scholarly journals Responding to Climate-Induced Displacement in Bangladesh: A Governance Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7788
Author(s):  
Chakma Kisinger ◽  
Kenichi Matsui

Population displacement by extreme weather events have long plagued Bangladesh, a low-lying disaster-prone river delta. The country experiences yearly displacement of approximately one million people and losses of about 1% of its gross domestic product due to cyclones, floods, and riverbank erosion. This study examines how the Bangladesh government has managed climate-induced displacement with a particular focus on socioeconomic development policies. We analyzed the country’s 1984 Land Reform Ordinance, the 2009 climate change strategy and action plan, the 1997 agricultural khasland settlement policy, perspective plan for 2010–2021, poverty reduction strategy paper, and five-year plans to understand governance changes for displaced communities. We found that, overall, the central government implemented four main strategies. In the first strategy, Bangladesh resettled displaced people in cluster villages on public lands. Then, it provided life skills training (e.g., leadership, disaster preparedness, income generation) to rehabilitate the residents. The third strategy was to align resettlement efforts with local-level climate change adaptation and poverty reduction activities. Here, the central government and its seventeen departments collaborated with local councils to support resettled households under the social safety program. The fourth strategy was to diversify financial resources by obtaining more fund from donors and establishing its own financial mechanism. However, we also found that the decision-making and implementation process remained top-down without need assessment and community participation. This paper intends to offer insights on how similar challenged countries and regions may respond to climate displacement in the future.

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Arriagada ◽  
Paulina Aldunce ◽  
Gustavo Blanco ◽  
Cecilia Ibarra ◽  
Pilar Moraga ◽  
...  

Multilateral efforts are essential to an effective response to climate change, but individual nations define climate action policy by translating local and global objectives into adaptation and mitigation actions. We propose a conceptual framework to explore opportunities for polycentric climate governance, understanding polycentricity as a property that encompasses the potential for coordinating multiple centers of semiautonomous decision-making. We assert that polycentrism engages a diverse array of public and private actors for a more effective approach to reducing the threat of climate change. In this way, polycentrism may provide an appropriate strategy for addressing the many challenges of climate governance in the Anthropocene. We review two Chilean case studies: Chile’s Nationally Determined Contribution on Climate Change and the Chilean National Climate Change Action Plan. Our examination demonstrates that Chile has included a diversity of actors and directed significant financial resources to both processes. The central government coordinated both of these processes, showing the key role of interventions at higher jurisdictional levels in orienting institutional change to improve strategic planning and better address climate change. Both processes also provide some evidence of knowledge co-production, while at the same time remaining primarily driven by state agencies and directed by technical experts. Efforts to overcome governance weaknesses should focus on further strengthening existing practices for climate change responses, establishing new institutions, and promoting decision-making that incorporates diverse social actors and multiple levels of governance. In particular, stronger inclusion of local level actors provides an opportunity to enhance polycentric modes of governance and improve climate change responses. Fully capitalizing on this opportunity requires establishing durable communication channels between different levels of governance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan M. Pulhin ◽  
Maricel A. Tapia-Villamayor ◽  
Catherine L. de Luna ◽  
Rex Victor O. Cruz ◽  
Aileen S. Peria ◽  
...  

Climate Disaster Risk Assessment (CDRA) and Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP) provide the scientific and legal platform for climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Philippines. This APN CAPaBLE project responds to the limited technical capacity of local government units (LGUs) to comply with this requirement through collaborative capacity building. Evaluation of CDRA and LCCAP led to a National Interagency Technical and Policy Forum to formulate action plans and fast-track preparations. The initial stage of the project demonstrated collaborative advantage as a condition for mobilizing human and financial resources was enabled. Collaborative inertia set in once the technical limitations of Aurora LGUs surfaced to complete the CDRA. This mirrored the results of the institutional capacity survey, administered to 87 disaster risk reduction and management Technical Working Group (TWG) members, highlighting the LGUs limitations in data availability and functional knowledge on climate change. Thus, a shift in capacity building strategy through focused mentoring and managing LGU expectations was done. The Aurora LGUs successfully completed its CDRA and LCCAP requirements through a lengthy and arduous process. It was acknowledged that CDRA preparation has a steep learning curve and competes heavily with other multiple functions and pressing demands from the LGUs. The national interagency forum resolution suggested that the CDRA be assigned to another government agency while LGUs shift capacity development initiatives to understanding and mainstreaming scientific assessment into local plans. The project experience highlights the difficult, yet promising, path to human security development and resilience building and underscored prudence and urgency of adaptation planning at the local level.


2021 ◽  
pp. 80-103
Author(s):  
Alice Beban

This chapter shows how the land titling reform worked to wrest power away from local-level officials into the hands of the central government. It talks about local officials that managed to amass land by clearing forest in expectation of the land reform, while in other areas local people mobilized to prevent the elite's capture of the reform and produce new relationships with local officials. It also examines the relationships between local state officials and their constituencies during the Order 01 land reform. The chapter reviews the leopard skin land reform, which can be seen as the prime minister's attempt to wrest control over land distribution from local authorities in upland areas. It analyzes the rural people's narratives that suggest multiple strategies local authorities and other elites used to grab land, such as clearing forestland in advance of the land survey.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Man Bahadur Khattri

This paper focuses on cultural analysis and how people are coping with new situation created by climate change in production of millet. Changes relating to climate change are observed; perceived and understood on a local level. This is an important area of study for anthropologists and it is interest of climate scientists as well. This paper is based on anthropological analysis on climate change effects on finger millet production in Argal VDC of Baglung district, West of Nepal. Millet is a staple food of people of Argal and most of Hill people of Nepal. Millet is not only staple food and associated with nutrition of people. It's also associated with rituals during production and as well as during consumption. Increasing temperature, changing rainfall patterns, extreme weather events are linked with climate change which has direct effect on life of all people but also millet production and ritual activities. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v6i0.8481 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 6, 2012 107-124


2018 ◽  
Vol 138 (5) ◽  
pp. 282-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
JT Walker

Climate change is predicted to have a major impact on people’s lives with the recent extreme weather events and varying abnormal temperature profiles across the world raising concerns. The impacts of global warming are already being observed, from rising sea levels and melting snow and ice to changing weather patterns. Scientists state unequivocally that these trends cannot be explained by natural variability in climate alone. Human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels, have warmed the earth by dramatically increasing concentrations of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere; as these concentrations increase, the more the earth will warm. Climate change and related extreme weather events are being exacerbated sooner than has previously been considered and are already adversely affecting ecosystems and human health by increasing the burden and type of disease at a local level. Changes to the marine environment and freshwater supplies already affect significant parts of the world’s population and warmer temperatures, especially in more temperate regions, may see an increased spread and transmission of diseases usually associated with warmer climes including, for example, cholera and malaria; these impacts are likely to become more severe in a greater number of countries. This review discusses the impacts of climate change including changes in infectious disease transmission, patterns of waterborne diseases and the likely consequences of climate change due to warmer water, drought, higher rainfall, rising sea levels and flooding.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mavrommatis ◽  
Damigos ◽  
Mirasgedis

Changing climate conditions affect mining operations all over the world, but so far, the mining sector has focused primarily on mitigation actions. Nowadays, there exists increasing recognition of the need for planned adaptation actions. To this end, the development of a practical tool for the assessment of climate change-related risks to support the mining community is deemed necessary. In this study, a comprehensive framework is proposed for climate change multi-risk assessment at the local level customized for the needs of the mining industry. The framework estimates the climate change risks in economic terms by modeling the main activities that a mining company performs, in a probabilistic model, using Bayes’ theorem. The model permits incorporating inherent uncertainty via fuzzy logic and is implemented in two versatile ways: as a discrete Bayesian network or as a conditional linear Gaussian network. This innovative quantitative methodology produces probabilistic outcomes in monetary values estimated either as percentage of annual loss revenue or net loss/gains value. Finally, the proposed framework is the first multi-risk methodology in the mining context that considers all the relevant hazards caused by climate change extreme weather events, which offers a tool for selecting the most cost-effective action among various adaptation strategies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 2150005
Author(s):  
Marisa Fuchs ◽  
Tanja Schnittfinke ◽  
Kristina Ohlmeyer ◽  
Dietwald Gruehn ◽  
Stefan Greiving

The effects of climate change and associated extreme weather events such as heat, storms and heavy rainfall lead to considerable damage to property and personal injury worldwide. To counteract the causes and consequences of climate change, many states, regions and cities worldwide declared the status of climate emergency in 2019. As a result, scientists and urban planners intensified their efforts to develop appropriate mechanisms and measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change and its consequences. This paper presents an informal systematic and user-driven governance instrument, which examines the ecological, social and economic effects of urban interventions – the ‘Sustainability Check’. As a target-based assessment tool, it provides decision-makers with information about the extent to which a planned intervention corresponds with future-oriented urban development. The check results from the research project ZUKUR (‘Future of the Urban Region Ruhr’), in which researchers and practitioners from the City of Bottrop (Germany) worked together in a real-world laboratory. The Sustainability Check is novel because it combines elements of an impact assessment tailored to user needs and links sustainable urban development goals with resilient and environmentally just urban development at the local level. Based on the first application, we conclude that the Sustainability Check significantly contributes to developing a future-oriented city. Adapted to the local and context-specific needs of a city, it offers systematic consideration of the requirements of sustainable, resilient and environmentally just urban development in an efficient manner and at the early-stage.


Author(s):  
Morgan Levison ◽  
Ainslie Butler ◽  
Steven Rebellato ◽  
Brenda Armstrong ◽  
Marina Whelan ◽  
...  

Climate change is negatively impacting the health of Canadians and is accordingly expected to have a significant impact on public health agencies and their response to these health impacts throughout the twenty-first century. While national and international research and assessments have explored the potential human health impacts of climate change, few assessments have explored the implications of climate change from a local public health perspective. An applied research approach to expand local knowledge and action of health vulnerabilities through a climate change action plan and vulnerability assessment was utilized by a local public health agency. Adoption and adaptation of the approach used may be valuable for public health organizations to assist their communities. Through completing a vulnerability assessment, an evidentiary base was generated for public health to inform adaptation actions to reduce negative health impacts and increase resiliency. Challenges in completing vulnerability assessments at the local level include the framing and scoping of health impacts and associated indicators, as well as access to internal expertise surrounding the analysis of data. While access to quantitative data may be limiting at the local level, qualitative data can enhance knowledge of local impacts, while also supporting the creation of key partnerships with community stakeholders which can ensure climate action continues beyond the scope of the vulnerability assessment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (Suppl. 4) ◽  
pp. 1001-1010
Author(s):  
Marina Nenkovic-Riznic ◽  
Borjan Brankov ◽  
Snezana Petrovic ◽  
Mila Pucar

Given that mankind has occasionally been exposed to the devastation of catastrophic proportions throughout its history (extreme weather events, natural dis-asters, bioterrorism, and pandemics are having an increased global impact), which are increasing in the 20th century due to climate change, the risk reduction measures are being taken at the global level to reduce the severity of the consequences. Natural and technological disasters in the European countries have caused significant loss of life and damage to structures and infrastructure, which has led to the ratification of conventions at the world level in the field of disaster preparedness (Hyogo Framework for Action and Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Management). Hospitals and other healthcare facilities are amongst those most jeopardized. The paper gives an overview of the methodology in the field of defining the resilience of healthcare facilities through determining the hospital safety index. Through the application of this and other methodologies in a case study conducted in Serbia, the paper examines the direct correlations between hospital safety index and climate change. Paper gives the results of hospital safety index calculation considering modules 2-4 and possibilities for the potential use of the module 1 (research on hazards) in separate evaluation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted Hsuan Yun Chen ◽  
Boyoon Lee

Residential relocation following extreme weather events is among the costliest individual-level measures of climate change adaptation. Consequently, they are fraught with inequalities, with disadvantaged groups most adversely impacted. As climate change continues to exacerbate extreme weather events, it is imperative that we better understand how existing socioeconomic inequalities affect climate migration and how they may be offset. In this study we use network regression models to look at how internal migration patterns in the United States vary by disaster-related property damage, household income, and local-level disaster resilience. Our results show that post-disaster migration patterns vary considerably by the income level of sending and receiving counties, which suggests that income-based inequality impacts both access to relocation for individuals and the ability to rebuild for disaster-afflicted areas. We further find evidence that these inequalities are attenuated in areas with higher disaster resilience. However, because existing resilience incentivizes in situ incremental adaptation which can be a long term drain on individual wellbeing and climate adaptation resources, they should be balanced with policies that encourage relocation where appropriate.


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