees change. There are strong overlaps between the resilience as moving beyond coping strategies climate vulnerable poor, and poor and marginal- towards achieving longer-term development in ised groups. This is because poverty, including spite of, or in light of, climate change. Strength- a lack of access to assets, services and institu- ening resilience involves building the securities tions that enable people to cope with or adapt of the climate vulnerable poor to enable them to climate and other risks, is a key determinant of to respond positively to climate related shocks vulnerability. and stresses, and also address the myriad of challenges that constrain lives and livelihoods. Higher adaptive capacity leads to better climate resilience – this is true for individuals, households, enterprises and economies.

www.iied.org 9 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh 3 Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Principles

In order to assess the merits of EbA in the two selected These two components reflect the understanding that ARCAB study sites, it is necessary to better understand good EbA, and hence good CBA, is not just about the how to define, measure and track EbA. The Nature provision of static ‘natural resources’ or ecosystem Conservancy argues that effective EbA has two key services, but about the stability and resilience of components: the maintenance of ecosystem services ecosystems as a whole, how they connect with each and ecosystem resilience (Table 1). The Millennium other, and the multiple roles that they can play in Ecosystem Assessment (2005) also uses these increasing community adaptive capacity and resilience two components in its analysis of how changes to as a result. ecosystems and their services affect human well-being.

Table 1: Selected principles for effective ecosystem-based adaptation

Principles Requirements Details Maintenance of ecosystem • Valuation of ecosystem services Maintaining ecosystem services services • Determine climate change impact scenarios is key, and conservation practitioners must improve their • Identify options for managing ecosystems or understanding of how to design managing use and implement actions to do • Involve user communities in adaptation action this, and their ability to effectively • Trade-off analysis measure benefits provided. Promotion of resilient • Modelling of projected climate change EbA approaches cover a broad ecosystems • Revise systematic planning spectrum of land management, policy and project activities. • Revise protected area systems design Promoting ecosystem resilience • Involve local communities in restoration and for the benefit of communities is management the first and most obvious set of • Adjust management programmes and actions actions.

Source: adapted from Travers et al. (2012) and Thomas (2011)

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emphasis on positive attributes rather than the more Maintenance of ecosystem negative characteristics associated with vulnerability. Resilience means different things to those working in services disaster management, climate change and ecosystems. Ecosystems provide a number of provisioning, In ecology and the natural sciences, resilience was regulating, cultural and supporting services (see traditionally understood as a property that allows a Table 2). These can be seen as ‘natural assets’ in the system to recover its prior state after suffering a shock context of climate change adaptation. The ARCAB (Holling 1973). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment definitions described in Box 1 make it clear that access (2005) defines resilience as “The capacity of a system to such assets can reduce the vulnerability, increase to tolerate impacts of drivers without irreversible change the adaptive capacity, and enhance the resilience of in its outputs or structure.” A related concept, social the climate vulnerable poor. The more access these resilience, is defined as the capacity of individuals people have to a range of such assets, the greater their or groups to secure favourable outcomes under new resilience will be. circumstances and, if need be, by new means (Hall and Lamont 2013). This paper looks at ecosystem resilience, The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) found and how it contributes to human resilience (see that approximately 60% of the ecosystem services definition in Box 1) in the context of climate change. examined had been degraded or used unsustainably, including fresh water, capture fisheries, air and Ecosystem services provide an important component water purification, and the regulation of regional and of resilience. But an exclusive focus on such services local climate, natural hazards, and pests. It argued ignores the fact that “An ecosystem is a dynamic that “The full costs of the loss and degradation of complex of plant, animal, and microorganism these ecosystem services are difficult to measure, communities and the non-living environment interacting but the available evidence demonstrates that they as a functional unit” (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment are substantial and growing.” This has worrying 2005). While CBA projects often address the implications for the climate vulnerable poor who are ecosystem services listed above, CBA practitioners particularly reliant on these services. The Assessment tend to view adaptation threats and solutions in terms of acknowledges that “The degradation of ecosystem natural resource silos as opposed to complex systems. services is harming many of the world’s poorest people This way of thinking can be problematic because it and is sometimes the principal factor causing poverty”. rarely considers crucial ‘second-tier’ ecosystem goods and services such as pollination, climate regulation, genetic diversity or the connections between different Ecosystem resilience natural systems (Reid and Schipper 2013). It also doesn’t acknowledge that ecosystems themselves Resilience is a topical yet ‘slippery’ concept, which can and will change due to climate variability, climate to some creates more confusion than enlightenment change and other stressors (Girot et al. 2012). Their (Morecroft et al. 2012), and to others brings a welcome functionality will be affected by changes in sea-levels,

Table 2: Ecosystem Services

Provisioning Regulating Cultural Supporting services services services services • Food (capture fisheries, • Climate regulation • Spiritual and religious • Nutrient cycling aquaculture, wild (global, regional and values • Soil formation foods, livestock, forest local) • Aesthetic values • Primary production products, crops) • Air quality regulation • Recreation and (photosynthesis) • Fresh water • Water regulation ecotourism • Wood (for timber and • Erosion regulation fuel) and fibre • Water purification and • Genetic resources waste treatment • Biochemicals, • Disease regulation natural medicines, • Pest regulation pharmaceuticals • Pollination • Natural hazard regulation

Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

www.iied.org 11 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

temperature and rainfall. Such changes can have are more resilient to climate change if they are in good significant social, cultural and economic consequences condition and non-climate stressors such as habitat (Jeans et al. 2013). Observed changes in climate destruction, overharvesting of resources and pollution have already adversely impacted certain species are minimised (Hansen et al. 2003). See Box 2. and ecosystems, and further changes are inevitable (IPCC 2014). The direct impacts of climate change on biodiversity include: Box 2: Generic measures • changes in ecosystem processes, including changes proposed to increase in water catchment processes and natural fire ecosystem resilience to regimes; climate change • changes in the timing of events in the natural world, • Reduce other pressures on biodiversity which may lead to loss of synchrony between species, for example, with insect pollinators emerging at a • Increase the number of protected sites different time to plants flowering, making it difficult for • Increase the size of individual protected sites the plant species to survive – this may include crops; • Provide buffer areas around protected sites • changes in species abundance and distribution, including the arrival of new (potentially invasive or • Improve the functional connectivity between sites pathogenic) species in a place if conditions become • Protect ⁄ create cool microclimates and potential more favourable, and the loss of species that can refugia for species no longer survive there. Some species may become extinct if they can’t accommodate the changes • Maintain or increase the habitat heterogeneity at occurring or move to more favourable conditions. This site and landscape scales could include species that people directly or indirectly • Maintain species diversity within communities depend on; • Protect natural processes • changes in the composition of plant or animal communities. • Promote the potential for natural genetic exchange between populations Ecosystems also have limits beyond which they cannot function and there is established but incomplete • Control invasive species evidence that ecosystems are increasingly experiencing Source: Morecroft et al. (2012) nonlinear changes, including accelerating, abrupt and potentially irreversible shifts. When limits are breached the ecosystem may no longer be able to provide the One of the key targets for the Convention on Biological services on which human communities have come to Diversity (COP10 Decision X/2) for the coming decade depend (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; is: “to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure Scheufele and Bennett 2012). Examples include that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to disease emergence, Amazon rainforest dieback, the provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s creation of ‘dead zones’ in coastal waters, and the variety of life, and contributing to human well-being, and collapse of fisheries (IPCC 2014). Buddemeier (2004) poverty eradication.” Building human resilience requires describe how coral reefs in certain areas, have passed a good understanding of systems, the interaction a tipping point and broken down to the extent that between components of systems, and the feedback recovery is unlikely. Such dramatic changes affect loops affecting system architecture (Malik 2014). people in different ways, but it is typically “groups such Measures to increase climate change resilience must as the poor, women, and indigenous communities therefore not see the natural environment as merely [who] have tended to be harmed by these changes” the provider of an array of unconnected and unlimited (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). resources or services coming from a number of linear Climate change and a number of other pressures are or throughput systems. Rather, we should view natural pushing many ecosystems to the limits of their coping food, energy, water and waste management systems as capacity. There is uncertainty about the thresholds of interconnected and mutually dependent components climate change above which ecosystems are irreversibly of a natural systems that together can support human changed and will no longer function in their current form resilience in a more holistic manner (Reid et al. 2013; (CBD 2009). However, we do know that ecosystems Pimbert 2010).

12 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 4 Links between the Maintenance of Ecosystem Services and Resilient Ecosystems, and Human Adaptive Capacity and Resilience

Resilient ecosystems and the provision of ecosystem Similarly, the ARCAB definitions of adaptive capacity services are likely to be important components of and resilience described in Box 1 acknowledge that human adaptive capacity and resilience. The Millennium assets – such as ecosystem services – are just one Ecosystem Assessment (2005) does not refer explicitly component of community resilience. Adaptation is to human adaptive capacity or resilience in the face of a process rather than an outcome so proxies for climate change, but it does refer to the importance of ‘reduced resilience’ or ‘increased adaptive capacity’ ecosystems and ecosystem services in terms of their are required when it comes to adaptation monitoring contributions to ‘human well-being’ (see Table 3). The and evaluation (Bours et al. 2014). The Africa Climate constituents of human well-being clearly emphasise Change Resilience Alliance (ACCRA) argues that more than just access to natural assets and services. asset-oriented approaches to defining, measuring and

www.iied.org 13 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

Table 3: Constituents of Human Well-being

Basic material for a good life • adequate livelihoods • sufficient nutritious food • shelter • access to goods Health • strength • feeling well • access to clean air and water Good social relations • social cohesion • mutual respect • ability to help others Security • personal safety • secure resource access • security from disasters Freedom of choice and action • opportunity to be able to achieve what an individual values doing and being Source: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005)

Table 4: Characteristics of high adaptive capacity at the local level from the ACCRA Local Adaptive Capacity Framework

Asset base Availability of key assets that allow the system to respond to evolving circumstances Institutions and entitlements Existence of an appropriate and evolving institutional environment that allows fair access and entitlement to key assets and capitals Knowledge and information The system has the ability to collect, analyse and disseminate knowledge and information in support of adaption activities Innovation The system creates an enabling environment to foster innovation, experimentation and the ability to explore niche solutions in order to take advantage of new opportunities Flexible forward-looking decision- The system is able to anticipate, incorporate and respond to changes with making and governance regards to its governance structures and future planning Source: Jones et al. (2010)

supporting adaptive capacity typically mask the role of elements of access to resources and assets, but also processes and functions. It has therefore developed less tangible process-oriented elements, which are a Local Adaptive Capacity framework (LAC) that tries harder to quantify but address key issues such as the to capture the intangible and dynamic dimensions of presence of a supportive social, institutional, policy adaptive capacity, in addition to capital and resource- and governance framework that can offer security based components (Jones et al. 2010; Ludi et al. 2011) . and freedom of choice and action, and facilitate good The framework summarised in Table 4 describes five decision making.1 A key difference between human distinct yet interrelated characteristics that contribute well-being and adaptive capacity, is that the latter towards adaptive capacity at the local level. has much stronger emphasis on looking ahead, and creating an environment in which future changes can Clearly, ‘human well-being’ as conceived by the be accommodated. Human well-being as defined by Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, has much in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, by contrast, is a common with ‘adaptive capacity’ as defined by ARCAB more static measure. (see Box 1) and ACCRA (see Table 4). Both contain

1 In a similar comparative exercise, Rouillard et al. (2014) note the synergies between Integrated Water Resources Management and adaptive capacity in the context of Bangladesh.

14 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 5 ARCAB Research Sites

Bangladesh is amongst those countries most occupations (2%). The village has little tree coverage vulnerable to climate change. This is because of its although some fruit trees, medicinal trees and other geographic location – more than half of the country plants grow (mostly on homesteads). is a floodplain – but also a number of social issues Most of the village area (except homesteads and some such as extreme poverty, which leaves the population parts of the road) is inundated during the monsoon extremely vulnerable to shocks and stresses (Hossain flooding season. Most areas remain fallow during this et al. 2013; Rouillard et al. 2014; Rai et al. 2014). To time, with only a little aman paddy rice grown. Borro improve knowledge on whether and how ecosystem paddy rice is the dominant village crop, cultivated resilience and ecosystem service provision contribute in the dry season when farmers also grow chillies, to community adaptive capacity and resilience, vegetables and oil seed, primarily on higher land. The two ARCAB sites with a strong ecosystem/natural three village roads are mostly submerged during the resources focus were selected: Goalgram Village in the monsoon season, when people travel within the village Chanda Beel wetland, and Balukhali Village, Rangamati and further afield using country boats. The village has District, in the Chittagong hill tracts. three canals and large number of ditches (man-made ponds) around homesteads and also in crop fields. Large numbers of floating and rooted aquatic plants and Goalgram Village, Chanda weeds are present (Chakraborty et al. 2005; Hussain Beel Wetland and Chowdhury 2005). Many extremely poor people live here. They rely on Goalgram Village is located in Nanikhir Union, subsistence agriculture, fishing, wage labour, small Muksodpur Upazila, Gopalganj District, Bangladesh. It businesses and pulling rickshaws. Most are lower lies in the south-central Madhumati Floodplain, with the caste Hindus with little ‘voice’ and political power. Food low lying Chanda Beel wetland bordering the village on insecurity is common. its north, west and southern sides. A metal road borders its eastern side. The village covers about 610 hectares Chanda Beel is generally flat with low elevation above and lies about 40 km north of Gopalganj district town. sea level. The area is prone to extensive monsoon It contains two primary schools, 13 temples and several flooding and water logging due to high-tides and small grocery shops, and is home to 661 families, 95% inundation by water from the Ganges and Jamuna of whom are Hindu and the remainder Christian. The Rivers. During the monsoon the Beel connects with main occupations of villagers are agriculture (64%), other neighbouring wetlands (Chakraborty et al. 2005). agricultural wage labour (2%), non-agricultural wage Water levels are the lowest in February/March and labour (10%), sharecropping (3%), services (6%), highest in August/September. Of the 10,890 hectares business (3%), carpentry or masonry (10%) and other covered by Chanda Beel, some 82% is used for

www.iied.org 15 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

agricultural purposes followed by 10% for settlement/ Before 1960, only 39% of the total Beel area was under homestead land, 4.5% for ponds (kua), 2% for canals agricultural production in the dry season, and 9% in (khal) and 1.5% for roads (kutcha/pucca). Human the wet season. By 2005 these figures were 72% and settlement in the Beel is very old. There are 44 villages 20% respectively. Before 1960, the people of Chanda in and around the Beel system, all on relatively higher Beel used indigenous technologies and knowledge for land. Settlements are increasing rapidly in and around cultivating their land, namely ploughs, yokes, spades the Beel. etc. Natural sedimentation processes meant soils were very fertile and people relied on rainwater to grow crops. Many of the canals have silted/dried up in recent years Modern irrigation techniques were almost unknown. due to the construction of sluice gates in the 1960s to After 1960 farmers started using tractors, irrigation control water for irrigation. Until 1980, larger launches pumps, harvesting machines and other inputs like and steamers in addition to smaller country boats were insecticides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers and high the primary means of communication throughout the yielding seeds varieties. Production has soared, but year. Now only a limited number of country boats can heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has also function during the dry season. Manually-operated damaged land fertility, degraded wetland resources and country boats have now been replaced by small boats reduced biodiversity. Prior to 1960, men used to work with diesel engines, and transportation by road is now in the fields or as fishers and women would process the main way to move goods and passengers. People agricultural products at home. Since the modernisation use buses, rickshaws/vans and auto-rickshaws. of agriculture in the area, however, men alone can Although a significant proportion of people living near no longer manage agricultural workloads alone and the Beel were fishermen in the past, today most people women are now working alongside with men during all are farmers or wage labourers. Some fishers have left stages of farming activities. This is truer for Hindu than the locality, others have changed their occupation. Local Muslim women. fishers report that there used to be 57 fish species Biodiversity in the Beel area has fallen since 1960. Of in the Beel, only 28 of which are now common and 7 39 species of terrestrial birds recorded prior to 1960, are extinct. There were 16 species of prawn, 6 crab only 15 are now common, and 5 are extinct. Of 20 species and 16 mollusc species, but only a few of these species of migratory and aquatic birds, only 14 are are found in the Beel today. Fish used to be available fairly common today. Of 13 mammal species commonly all year round and there were enough to support fisher found in the past, only 4 are now common. Similar livelihoods and the subsistence needs of non-fishers, reductions in number and diversity have also been but this is no longer the case (Chakraborty et al. 2005). recorded for amphibian and reptile species (BCAS and These dramatic changes have occurred for a number CDI, 2006). Terrestrial and aquatic floral diversity has of reasons: road, culvert, bridge and sluice gate also decreased for a number of reasons: deforestation construction have changed the Beel’s physical features, and tree use for fuel and furniture construction; reducing and controlling water flow for irrigation replacing timber and fruit trees with small plants for purposes, increasing siltation, and causing the Beel use as cattle fodder; shrub destruction by domestic bed to rise. Waterlogging caused by siltation and animals; settlement and population growth; siltation decomposing water hyacinth has reduced water flow in the Beel; emptying ponds to catch fish; and use of through the Beel still further. The result is that most agricultural chemicals. wetlands have now been converted to agricultural Climate change models predict that the south-central land, and only a negligible proportion of the original region in which Chanda Beel lies will be more prone wetland with water throughout the year remains (BCAS to flooding and water logging due heavy rainfall and and CDI 2006). Sluice gates have also inhibited fish other adverse climate change impacts. Recently, the migration, and intensive use of agricultural chemicals local community has reported that the river water tasted has degraded water quality. salty, particularly in April and May. This can occur when Fishers in Chanda Beel used to use indigenous seawater comes up the river due to sea-level increases technologies, mostly made of local materials like or reduced water flows from upstream. People have bamboo and rope. Fishers operated according to also reported that cyclones and increasingly erratic longstanding customary rights and regulations in the rainfall and temperature changes are hampering crop Beel. They would not harvest brood fishes, fingerlings production and other livelihood activities. Poor women and juvenile fishes in order to maintain fish abundance and marginalized sectors of society suffer most. all year round. Fishing was for subsistence rather than commercial use. Today fishers use modern nets, which are more efficient but less sustainable.

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A number of local non-government organizations must travel to the nearest market in Rangamati Sadar (NGOs) and local government institutes work in the Upazila to sell their household or farm products, or area but there is a lack of understanding of what buy household needs. The village has only two primary climate change will bring and how best to address it. schools, and children must travel daily to Rangamati Participatory vulnerability assessments conducted by Sadar Upazila for their secondary or higher level ARCAB in association with Christian Commission for education. Poor families cannot afford to pay for daily Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), a local partner boat travel and other costs, so most children are not of Christian Aid, show that local people are using educated beyond primary level. traditional knowledge and wetland resources to reduce The village contains roughly 194 households. Some their vulnerability and the impacts of climatic disasters. 7% are very poor and 31% are poor. No households NGOs are also trying to promote CBA activities using identified themselves as rich. The main source of locally available natural resources. For example, the income for some 50% of households is agriculture, with Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies is educating agricultural wage labour at 8%, non-agricultural wage teachers and students about fish conservation and labour at 2%, sharecropping at 2%, services at 7%, it has established a Wetland Research and Training fishing at 17% and business at 14%. Many farmers Centre (WRTC) in the Beel area. Although the Beel’s do agriculture-related activities for about six months natural resources have greatly declined over the years, of the year, spending the remaining six months fishing many varieties of fish, aquatic animals, aquatic weeds in the lake or working for daily wages in horticulture. and plants and a large quantity of peat soils are still Many fish species can be caught in Kaptai Lake, but available and act as important sources of food and fishing is banned in May, June and July, during which income (Ghosh and Mondal 2012). time young men and women migrate to cities to look for work. In recent years, lake fish resources have been declining rapidly due to a reduction in seasonal rainfall Balukhali Village, affecting lake water levels. Reliance on fishing has Rangamati District, thus decreased. Hill tract land provides the villagers with many forest Chittagong Hill Tracts resources. Large numbers of indigenous timber trees grow in hills around Balukhali, and also a number of Balukhali Village is located along the eastern side of indigenous fruit trees. Naturally growing trees and plants Kaptai Lake in the south-east of Bangladesh about 4 are cleared for cultivation, homesteads and plantations. km away from Rangamati Sadar Upazila and Rangamati Villagers plant fruit trees for horticultural purposes, district town. East of the village lies Maricha Beel. often in orchards, and also imported timber trees such Kaptai Lake was formed following the completion of as mahogany. These provide villagers with income and the Kaptai hydro-electric dam in 1963, built to generate food. Villagers also use a number of medicinal trees and cheap energy to mitigate the power crisis in Dhaka plants for health purposes. and other cities. The initial environmental and social costs of the project were tremendous and these have Agriculture is a driving force in the village economy. multiplied over time. The lake submerged much of the Indigenous populations have practiced traditional Karnaphuli River valley and the lower reaches of other shifting ‘slash-and-burn’ cultivation (known locally as rivers (Rashid 1991) including over 76,000 hectares ‘jhum’) for thousands of years, and despite efforts by the of pristine forested valleys and cultivated land in the authorities over the last century to encourage people to Chittagong Hill Tracts (Khan et al. 1994). It displaced adopt more sedentary lifestyles, jhum remains the main 20-25% of the indigenous population and submerged source of livelihood for many, especially the Parahari nearly 22,000 hectares of flat, alluvial land, equating people. Many of the local people displaced when to roughly 40% of the most fertile arable valley land the Kaptai Lake was formed took up jhum cultivation. available, and also 24,000 hectares of sloping foothills. Increased pressure on the land led to the shortening of the fallow period from 10-15 years down to 5-6 The village is home to four different ethnic communities years (Hassan and Van Lavieren 2000), but Jhum - ‘Chakma’, ‘Marma’, ‘Tripura’ and ‘Bengali’ - each of still remains the most widespread form of agriculture. which lives in its own ‘para’ (segment of the village). Annual and short 2 or 3 year lifecycle crops include All villagers have built their houses on hill slopes or rice, cotton, melon, cucumber and other vegetables. hilltops. Balukhali has no metal access road, and only Perennial crops include fruit (such as mango, jackfruit, a few paved village roads. Villagers must therefore use coconut and banana), rubber and tea. Farmers also boats to access Rangamati Sadar Upazila or the district practice intercropping. town. There is no market in or near the village, so people

www.iied.org 17 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

Most of the village area (except homesteads and some Villagers suffer from a number of climate-related parts of the road) floods during the monsoon period, disasters, most importantly droughts, torrential rainfall, during which time most land lies fallow and only aman cyclones and storms/strong winds. Dense fog, paddy rice is grown. Borro paddy rice is the dominant hailstorms and erosion also provide lesser challenges. village crop, cultivated during the dry season (January Data from the Bangladesh Meteorological Department – May). Flooding from rainwater or Kaptai Lake usually (BMD) for the Chittagong Hill Tract areas shows inundates valley land between May and December. that over the last few decades, the annual maximum Kaptai Lake varies in area from 26,800 hectares in temperature has increased whereas the minimum May up to a maximum of 74,200 hectares in October temperature has remained fairly stable. Predications (BBS 2004). In addition to submerging much of the suggest the number of rainless days will increase in area’s most fertile land during lake formation, crops future which could reduce stream water availability. have also been lost due to dam management practices. The frequency of torrential rainfall episodes has also Dam water levels should remain below 27.5m from increased in recent decades. These wash away soil April to August to allow farmers to grow one crop (boro nutrients, leaving the land barren and damaging crops. rice) in the fringe valleys, but this rule has not been The erratic nature of rainfall makes it harder for farmers respected in the last few years, resulting in crop losses. to plan appropriately. Furthermore, maximum water levels in the rainy season As natural forest resources have declined, and also seem to have increased significantly leading to dependence on these and also fishing has fallen, the loss of yet more land that used to be used for many poor families now undertake alternative income monsoon season vegetable production. Overall, paddy generating activities such as making handicrafts or cultivation and summer vegetable production has been clothes to supplement their income from agriculture. severely affected. NGOs have provided training and support for this in People use water from different sources for irrigation, recent years, particularly for poorer women, for example drinking, bathing, washing, sanitation and other on horticultural and disaster risk reduction practices. domestic purposes. The main water sources are lake Improved levels of education and available information surface water, springs, and also rainwater when high on new agricultural technologies have helped with this. enough. Collection pipes at highland water sources help villagers secure water. Villagers suffer from various water-related diseases due to the scarcity of safe water and lack of knowledge about proper hygiene. These could increase if temperatures increase. Diseases like malaria are also increasing, likely due to observed temperature increases.

18 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 6 Methodology

This research asks whether and how changes to This research also looks at what kind of climate change ecosystems and associated natural resources and related impacts ecosystems are experiencing or can ecosystem services affect human adaptive capacity expect to experience at each site, and how this affects and resilience in two ARCAB case study sites in or could potentially affect adaptive capacity. Whilst EbA Bangladesh. It is beyond the scope of this research to and CBA (and approaches that integrate both) have the acquire quantitative measures of these parameters, so a potential to benefit the world’s poorest people who are number of simple measures and qualitative approaches worst hit by climate change and also disproportionately are used to provide a measure of these parameters and reliant on ecosystems and their services, they must also hence a broad overview of connections between them. look ahead and acknowledge that the environment is no longer static as climate change advances, and in many A number of techniques can be used to measure places people will have to adapt to conditions beyond specific ecosystem services provision (de Groot et al. anything experienced in living memory (Reid 2014b). The 2002) but this research doesn’t seek to use these or Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) observes that quantify the particular ecosystem services observed. “recent changes in climate, especially warmer regional It rather details the number and diversity of different temperatures, have already had significant impacts on ecosystem services used by local communities. biodiversity and ecosystems, including causing changes Likewise, ecosystem resilience is not measured directly. in species distributions, population sizes, the timing of The term ‘resilience’ is commonly used in the context reproduction or migration events, and an increase in the of increasing both ecosystem and human resilience to frequency of pest and disease outbreaks… By the end of climate change impacts, but it is not used consistently, the century, climate change and its impacts may be the and substantial uncertainties exist around the best way dominant direct driver of biodiversity loss and changes in to measure it, place value on it and enhance it in either ecosystem services globally.” The assessment findings context (Morecroft et al. 2012; Scheufele and Bennett described here, however, are static and based on expert 2012). Changes to ecological resilience are often only judgement in combination with community observations. apparent after a change has occurred. For the purposes They do not try to predict dramatic future changes/ of this research, a broad assessment of ecosystem ecosystem shifts. resilience is made, looking at whether the ecosystem Research methods included interviews conducted with selected has undergone a major shift in its structure villagers at both sites. Past research as well as data or function, as a result of human intervention and also collected from recent ARCAB surveys and focus group climate change, which has affected its ability to provide discussions (undertaken in 2012), was also collated. ecosystem services. This research takes a broad definition of natural Changes to human adaptive capacity and resilience resources, in which cultivated crops and vegetables and in the face of climate change (as defined in Box 1) non-indigenous species are included. At both sites, the are also not quantified by this research. Assessments environment has been heavily modified from its natural about whether these increase or decrease depending state, but it is what people use now. The Millennium on changes to ecosystems and their services are Ecosystem Assessment (2005) likewise treats largely qualitative and are based on a combination of agricultural land as an ecosystem in its assessment, expert and community judgement about how changes despite the fact that it is intensely modified and experienced to date have affected them. managed by man.

www.iied.org 19 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh 7 Results

Tables 5 and 6 describe the natural resources and associated ecosystem services utilised by local communities at the two ARCAB sites. Their specific contribution to adaptive capacity or reduced vulnerability in the face of climate change is described, along with the climate change and non-climate change related impacts affecting (or potentially affecting) each resource/service. Ecosystem Services Provision Table 5: Goalgram Village, Chanda Beel Wetland

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Natural resource Contribution to adaptive capacity or reduction Non climate change Climate change and associated in vulnerability related impacts impacts affecting ecosystem service affecting resource/ (or potentially service affecting) resource/ service Grass and ‘dholkolmi’ • Grown to prevent homestead soil erosion during Decreasing as Decreasing due to floods. harvested regularly dryer conditions. • Used for fuel. for fuel. Bamboo (not • Bamboo used to construct temporary platforms indigenous but grows on boats during floods. naturally now and is • Bamboo used to re-build houses damaged by common) disasters. Medicinal trees • Villagers use trees and plants as medicine during People are planting and plants (mostly vulnerable periods such as floods or droughts, more and conserving cultivated on when a number of locally available plants provide these species so their homesteads) medicinal uses for diseases that are more number is increasing. prevalent during these times. For example ‘neem’ ‘tulsha’ ‘amloki’ ‘bashok’ all have medicinal uses. Large quantities • Bed of water hyacinth used as a temporary Siltation in the Beel Saline water can of aquatic plants floating ‘dhap’ for housing during floods. (due to irrigation reduce availability, as (floating and • One type of dhap known locally as ‘baira’ is measures/sluice gate can drought. Water rooted). Water used as a floating vegetable garden or for crop construction), pond hyacinth, lilies and hyacinth (Eichhornia cultivation. This can reduce losses from flood emptying 2/3 times ‘kalmi shak’ increase crassipes) is damage to crops and vegetable beds. annually (to catch during floods generally considered • Dhap used as a temporary shelter for livestock aquatic animals) an invasive weed, and their food during floods. and insecticide use but it grows naturally • Rotten water hyacinth increases soil natural has reduced plant here and isn’t fertility (without chemicals) thus increasing crop resources. cultivated. and vegetable yields. • Dried water hyacinth and other aquatic weeds stored for use as cooking fuel, especially by very poor people. • Water hyacinth used as fodder for cattle. This is important during floods when there is a scarcity of fodder. • Used for making construction blocks and ropes. • Piles of water hyacinth around homesteads help prevent water erosion during floods. • People eat waterlilies and ‘kalmi shak’ (a naturally occurring leafy vegetable) during floods. These grow naturally (they aren’t cultivated). • Local people feel water hyacinth can clean water bodies and reduce pollution. • Water hyacinths obstruct navigation of waterways, but this not a major issue. Fish culture • Some indigenous fish are cultured (mostly carp, Increasingly popular Erratic weather and tilapia) mostly for sale to increase household with local people. extreme weather income. events affect fish cultivation, for example fish escape during floods.

www.iied.org 21 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

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Table 6: Balukhali Village, Rangamati District, Chittagong Hill Tracts

Natural resource and Contribution to adaptive capacity or Non climate Climate change associated ecosystem service reduction in vulnerability change related impacts affecting impacts (or potentially affecting affecting) resource/service resource/service Trees: • House protection from storm and cyclone • Trees cut and • Cyclones/ Indigenous timber trees (with damage. sold to secure storms uproot local names) include: gamari • Timber used to build houses, cattle sheds family income and damage (Gmelina arborea), teak and sanitary latrines strong enough to and repay loans. trees such as (Tectona grandis), jarul, garjan withstand storms/cyclones and torrential • Trees cut for banana trees. (Dipterocarpus alatus), karoi, chil rain, and repair houses and structures construction • Torrential karoi, titia karoi, shimul (Bombax damaged by disasters. purposes rainfall creates ceiba), kumbhoi, lalbadi, sada • Timber used to make ‘country boats’ to (houses, landslides that badi, goda (Vitex peduncularis), collect water and travel around during furniture etc.) uproot trees goya achol, ashoth, bot, meho floods. and for fuel. such as mango, agini, agaja gula, civit (Swintonia • Rafts made from kala/banana trunks are • Native trees jackfruit, banana floribunda), shibarichi, chamashil, used for moving around locally during cut down and sofeda. surosh, kadam (Anthocephalus floods. and replaced • Drought has chinensis), kom, daka karom, • Timber used to make and repair furniture. with fast damaged less vogh, monchapa, kander, • Villagers are planting more fruit trees at their growing timber resistant tree nakshafull, ma lakshmi, dom homesteads for shade and cooler air during trees (teak, species such as gula, varala, boa, agar (Aquilaria high temperature days and droughts. eucalyptus, banana. agallocha), ful summary, kurik, • Timber and tree branches used as cooking acacia etc.) • Tree flowers gud gudtha, tula, kurung, erja, fuel. Dry leaves too. • The forest and fruits are chamely, fulchukni, champafull, • Timber sold to increase family income. department damaged by konak, kanpoi and charuaful. • Cotton harvested from silk cotton trees and provides drought and sold to enhance household income. approval for warm weather. Indigenous fruit trees (with • Products from rubber trees are sold to cutting trees. For example, local names) include: mango increase family income. • Imported timber mango and litchi (Mangifera indica Linn), jackfruit • Fruits harvested for consumption and sale to trees and tree flowers (Artocapus heterophlla Lmk), enhance household income. horticultural and fruits are coconut (Cocos nucifera), jam • Horticulture can provide employment trees have damaged by (Syzygium cumini), litchi, paina opportunities and income from the sale of increased as fog, drought and fall, kaju babdam, mialuchi, fruit. Recently villagers have planted more people have warm weather. latkan (Baccuria ramifolia), dalim horticultural trees. planted them • Mango and (Punica granatum), kamola, kala/ • Women grow tree saplings to sell at the following the litchi trees are banana (Musa Paradisiaca L.), market and generate income. cutting down of susceptible anarosh/pineapple (Ananas • To prevent pest attacks on fruit trees (which native species. to hailstorm comosus), jolpai, atashi, atha gula, are increasing because of drought), ash damage. sofeda, bel (Aegle marmelos), (from burning dry leaves) is used, and leaves plum, tamarind, supari/betelnut are burnt under the trees. (Areca catechu), gab gula/deshi • Locals have been planting more trees to gab (Diospyros peregrine), jobna protect crops from the soil erosion and gula, sharbigula, khajur, jambura, landslides associated with the increasing guava, amlaki (Phyllanthus frequency of torrential rainfall episodes emblica), lemon, kamranga, jamrul experienced in recent decades. and baroi. • Locals have been planting more drought and storm resistant tree species. For example, Horticultural trees include: mango drought tolerant trees like acacia are planted (Mangifera indica Linn), jackfruit on hills. (Artocapus heterophlla Lmk), • Farmers plant more teak trees instead litchi, banana, papaya (Carica of mango and jackfruit trees, which are papaya), sofeda, guava (Psidium susceptible to hailstorm damage. guajva L.), lemon, amloki and • Trees support a diversity of bird and pineapple (Ananas comosus). animal life.

Imported timber trees include: mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla and S. mahagony) acashmoni, belgium, eucalyptus, rubber, agor and belgium gas.

www.iied.org 23 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

Natural resource and Contribution to adaptive capacity or Non climate Climate change associated ecosystem service reduction in vulnerability change related impacts affecting impacts (or potentially affecting affecting) resource/service resource/service Medicinal trees and plants (with • Leaves, seeds, fruits, skins and roots from • Trees cut • Cyclones/ local names): neem (Azadirachta medicinal trees and plants are used to help and sold to storms uproot/ indica), amloki (Phyllanthus with diseases like malaria, ulcers, dysentery, secure family damage trees. emblica), bohera (Terminalia skin diseases, tooth pain, coughs, arthritis, income, make • Torrential rainfall belerica), horitoki (Terminalia diabetics, heart disease, diarrhoea, furniture etc. and landslides chebula), arjun (Terminalia metabolic disorders, rheumatic pain and • Trees cut due uproot/damage arjuna), udol, moa-ma, botta gula, rheumatic fever and pox. to a lack of trees. shamol kasuri, bagraj, madon, • Using natural medicines reduces modern knowledge • Prolonged lazzaboti, gritokumary, kaladaru, treatment costs. about their drought kills/ faziliti, shabarang and ashom • Tree/plant products can be sold to increase medicinal value. damages pata. family income. Many people medicinal trees. don’t know which trees are good for which diseases. • ‘Slash and burn’ practices cut and burn most grasses and bushes for crop cultivation. Smaller plants and grasses (with • Fuli gash and durba are used as cattle fodder. • ‘Slash and burn’ • Grasses, water local names): fuli gash, durba • They also prevent soil erosion. practices cut hyacinths and (Cynodon dactylon), fuishkher, • Khagra and shon grass are used for and burn most other plants die fuljharu, kutchipata, kanaia, thatching roofs. Such roofs help keep grasses and during droughts. polkher, kachuripana, khagra and homes cool in hot months. bushes for crop shon grass. • Khagra is used to make fish aggregating cultivation. devices (like katha) for fishing. • They are also cut • Women make and sell mats from khagra to for fuel. enhance family income. Bamboo (various species): • Muli bamboo protects houses from storm/ • ‘Slash and • Bamboo plants baria, muli bamboo (Melocanna cyclone damage. burn’ practices are dying due to baccifera) mitingga, budung, ora • Bamboo helps prevent soil erosion. cut and burn unknown natural and kalichari. • Bamboo is used for making house frames bamboo for crop causes. and roofs, as well as fencing round the cultivation. house. Strong houses built with bamboo • Over-extraction help prevent storm damage. or over- • Immediately after disaster events, such harvesting of as torrential rain, bamboo is used for re- bamboo shoots building and repairing houses. for sale. Some • Shon grass has recently become less community available for house roofs so people use members favour corrugated iron sheets fixed on to bamboo. new laws to stop This reduces warm temperatures in houses. bamboo shoot • Bamboo is also used for winnowing and cutting, or time making split bamboo mats, water-pipes, restrictions on boat masts, hand-fans, chairs, seats, cane cutting imposed furniture, baskets, platters/trays, sieves etc. by the local Women can generate income by making administration. and selling these at the market. • Bamboo shoots are used as vegetables. • Bamboo and bamboo shoots are sold to enhance incomes. • Farmers attach banana plants and small horticultural trees to bamboo poles to prevent storm damage. • Farmers fix bamboo pools and fences on hillsides to prevent landslides.

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Natural resource and Contribution to adaptive capacity or Non climate Climate change Natural resource and Contribution to adaptive capacity or Non climate Climate change associated ecosystem service reduction in vulnerability change related impacts affecting associated ecosystem service reduction in vulnerability change related impacts affecting impacts (or potentially impacts (or potentially affecting affecting) affecting affecting) resource/service resource/service resource/service resource/service Medicinal trees and plants (with • Leaves, seeds, fruits, skins and roots from • Trees cut • Cyclones/ Fish species: rui, katla, mrigel, • Household consumption. • Numbers of • High lake water local names): neem (Azadirachta medicinal trees and plants are used to help and sold to storms uproot/ boal, pangash, air, kali baos, • Sources of livelihood/income. fishermen are temperatures indica), amloki (Phyllanthus with diseases like malaria, ulcers, dysentery, secure family damage trees. sada baos, singi, baila, chapila, increasing. cause fish death. emblica), bohera (Terminalia skin diseases, tooth pain, coughs, arthritis, income, make • Torrential rainfall kaski, punti, tilapia, bacha, kala • Government belerica), horitoki (Terminalia diabetics, heart disease, diarrhoea, furniture etc. and landslides chanda, nag kata, baim, chotto releasing fish chebula), arjun (Terminalia metabolic disorders, rheumatic pain and • Trees cut due uproot/damage chingri, banshkaitta, mola, poa, fingerlings arjuna), udol, moa-ma, botta gula, rheumatic fever and pox. to a lack of trees. gozar, shol, taki, randalee, tengra, into the lake, shamol kasuri, bagraj, madon, • Using natural medicines reduces modern knowledge • Prolonged gulsha, samuk, jhinuk and kakra. and banning lazzaboti, gritokumary, kaladaru, treatment costs. about their drought kills/ fishing during faziliti, shabarang and ashom • Tree/plant products can be sold to increase medicinal value. damages breeding time pata. family income. Many people medicinal trees. and immediately don’t know after to protect which trees are fingerlings. good for which • Illegal fishing diseases. practices. • ‘Slash and burn’ • Catching fish fry practices cut and fingerlings. and burn most • Use of smaller grasses and kaski net bushes for crop meshes. cultivation. • Lake water Smaller plants and grasses (with • Fuli gash and durba are used as cattle fodder. • ‘Slash and burn’ • Grasses, water pollution from local names): fuli gash, durba • They also prevent soil erosion. practices cut hyacinths and diesel oil (from (Cynodon dactylon), fuishkher, • Khagra and shon grass are used for and burn most other plants die boats) and fuljharu, kutchipata, kanaia, thatching roofs. Such roofs help keep grasses and during droughts. dumping waste polkher, kachuripana, khagra and homes cool in hot months. bushes for crop and garbage. shon grass. • Khagra is used to make fish aggregating cultivation. Freshwater sources: lake, stream, • Stream water used for irrigating crop • Cutting down • Lake and well devices (like katha) for fishing. • They are also cut wells and rainfall. fields and drinking. Irrigation is particularly indigenous water levels fall • Women make and sell mats from khagra to for fuel. important during droughts. Collection pipes trees and plants during droughts, enhance family income. at highland sources are built, and water is and replacing which hamper Bamboo (various species): • Muli bamboo protects houses from storm/ • ‘Slash and • Bamboo plants conserved in tanks for use during droughts. them with agricultural baria, muli bamboo (Melocanna cyclone damage. burn’ practices are dying due to • Well water is used for drinking by humans imported trees crop production baccifera) mitingga, budung, ora • Bamboo helps prevent soil erosion. cut and burn unknown natural and cattle, washing utensils and taking like eucalyptus, and reduce and kalichari. • Bamboo is used for making house frames bamboo for crop causes. showers. Some villagers also irrigate acacia etc. the amount of and roofs, as well as fencing round the cultivation. using well water. Stream water sometimes reduces water water available house. Strong houses built with bamboo • Over-extraction directed into wells dug to conserve water. availability. for domestic help prevent storm damage. or over- • Rainwater is used for cooking, drinking and • Kaptai Lake and drinking • Immediately after disaster events, such harvesting of washing. gates need to purposes. as torrential rain, bamboo is used for re- bamboo shoots be closed to building and repairing houses. for sale. Some maintain lake • Shon grass has recently become less community water levels available for house roofs so people use members favour during droughts, corrugated iron sheets fixed on to bamboo. new laws to stop but this doesn’t This reduces warm temperatures in houses. bamboo shoot always occur. • Bamboo is also used for winnowing and cutting, or time Agriculture/crop cultivation: IRRI • Employment opportunities from agriculture, • Occasional • Torrential rainfall making split bamboo mats, water-pipes, restrictions on paddy, BR-28 and BR-21 paddy, for women too. damage due to damages plants boat masts, hand-fans, chairs, seats, cane cutting imposed hira paddy, sangkar-3 paddy, • Paddy rice for household consumption. poor knowledge and their roots. furniture, baskets, platters/trays, sieves etc. by the local local varieties of paddy (binni • Water melons and spices for family income about weeding. • Drought Women can generate income by making administration. dhan), water melons, ada/ginger and consumption. • Cultivation and warm and selling these at the market. (Zingiber officinale Roscoe), • Recently, cultivating certain types of paddy during temperatures • Bamboo shoots are used as vegetables. halud/tumeric (Curcuma longa), rice and pineapples has helped compensate unsuitable time hamper plant • Bamboo and bamboo shoots are sold to silk cotton (tula), musur dal, families for losses from disaster events. periods. growth and enhance incomes. papaya (Carica papaya), kala/ reduce crop • Farmers attach banana plants and small banana and pineapple. production. horticultural trees to bamboo poles to • Hailstorms prevent storm damage. damage water • Farmers fix bamboo pools and fences on melons. hillsides to prevent landslides.

www.iied.org 25 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

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Ecosystem Resilience Tables 7 and 8 describe the characteristics of the ecosystem as a whole at the two ARCAB sites, and which climate change impacts and non-climate change related impacts affect (or potentially affect) ecosystem functioning. Resulting changes to adaptive capacity or vulnerability are then described. Table 7: Goalgram Village, Chanda Beel Wetland

Ecosystem Non climate change related Climate change impacts Changes to adaptive capacity impacts affecting ecosystem affecting or potentially or vulnerability resulting from affecting ecosystem climate change and non-climate change related impacts Chanda Beel • The wetland’s natural • A seasonal lack of rain • Wetland destruction due to the wetland (which resources have greatly (drought) and also construction of infrastructure such consists of declined over the years due salinization may be as embankments, roads, bridges rivers, lakes/ to road, culvert and bridge affecting animal and plant and culverts has made commuting ponds, canals construction, increases diversity in the beel, which easier, created new jobs in the and ditches and in irrigation structures to have dropped. transport sector, and allowed faster currently makes control water flow, settlement • Access to fresh water falls transport of goods to markets/ up 16% of the expansion, deposition of due to salinization during towns. This has increased adaptive area of Chanda silt and decomposed water a couple of months each capacity for some (mostly men). Beel). hyacinth, and the expansion year. • Women (the water fetchers) of agricultural land. This rising • Larger floods help struggle to get fresh water at times of the Beel bed has facilitated transport silt out of the during monsoon, as roads are agriculture but at a cost to the area. impassable and boats can’t move natural ecological integrity through waterways. of the wetland. The size of • Better infrastructure (e.g. transport wetland areas with water infrastructure) has led to more throughout the year is now diversification into other income negligible. Most of Chanda earning opportunities such as Beel is now under agricultural carpentry, handicraft making production while in the past and small businesses. This has it was only used for aquatic increased adaptive capacity for resource services. Some of the those involved. fish, crustacean (prawn and • A significant proportion of people crab) and mollusc species that were fishermen in the past. Today were once found in Chanda the vast majority of people are Beel are no longer present. farmers or wage labourers as • Siltation has occurred due wetland biodiversity is no longer to the construction of sluice rich enough to support the gates in the 1960s to control livelihoods and subsistence needs water flow for irrigation. Silting/ of fishers, who have therefore drying up of canals connecting changed occupation or left the beels means that since 1980, area. Several fishers have become launches, steamers and unemployed, many fishers leave ‘country boats’ can no longer the area on a seasonal basis and navigate waters so easily, move to locations where they can especially in the dry season. By use their skills. Most unemployed the 1980s, the use of launches people, however, have found new and steamers had almost unskilled occupations. entirely stopped. Smaller • A large number of extremely ‘country boats’ with diesel poor people inhabit this locality. engines became increasingly They live mainly on subsistence prevalent after 1975 and have agriculture and fishing. The very gradually replaced manually poor have suffered more, despite operated country boats. other emerging opportunities such • Roads have replaced as growing vegetables and other waterways as the main livelihood opportunities that have transportation system for become available. goods and passengers in recent years.

www.iied.org 27 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

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Ecosystem Non climate change related Climate change impacts Changes to adaptive capacity impacts affecting ecosystem affecting or potentially or vulnerability resulting from affecting ecosystem climate change and non-climate change related impacts Agricultural • Regular monsoon flooding • Enhanced flooding • The economic condition of people land currently and water logging occurs due and water logging are overall has improved following makes up 75% to high tides and seasonal predicted by climate the dramatic expansion and of Chanda Beel. changes in river water flow. change models for the diversification of agriculture since This is up from Monsoon floods prevent most region, in part due to the 1960s following siltation 39% in the dry crop production. heavier rainfall. This will within the Beel. This has allowed season, and • Changes from the use of hamper crop production. communities to invest more in 8% in the wet indigenous technologies and • Projected changes in the health and sanitation issues. More season before knowledge such as ploughs, incidence, frequency, people now feel they are ‘middle 1960. A further yokes, spades and hammers, intensity and duration of class’. The improvements in 7% is currently to modern techniques climate extreme events people’s economic situation more homestead such as tractors, irrigation (such as heat waves, than offsets the loss of safety nets/ land, and 2% pumps, harvesting machines, heavy rainfall, floods, biodiversity/wetland ecosystem, in lies fallow. insecticides, chemical cyclones and drought) terms of adaptive capacity, for most. Borro paddy fertilisers, pesticides and high as well as more gradual • Diversification of crop types on is grown in the yielding seed varieties has changes in climate are the silted Beel land has occurred, dry season and occurred since 1960. Coupled expected. Cyclones, especially growing vegetables. This is the dominant with sedimentation in the Beel, erratic weather/ has nutritional benefits and also village crop, and these have contributed to rainfall patterns and helps increase household income. aman paddy the expansion of agricultural temperature changes are • The expansion of agricultural crops are grown activities in the area which already hampering crop activities since the 1960s means during monsoon. has dramatically increased production. men can no longer handle the Farmers also production. These modern • Potential salinization workload alone anymore. With more grow chillies, techniques have also reduced of river and irrigation (and more diverse) income-earning vegetables and soil fertility in the long-term water, particularly during opportunities available, many oil seed in the dry and polluted water bodies thus the dry season, due women (Hindu more than Muslim season mainly on damaging wetland resources to sea level rise and/ women) are now working alongside higher land. such as fish and aquatic or reduced water flows men in fields. This increases vegetation. from the upstream rivers opportunities for women who like (locals have observed this change. recent salinization but • A large number of extremely scientific validation poor people inhabit this locality. hasn’t yet occurred). They live mainly on subsistence This could mean current agriculture and fishing. Poor women agricultural practices are and marginal sections of society unsustainable and saline suffer worst but the expansion tolerant rice varieties will of agriculture at the cost of the be needed. Alternatively, wetland ecosystem has not been changes to monsoon rain bad for them. patterns could increase freshwater flows from the Ganges water catchment thus decreasing salinity problems and sustaining monsoon-period agricultural practices for the long-term. • Higher temperatures could increase pest attacks on crops.

www.iied.org 29 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

Table 8: Balukhali Village, Rangamati District, Chittagong Hill Tracts

Ecosystem Non climate change related Climate change impacts Changes to adaptive capacity impacts affecting ecosystem affecting or potentially or vulnerability resulting affecting ecosystem from climate change and non- climate change related impacts Hills • Deforestation and over-extraction • Torrential rainfall causes erosion • Declining forest resources of trees and plants in the hills and landslides. reduce available natural damages the ecosystem. • Cyclones and storms uproot and resources. This particularly • Replacing indigenous trees with damage trees. affects the poorest families. ‘thirstier’ timber trees and fruit • Tree and plant cover regulates trees. water flow and reduces erosion/ • Cutting the hillside to sell soil, landslides. For example, farmers build new houses and create are planting more papaya, new crop fields. pineapple, lemon, guava and • ‘Slash and burn’ (jhum) litchi trees, which reduce cultivation practices. landslides. • Trees provide a multitude of household, nutritional and livelihood benefits. For example, fruit trees increase food security and supplement farming income. Kaptai Lake • Dumping waste and household • Torrential rainfall damages the • Livelihood diversification into garbage pollutes lake water. lake environment. fishing occurs during months • Mechanized boats pollute water • Drought significantly lowers lake when agriculture does not occur. through oil leakage. water levels and hampers fish • Fisher families suffer during the • Building houses and shops production. annual fishing ban following besides the lake damages the • Mountain landslides cause fingerling release, and from lake environment. siltation of the lake bed, reducing droughts which hamper fish • Natural fish stocks are the water holding capacity of production. decreasing. the lake. Government has built • Poor fisher families are • Government releases fish embankments around the lake to particularly affected by fingerlings into the lake, and try and prevent this. reductions in lake fish resources limits fishing during key times • High water temperatures alter due to seasonal rainfall to improve fish stocks, but the lake ecosystem. reductions and reduced lake the number of fishermen is water levels. increasing, and some use illegal/ • Lake formation has flooded much unsustainable practices. agricultural land and water level management has hampered crop production. Agricultural • Use of non-scientific ‘slash and • Torrential rainfall and landslides • During droughts crop production land burn’ cultivation practices. remove the top soil from crop is hampered. Poor day labourers • Farmers use irrigation, high fields. Torrential rain also become unemployed. yielding varieties of crops and increases lake levels, inundating • Farmers and wage labourers vegetables, chemical fertilizers paddy crops. suffer from lake level increases and pesticides to increase • Sometimes torrential rainfall and resulting crop losses as production, but improper use causes landslides, which deposit there is less work for them. of chemical fertilizers and soil on crop fields, damaging the • New horticultural practices pesticides can also damage crops and reducing field fertility. provide employment fields. Farmers must remove newly opportunities, especially for poor • Wildlife sometimes damages deposited soil from fields and men and women. crops in fields. start crop cultivation again. • Adaptive benefits from • Lake formation flooded much • Drought reduces soil moisture high yielding crop varieties, fertile arable valley land. and crop production. It reduces horticulture and vegetable • Lake water level management lake water levels, increases cultivation may not be sustained doesn’t always suit farmers. irrigation costs and can make if rainfall decreases as predicted • Training from agricultural new crop cultivation impossible. reducing stream water availability extension offices and NGOs on • Hailstorms, fog, pest damage for irrigation. soil conservation practices has and warm temperatures can helped people grow lemons, damage crops. pineapples and other vegetables.

30 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 8 Discussion

Much published literature on EbA emphasises the services are central to adaptive capacity and resilience importance of the multiple social, economic, and cultural and need to be valued and supported accordingly. co-benefits ecosystems and the services they provide generate for local communities. For example, Colls et al. (2009) argue that healthy ecosystems provide drinking Resilience from Diversity water, habitat, shelter, food, raw materials, genetic The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity report materials, a barrier against disasters, a source of natural (TEEB 2008) argues that “The security value of resources, and many other ecosystem services on biodiversity can be compared with financial markets. which people depend for their livelihoods. This research A diverse portfolio of species stocks, as with business substantiates these claims, with natural resources and stocks, can provide a buffer against fluctuations in the ecosystem services at both sites providing a multitude environment (or market) that cause declines in individual of household benefits and livelihood opportunities stocks. This stabilizing effect of a ‘biodiverse’ portfolio contributing to community adaptive capacity and is likely to be especially important as environmental resilience (see tables 5 and 6). In many instances change accelerates with global warming and other these benefits would be difficult to quantify and thus human impacts”. Maintaining a wide diversity of ignored, although efforts to quantify non-use values at species and genetic diversity can also facilitate the Chanda Beel suggest they are significant (Ghosh and emergence of species and genotypes that are better Mondal 2012). Most ecosystem services observed at adapted to shifts in climatic conditions and could the case study sites can be classified as provisioning, well have important adaptation benefits in the future regulating and supporting services, with cultural (TEEB 2008). services perceived as playing a lesser role in terms of their contributions to adaptive capacity and resilience. Just as species diversity can buffer against Hossain et al. (2013) also found that provisioning environmental change, so too can diversity in the services were most important for livelihoods and hence livelihood options open to a community. Colls et al. adaptive capacity in Bangladeshi wetlands. (2009) take this one step further in the context of EbA and argue that such livelihood diversification can lead The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) found to positive feedback in terms of increasing resilience: that relatively few studies had compared the total “Livelihood enhancement and diversification can economic value (including values of both marketed encourage people to move away from unsustainable and non-marketed ecosystem services) of sustainable exploitation and degradation of natural resources and ecosystem management when compared with the thereby increase social and environmental resilience to conversion of ecosystems through farming, logging or climate change”. other uses, but that some studies had “found that the benefit of managing the ecosystem more sustainably Evidence from both case study sites clearly exceeded that of converting the ecosystem”. This study demonstrates the diversity of opportunities that does not quantify ecosystem services in the context of ecosystems and ecosystem services provide for adaptive capacity, but it does clearly show that at both supporting subsistence and livelihood needs in each sites, the wide range of services (or co-benefits) utilised area. In Chanda Beel, snails are collected when by communities means that ecosystems and ecosystem agricultural activities require less time from September

www.iied.org 31 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

to November (Khan et al. 2005), and vegetables/crops/ reached in freshwater and coastal ecosystems, changes seedlings are grown on floating platforms made from can be abrupt and extensive due to a condition known water hyacinth known as ‘baira’ during the monsoon as eutrophication, where harmful algal blooms can season when fewer jobs are available (Hussain and deplete oxygen levels to the extent that most animal life Chowdhury 2005). In Balukhali Village, fishing occurs cannot survive. Freshwater ecosystems are considered when agricultural activities require fewer inputs, and to be among the most threatened on the planet horticulture is providing new employment and income- (IPCC 2014). generating opportunities. Diversity in the array of natural At Chanda Beel, for example, it is possible that resources available and utilised at each site has thus increases to soil and water salinity levels could hamper increased the number of different subsistence and future agricultural practices, especially in the dry livelihood options available at different times and hence season when freshwater flows from upstream are increased community resilience. Interestingly, many reduced. Intensive agricultural practices are increasing important ecosystem services are based on the use of the demand for water, which threatens the wetland non-native species such as water hyacinth or non-native (Ghosh and Mondal 2012). Snails also play a vital role horticultural tree cultivation. in both ecosystem functioning and the local economy. They ‘clean’ water by accumulating metals such as cadmium in their soft tissue, and they and their eggs Shifts and Thresholds in provide a source of food for wild fish, snakes, ducks, rats and birds. Snails are used for feeding ducks reared Ecosystems by locals and also commercially as shrimp food. Snail Climate change induced changes to ecosystem catches are declining, however, due to harvesting before services and also to ecosystems such as forests and they reach maturity, increasing paddy cultivation and wetlands due to climate change have been noted excessive pesticide use. If this trend continues, the throughout the world (IPCC 2014). In most instances, loss of these keystone species from the wetland could however, a better ability to define ecosystem resilience, “affect the whole ecosystem on a massive scale” (Khan the parameters that affect it, and related impacts et al. 2005). on ecosystem service delivery in the face of climate At Balukhali, the lake fish resources are already in rapid change is needed (Pettorelli 2012). Hossain et al. decline due to reductions in rainfall and lake water (2013) describe concerns about wetland ecosystems levels. The current Department of Fisheries programme in Bangladesh, where changes to temperature and releasing fingerlings into the lake may soon cease to rainfall patterns could lead to dramatic shifts in the be viable, with dramatic impacts on fisher livelihoods type and structure of such ecosystems. This will have and income. consequences for livelihoods because roughly 80% of rural households depend heavily on wetland resources and wetlands provide around 46% of all fish consumed in Bangladesh (Hossain et al. 2013). Reaching the Most Observed ecosystem changes at both study sites in Vulnerable Bangladesh can be attributed to a number of factors, Both the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the some of which may be related to climate change, but Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change assert that most of which are due to other major stressors such as changes to natural systems, climate change induced flooding due to dam construction by Balukhali Village, or otherwise, will affect the poorest and the most or road, culvert, bridge and sluice gate construction vulnerable worst. This is in part because their livelihoods at Chanda Beel. As the impacts of climate change are so heavily reliant on natural resources, such as intensify, however, it is likely that they will magnify and fishing, agriculture and other forms of land or marine intensify the pressures already experienced by these management. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment semi-natural ecosystems, and increase the likelihood of (2005) argues that the harmful effects of ecosystem abrupt and potentially irreversible change. service degradation “are being borne disproportionately There is established but incomplete evidence that by the poor, are contributing to growing inequities changes (climate change related and otherwise) and disparities across groups of people, and are being made in ecosystems globally are increasing the sometimes the principal factor causing poverty and likelihood of nonlinear changes in those ecosystems social conflict.” Women are particularly vulnerable to (including accelerating, abrupt, and potentially climate change (UNDP 2010), as are children (Lawler irreversible changes). This has important consequences 2011; Plush 2009). This appears to be the situation in for human well-being (Millennium Ecosystem Balukhali where poor families relying on fishing and day Assessment 2005) and human resilience (Malik 2014). labour suffer most due to changes to the ecosystem For example, once a nutrient loading threshold is and available natural resources from Kaptai Lake and

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the surrounding area, even though horticulture has 1994. Whilst the formation of Kaptai Lake flooded provided them with some new employment and income much fertile agricultural land near Balukhali Village, it generating opportunities. facilitated livelihood diversification into fishing during fallow months. The situation at Chanda Beel, however, is more complicated. Here, wetland destruction has gone hand- The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) in-hand with the dramatic expansion and diversification acknowledges this issue of trade-offs and describes of agriculture and also improved market access, thus how actions to increase one ecosystem service often opening up a range of income-earning opportunities cause the degradation of other services, which in (such as carpentry, transport sector work) mostly for turn can cause significant harm to human well-being. men, but also for women, many of whom are pleased For example, actions to increase food production to be working alongside men in the fields. Fishers are typically involve increased use of water and fertilizers known to be amongst the poorest and most vulnerable or expansion of the cultivated land area. This often societal groups in Bangladesh (Deb and Haque 2011; degrades other ecosystem services such as water Deb et al. 2014) and many have become unemployed or availability and quality or forest cover, which can have left Chanda Beel, but others have found new unskilled major impacts when non-linear change occurs or work, and those who are extremely poor (who rely thresholds for ecosystem functioning are crossed. mainly on subsistence agriculture and fishing) are now Temporal trade-offs may occur over time. For example in a smaller minority than they were before the shift to Chanda Beel, adaptive capacity increases from current agriculture. The dramatic changes to the ecosystem agricultural practices may only be short- or medium- have not necessarily made their lives worse. term if wetland salinity levels increase making agriculture It is important to note, however, that this study looks only less viable at certain times of the year. The use of at a snapshot in time. Whether the overall perceived modern agricultural techniques has already reduced improvements in people’s situations continue has yet soil fertility and polluted water bodies. The longer- to be seen. The ACCRA Local Adaptive Capacity term impacts of this are also unknown, but if this trend Framework (Table 4) stresses the importance of continues and the ecosystem services on which future characteristics that can secure future as well as current generations could rely on are substantially diminished, adaptive capacity, but even this is weak on long-term future adaptive capacity could be dramatically altered. adaptive capacity, which has not been assessed at The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) either site in this study. argues that because of the substantial inertia that exists in ecological systems, and the resulting slow speed at which the implications of ecosystem change Trade-offs become apparent, it is difficult to assess the result of these changes on human well-being. For example, EbA is sometimes presented as a win-win-win for the accumulation of phosphorus in many agricultural poverty reduction, climate change adaptation and soils threatens rivers, lakes and coastal oceans with biodiversity conservation. For example Colls et al. eutrophication, but it may take decades for the full (2009) state “Reducing ecosystem degradation is a no impact of this to become apparent. At Balukhali too, the regrets, win-win approach to adaptation.” Results from medium-term adaptive value of horticulture, high yielding study sites described here, however, make it clear that crop varieties and vegetable cultivation could diminish if dramatically altering an ecosystem or replacing it with the rainfall decreases predicted reduce water availability another leads instead to a number of trade-offs, rather for irrigation. Likewise, if fishing in Lake Kaptai ceases than the all-round benefits or costs assumed by some to be viable, the long-term adaptive value of fishing for advocates of EbA. Hossain et al. (2013) argue that a local livelihoods could disappear. cost-benefit analysis of the modifications common to many floodplain environments in Bangladesh since the Trade-offs occur between social groups or stakeholders. 1960s indicate that most of projects were unsuccessful For example, in Chanda Beel, fishers have suffered from because they did not consider the whole socio- degradation of the wetland, but many of those employed ecological system. But degradation of the wetland in agricultural work have benefitted, notably women. ecosystem in Chanda Beel has led to opportunities Women have also been involved in new horticultural (and consequent increases in wealth and local adaptive activities at Balukhali. capacity) from agriculture. Rouillard et al. (2014) note, Spatial trade-offs in the costs and benefits of ecosystem however, that whilst water management for the purposes changes may also be experienced between locations, irrigation has increased irrigated areas, stabilised often at some distance from where the ecosystem farmers’ income, and fostered economic development, was changed. For example, changes in upstream it has increased the potential for large-scale disasters, catchments may affect water flow and water quality such as crop failure due to drought, and extreme downstream. Problems can arise where the boundaries floods breaching the embankments as occurred in of ecosystems do not correspond to political or

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administrative boundaries (Reid 2014a). The flooding The absence of a wetland resource management plan of fertile agricultural land near Balukhali Village, for means the Beel faces the over-exploitation and loss of example, is as a result of a demand for power from important resources (Ghosh and Mondal 2012). The distant cities like Dhaka. Rouillard et al. (2014) comment lack of regulations imposed on snail harvesting, for on this in the context of integrated water resource example, could dramatically alter the wetland ecosystem management strategies to increase adaptive capacity because of the central role that snails play in ecosystem in Bangladesh, where management at hydrologically functioning (Khan et al. 2005). Likewise improved fish relevant scales is often inconsistent with the social- conservation practices and management would help political scales for decision making. Flooding in Chanda enhance local long-term adaptive capacity. Chakraborty Beel may result in part from decisions made about et al. (2005) note the absence of policy/legislative river basin water management far from the local area. measures and institutional arrangements for Chanda Ensuring synergies between scales is a key requirement Beel wetland management more generally, although for adaptive capacity, but very difficult to realise ‘baira’ extension centres and committees have been in practice. established there (Hussain and Chowdhury 2005). This reflects analysis by scholars working on wetlands elsewhere in Bangladesh, which clearly shows the Institutions, policies and importance of appropriate and strong institutions, governance mechanisms and policies for improving governance adaptive capacity. Deb and Haque (2011) comment on The availability of ecosystems and ecosystem services is the system established by the Ministry of Land whereby just one component of resilience and adaptive capacity. waterbodies are leased out, and through the process of Control over and access to these resources, and sub-leasing and several layers of intermediaries, actual indeed over other non-ecosystem related components fishers are subject to ‘rack renting’ (a form of economic of resilience, is another. Ultimately, providing political subjugation), and are ultimately unlikely to be able to eke and institutional structures – such as secure land and out a decent living from fishing alone. Khan and Haque resources use rights – may be at least as important as (2010) reiterate that these top-down management maintaining a well-functioning ecosystem. Participation regimes involving the leasing of wetland property in decision making for good CBA is essential to rights encourage exploitation by powerful elites and capitalise on opportunities drawing upon traditional/ increased marginalization and vulnerability of fishers. local knowledge to inform adaptation options and They recommend adoption of a community-based ensure communities are framing the problem and not or co-management approach to improve efficiency just the solution for initiatives implemented (Reid et al. and minimise the marginalization and vulnerability 2009b; Reid and Schipper 2014; Ayers et al. 2012). of local resource users, and Rouillard et al. (2014) Dodman and Mitlin (2013) argue, however, that whilst recommend the involvement of local institutions in water CBA has emphasised the importance of participatory management projects to improve adaptive capacity. tools, it often does little to build up links with political Hossain et al. (2013) call for stronger institutional and structures above the level of the settlement. Reid legislative and management responses to improve (2014b) reiterates that CBA and EbA should do more to adaptive capacity in coastal wetlands in Bangladesh, address the institutional, governance and policy context including fair trade policies, support for renewable in which initiatives operate, as this will be pivotal to their energy, fish sanctuary development and prohibition of ultimate success. This is as true for local institutions as fishing during breeding months. for the higher level institutions and policies on which In Balukhali Village, the government decision to invest in communities depend. Rai et al. (2014) argue that three hydro-electric power led to the formation of Kaptai Lake, ‘building blocks’ are needed for mainstreaming climate which flooded large amounts of important fertile arable resilience into development planning: an enabling land used by the community. Furthermore, decisions environment (including political will and information about managing dam water levels have made farming services), development planning (including institutional more difficult because commitments made to keep arrangements and policy and budgetary frameworks) water at certain levels during different seasons have not and projects and programmes. Dixit et al. (2012) always been met. describe the five key functions for national institutions that are critical for local adaptation: assessment, ARCAB acknowledges the importance of local prioritization, coordination, information management and institutions having the resources, mandate and capacity climate risk management. to integrate and support adaptation (Figure 1), and whilst the case studies described here provide little In Chanda Beel, for example, the institutional capacity detail on the local institutional context, they illustrate the of local government institutes and non-government importance of addressing the institutional, governance organizations in the area to address climate change and policy context in which communities sit in order to and climate change related problems needs enhancing. improve local adaptive capacity.

34 www.iied.org IIED Working paper 9 Conclusions

These research findings support those calling for more other scales (e.g. the watershed management scale) attention to be paid to EbA as a response to climate to create an enabling institutional environment that can change. The default response to climate change address ecosystem functions. adaptation from many policy makers is engineered ‘hard’ • Maintain ecosystem services at multiple scales infrastructure. In Bangladesh in particular, little attention (e.g. replanting deforested slopes, managing water has historically been given to ecosystem-based flood resources on a catchment-wide scale with multi- management measures (Rouillard et al. 2014). Two- stakeholder participation, restoring and replanting thirds of funding allocated from the Bangladesh Climate mangroves). Change Trust Fund, for example, has been designated for water infrastructure projects in coastal areas, and • Increase ecosystem resilience by removing Rai et al. (2014) argue that this “overemphasis on non-climate stresses and promoting ecosystem infrastructure” benefits “those at the top of the income management and restoration. This is important for ladder while ignoring the rural communities at risk.” maintaining ecosystem functioning and service Infrastructure-based approaches can be detrimental to provision. For example, conserve and restore forests important ecological processes (Munroe et al. 2011), for by preventing forest fragmentation, restoring corridors, example sea walls affect the migration of mangroves as avoiding over-use of resources and reducing risk sea levels rise (Girot et al. 2011), and dykes and dams of forest fires to increase their resilience to climate disrupt the annual flooding of floodplains. The IPCC change. Adopting a precautionary approach in this reiterates that engineered defences such as dams, sea way is important given the uncertainty about how walls and levees adversely affect biodiversity, potentially climate change (and other stressors) will affect resulting in maladaptation due to damage to ecosystem ecosystems. regulating services. It argues that EbA can be combined • Facilitate ecosystem adaptation (recognising that with, or even used as a substitute for, engineered ecosystems and natural resources will not remain infrastructure or other technological approaches (IPCC stationary in the face of climate change). For example, 2014). Reid (2014a) state that “well-managed, stable, providing forest corridors along gradients to help key diverse ecosystems can make a significant contribution species, such as pollinators, seed dispersers and to local adaptation efforts.” Restoring and alleviating medicinal plants, migrate as temperatures rise. Or other stresses on ecosystems can help them survive providing space for mangroves to migrate inland when and adapt to climate change and continue supporting sea levels rise. human adaptation (IPCC 2014; Colls et al. 2009). • Integrate local and traditional knowledge with Jeans et al. (2014) and Reid and Schipper (2014) scientific knowledge on natural resource/ecosystem provide some practical guidance on how to integrate management for livelihoods/human well-being. ecosystems into adaptation strategies and programmes, including those on CBA: • Promote partnerships that bring together local communities and decision-makers with development, • As well as working the local community level, think conservation and disaster risk reduction communities and plan at the spatial scales that ecosystems operate of practice. at, and engage with institutions operating at these

www.iied.org 35 Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation | Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

• Ensure the full extent of ecosystem services and A greater understanding of the thresholds, boundaries values is included in any assessment of costs and and tipping points across a range of EbA in varying benefits for adaptation planning. climatic zones is needed as these determine whether ecosystems can continue to fulfil their required • Monitor and manage ecosystem change to support functions under particular conditions, and what type ongoing human and ecosystem resilience and of EbA approaches might best be applied in different adaptation. situations. More detailed comparisons between EbA There are other components of adaptive capacity and and alternative adaptation strategies are needed, taking resilience, such as new technologies and education, into account the social, environmental and economic which have not emerged so strongly from this costs and trade-offs (at different temporal, geographic research. They may, however, be no less important. and social scales) as well as benefits and synergies. New technologies such as hydroponics and floating Better quantification of the multiplicity of co-benefits vegetable gardens could improve resilience in Chanda (disaster risk reduction, food security, water provisioning Beel. Hossain et al. (2013) suggest training and better etc.) and costs EbA delivers is needed. The published awareness on environmental issues in addition to evidence base is skewed towards particular climate improving literacy would help increase adaptive capacity change impacts and particular types of ecosystems in the south western coastal district of Narail. Khan et and ecosystem services (for example disaster risk al. (2005) describe efforts in Chanda Beel to educate reduction from planting mangroves). In terms of communities about the ecological and economic sectors, a recent review of existing evidence (Doswald importance of snails in the wetland. Chakraborty et al. et al. 2014) found that most of the interventions using (2005) emphasise the importance of raising community EbA addressed agriculture and the loss of biomass awareness about wetland resources in Chanda Beel. cover and productivity as their main target, with Porras et al. (2013) also emphasise the importance of water, coastal protection, the provision of alternative characteristics such as landowner education levels on livelihoods, forestry and urban areas also important the outcomes of ‘payments for environmental services’ targets. Evidence regarding the effectiveness of EbA in schemes in Costa Rica. Ensor and Berger (2009) response to other climate impacts and in other sectors stress the importance of engaging communities in is weaker. A further gap in the evidence base for EbA discussions around the concepts that underpin climate is on social assessments, and how groups of people change in a way that makes sense to them rather than are differentially affected by different interventions or through using abstract scientific concepts. approaches. This is crucial because the impacts of climate change often disproportionately affect the most Experiential field-based EbA activities are proliferating, vulnerable communities and groups (Reid 2014a). but more objective rigorous analysis and learning is Lastly, a better understanding of how to monitor and needed in order to assess the conditions under which evaluate (M&E) EbA is needed, because existing CBA EbA works, and what the benefits, costs and limitations M&E tools are weak on ecosystem components, and are compared to other adaptation options. A number how to secure appropriate institutional and policy of scholars and practitioners have noted the need for support for effective EbA mainstreaming into relevant stronger evidence on EbA, which has a relatively short national and local adaptation policies and broader history of learning and practice (Reid 2014a: Colls et national planning frameworks. al. 2009). Much ‘grey literature’ focuses on trying to advocate for the adoption of EbA without including obvious measures of effectiveness (Munroe et al. 2012). This paper goes some way towards providing evidence on EbA effectiveness, particularly on the roles that ecosystems and ecosystem services play in increasing adaptive capacity and reducing vulnerability, but much more research and analysis is needed to fill the evidence gaps identified.

36 www.iied.org IIED Working paper References

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www.iied.org 39 Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation (EbA) involve the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to help people adapt to the adverse effects of climate change. Those who are most vulnerable to climate change are often highly reliant on the natural environment for their lives and livelihoods, and ecosystems and the services they provide are already central to many adaptation strategies. This paper describes two components of effective EbA: ecosystem resilience and the maintenance of ecosystem services. Research assesses how effectively EbA supports community adaptive capacity and resilience at two Action Research for Community Adaptation in Bangladesh (ARCAB) sites. Findings suggest that more attention should be paid to EbA as an important response to climate change.

IIED is a policy and action research organisation. We promote sustainable development to improve livelihoods and protect the environments on which these livelihoods are built. We specialise in linking local priorities to global challenges. IIED is based in London and works in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the Pacific, with some of the world’s most vulnerable people. We work with them to strengthen their voice in the decision-making arenas that affect them — from village councils to international conventions.

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This research was funded by UK aid from the UK Government, however the views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the UK Government.