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

Climate and Development ISSN: 1756-5529 (Print) 1756-5537 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcld20 Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation: evidence from two sites in Bangladesh Hannah Reid & Sarder Shafiqul Alam To cite this article: Hannah Reid & Sarder Shafiqul Alam (2016): Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation: evidence from two sites in Bangladesh, Climate and Development To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2016.1167663 Published online: 22 May 2016. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tcld20 Download by: [Hannah Reid] Date: 23 May 2016, At: 01:26 Climate and Development, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2016.1167663 RESEARCH ARTICLE Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation: evidence from two sites in Bangladesh Hannah Reida* and Sarder Shafiqul Alamb aClimate Change Group and Biodiversity Team, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London, UK; bInternational Centre for Climate Change and Development, Independent University, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Received 18 June 2015; accepted 12 January 2016) 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. This research looks at two components of effective EbA: ecosystem resilience and the maintenance of ecosystem services. It assesses EbA effectiveness in terms of how such approaches support community adaptive capacity and resilience at two sites in Bangladesh: Chanda Beel wetland and Balukhali Village in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Research findings suggest that more attention should be paid to EbA as an important climate-change response. Results show that the many diverse natural resources available and utilized at each site have increased the number of different subsistence and livelihood options available in the community and hence local adaptive capacity, especially for poorer households. Major structural shifts in ecosystem functioning observed at each site to date can be attributed primarily to non-climate-change-related factors, although climate-change-related factors increasingly threaten to dramatically alter ecosystems, especially in Chanda Beel. Such shifts have important consequences for adaptive capacity and have led to a number of trade-offs. The lack of effective institutions, good governance and enabling policy at both sites has limited potential resilience gains from sound ecosystem management. Keywords: climate change; adaptation; ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation; ecosystem-based adaptation; community- based adaptation; Bangladesh 1. Introduction livelihoods. Ecosystems and the services they provide are Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation (EbA) are already the foundation of many adaptation actions, especially defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity for poor people, and many also deliver livelihood and fi (CBD) 2nd Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group on Biodiver- climate-change mitigation co-bene ts. There is also some sity and Climate Change as “the use of biodiversity and evidence that EbA can be cost effective (Rao et al., 2013). ecosystem services to help people adapt to the adverse A study of the National Adaptation Programmes of effects of climate change as part of an overall adaptation Action (NAPAs) of the Least Developed Countries strategy” (CBD, 2009, p. 41). This definition was elabo- (LDCs) shows that many LDCs recognize and prioritize rated by the CBD decision X/33 on Climate Change and the role that biodiversity, ecosystems and natural habitats Downloaded by [Hannah Reid] at 01:26 23 May 2016 Biodiversity as including “sustainable management, con- play in adaptation. The study found that some 56% of pri- fi servation and restoration of ecosystems, as part of an ority NAPA projects reviewed had signi cant natural overall adaptation strategy that takes into account the mul- resource components. In Bangladesh, 6 of 15 priority fi tiple social, economic and cultural co-benefits for local NAPA projects have a signi cant natural resources com- communities” (CBD, 2010, p. 3). ponent (Reid, Phillips, & Heath, 2009). fi Many now acknowledge the importance of ecosystems Although anecdotal evidence of the bene ts of EbA is and ecosystem services as a key component of adaptation strong, there is little rigorous evidence relating to EbA fi (Colls, Ash, & Ikkala, 2009; Doswald et al., 2014;Girot available in the scienti c literature (Doswald et al., 2014; et al., 2012; IPCC, 2014; Jeans, Oglethorpe, Phillips, & Reid, 2011). This research therefore seeks to assess evi- fi Reid, 2014; Munroe et al., 2012;Reid,2011, 2014a; dence from speci c Action Research for Community Adap- UNEP, 2012). This is because many of those who are most tation in Bangladesh (ARCAB) sites to test the hypothesis vulnerable to climate change are also highly reliant on eco- that EbA can contribute to community adaptive capacity systems and ecosystem services for their lives and and resilience. *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group 2 H. Reid and S. Shafiqul Alam 2. Ecosystem-based adaptation principles ecosystem resilience, and how it contributes to human resi- To assess the merits of EbA in the two selected ARCAB lience in the context of climate change. “ ” “ study sites, it is necessary to better understand how to An exclusive focus on natural resources or ecosys- ” define, measure and track EbA. The Nature Conservancy tem services in the context of adaptation ignores the fact “ argues that effective EbA have two key components: the that An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, maintenance of ecosystem services and ecosystem resili- animal, and microorganism communities and the non- ” ence (Thomas, 2011). The Millennium Ecosystem Assess- living environment interacting as a functional unit ment (MEA, 2005) also uses these two components in its (MEA, 2005). Central to the concept of EbA is the impor- analysis of how changes to ecosystems and their services tance of adopting a holistic approach to maintaining eco- affect human well-being. system structure and functioning and ecosystem service provision. Recognizing that ecosystems undergo change (due to 2.1. Maintenance of ecosystem services climate change and other stressors) is key (Girot et al., 2012). Climate-change impacts such as changes in sea Ecosystems provide a number of provisioning, regulating, levels, temperature and rainfall will affect the functionality cultural and supporting services (see Table 1). In the of ecosystems. Such changes can have significant social, “ context of climate-change adaptation, these natural cultural and economic consequences (Jeans et al., 2014). ” “ ” assets or ecosystem services include water provision, Observed changes in climate have already adversely erosion protection, climate regulation, disaster risk impacted certain species and ecosystems, including reduction and genetic diversity. causing changes in species distributions, population sizes, The MEA (2005) found that approximately 60% of the the timing of reproduction or migration events, and an ecosystem services examined had been degraded or used increase in the frequency of pest and disease outbreaks. fi unsustainably, including fresh water, capture sheries, air Further changes are inevitable (IPCC, 2014) and the fi and water puri cation, and the regulation of regional and MEA (2005) predicts that “By the end of the century, local climate, natural hazards and pests. This has worrying climate change and its impacts may be the dominant implications for the climate-vulnerable poor who are par- direct driver of biodiversity loss and changes in ecosystem ticularly reliant on these services and in some instances services globally”. are in poverty because of a reduction in these services. Ecosystems also have limits beyond which they cannot function. There is established but incomplete evidence that ecosystems are increasingly experiencing non-linear 2.2. Ecosystem resilience changes, including accelerating, abrupt and potentially Resilience means different things to those working in disas- irreversible shifts as a result of climate change and other ter management, climate change and ecosystems. In pressures. When limits are breached, the ecosystem may ecology and the natural sciences, resilience was tradition- no longer be able to provide the services on which ally understood as a property that allows a system to human communities have come to depend (MEA, 2005; recover its prior state after suffering a shock (Holling, Scheufele & Bennett, 2012). Examples include disease Downloaded by [Hannah Reid] at 01:26 23 May 2016 1973). The MEA (2005)defines resilience as “The capacity emergence, rainforest dieback, the creation of “dead of a system to tolerate impacts of drivers without irrevers- zones” in coastal waters and the collapse of fisheries ible change in its outputs or structure”. This article looks at (IPCC, 2014). Such dramatic changes affect people in Table 1. Ecosystem services. Provisioning services Regulating services Cultural services Supporting services • Food (capture fisheries, aquaculture, wild • Climate regulation (global, • Spiritual and • Nutrient cycling foods, livestock, forest products, crops) regional and local) religious values • Soil formation • Fresh water • Air quality regulation • Aesthetic

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