Mubin S Khan reveals how innovative fishing and agri-techniques and sensitising rural communities to their vulnerabilities to climate change could go a long way in helping Bangladesh brave the worst excesses of more intense monsoons, rising coastal salinity and the desertification in the northern parts of the country

According to the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)— the apex international body of scientists who are researching climate change — adaptation implies ‘adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities’.According to the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)— the apex international body of scientists who are researching climate change — adaptation implies ‘adjustment in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities’.
   In a language more familiar to those involved in risk management and development:
   ‘Adaptation is about reducing the risks posed by climate change to people’s lives and livelihoods.’
   Essentially, for Bangladesh, climate change adaptations includes incorporating measures and programmes which acknowledge, address, and find alternative sources to reduce and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
   Bangladesh stands vulnerable to climate change in many areas. One of the major sectors to be affected will be water resources. ‘With the length of floods growing shorter, the frequency becoming higher and the timing of floods becoming unpredictable, supply of freshwater has already become an issue in the country,’ according to a recent study authored by M Asaduzzaman of BIDS and Ahsan Ahmed of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad. ‘The floods will further affect agriculture, infrastructure, settlements and health both in urban and rural areas,’ the authors add.
   The northwestern parts of the country are threatened with frequent droughts, the high temperature affecting agriculture, fisheries and livestock as well as food security and health. Meanwhile the central parts of the country are getting too much rain, and the south is faced with an entirely different set of perils. ‘You’ll notice that last year, when we were having severe floods in the south and central parts of the country, there were droughts in the north, and farmers were having to irrigate to get enough water into their paddy fields,’ says Nishat. ‘The rise in sea level, with most elevations in Bangladesh under 10m, will create salinity intrusion in the coastal areas,’ says Saleemul Huq, a director of the Climate Change Programme at the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development. The coastal areas are also under risk of cyclones and tidal affects. The cyclones in turn will also affect marine fishing and infrastructure.
   ‘General human health will also be affected not only by the disasters but we might also have climate conditions more favourable for parasites and pathogens,’ the study adds.
   In 2001, the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decided that all least developed countries under the UNFCCC would prepare a National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA). The NAPA would identify immediate and urgent needs for adaptation to climate change. In November 2005, the final report of NAPA, Bangladesh, under the ministry of environment and forest, was drafted. The report was prepared based on four regional stakeholder consultation workshops in the northwest, southwest, northeast and southeast regions of the country.
   The NAPA suggested 15 projects defined by ‘immediate and urgent’ needs, as in delay in implementation will increase vulnerability or increase adaptation costs later. The first project suggests promoting coastal crop agriculture to combat increasing salinity through maize production under Wet Bed No-tillage Method and Sorjan systems of cropping in tidally flooded agro-ecosystem.
   ‘It will help tidal surge affected communities who have lost their aman rice crop to recover before the next boro rice crop,’ according to the NAPA. Tragically, this is exactly the situation that farmers in the south are now faced with in the wake of the devastation caused by Cyclone SIDR. ‘It will also help to meet fuel and fodder need of the community and also produce selected vegetables and fruits on the raised bed,’ the report further suggests.
   A lot of the measures suggested in the NAPA are programmes that have already been introduced in the country, because of Bangladesh’s general vulnerability to natural disasters. Cyclone shelters, disaster management, flood forecasting and warning are all measures that have been in place for a while, though, they may be effective, to the extent which will successfully address the impacts of climate change.
   Cage aquaculture is also coming up as a promising venture for optimum use of water resource without disturbing the surrounding ecosystem. Cage pisciculture is an aquaculture production system where fish are held in floating net pens. Cages are widely used in commercial aquaculture overseas and individual cage units come in all shapes and sizes and can be tailored to suit individual farmer’s needs.
   According to CARE, 274 households households are growing vegetables in floating gardens in waterlogged areas. Duck rearing is also an effective option in waterlogged and flood-prone areas. Over 1700 households are now raising ducks.
   To promote drought-resistant crops/vegetables, One NGO is working with beneficiaries to introduce crops such as groundnuts and watermelon that can be grown under drought conditions when cultivation of usual crops is impossible.
   Several community level adaptation strategies and corresponding measures have also been taken to complement the work being done at the household level. The approach taken is to work with UP chairs, members and community leaders to build their capacity to plan and implement community level measures that will reduce threats from the vulnerability contexts.
   Despite, the measures taken, experts believe that the government needs to integrate further programmes to act immediately on climate change. Most importantly, at the highest level of the government, climate change must be taken in to account at major policy levels, or else, all the efforts taken at the micro level may fall short. ‘We need to integrate the policies in to the sectoral programs and plans,’ says Mozharul Alam, a research fellow at the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies and the national project coordinator for Bangladesh NAPA.
   When the Bangladesh delegation travels to Bali in December, one of the main issues will be the funding of adaptation measures. ‘The size of global funding on adaptation measures needs to be increased a hundred times,’ says Nishat. ‘The developing countries including LDC’s alone need 50 to 60 billion dollars per year to address their adaptation needs,’ says Mozhar.
   Can we adapt ourselves out of this problem? ‘We have no choice,’ says Nishat. ‘The costs of doing nothing are too high.’