Transcript Dr Ram Boojh - Oceans Day at Cancun

Community Response towards
Climate Change Adaptation
Dr Ram Boojh
UNESCO New Delhi Office
Adaptive Response of Communities in Sunderban
Biosphere Reserve
• Sunderban located in West Bengal
in vast delta of the Ganges, south
of Kolkata bordering Bangladesh
• Largest contiguous mangrove
ecosystem (along with Bangladesh)
in the world
• Consists of 102 islands, among
them 48 are inhabited
• Population is mainly migrant settlers
from different parts of Bangladesh
and southern West Bengal for last
60 - 120 years
•
The People
•Approximately 4 million people live in Sunderban
•Fully dependent on the forest resources
•Agriculture is not properly developed due to many reasons
•Sunderban is under severe stress and the community is quite
vulnerable
•
•
Major Livelihood Activities
Practiced:
• Agriculture
• Fishery
• Wood
Collection
• Honey
Collection
Biodiversity
• Sunderban has the largest
mangrove diversity in the
world
including
several
threatened floral and faunal
species
• It is the only wetland tiger
habitat in the world.
• The core area (Sunderban
National Park) has been
designated as World Heritage
Site
Considerations
• Local communities perception: about
climate change, variability and extremes,
impacts (local and global environmental
and economic changes)
• Local knowledge about coping against
climatic change, variability and extreme
events in relation to biodiversity,
ecological services and livelihoods.
• Conservation and development policies
and programmes for enhancing local
capacities of adaptation or reducing
people’s vulnerability to likely climate
change scenarios- strengths and
weaknesses
• To strengthen adaptation through
collaborative efforts and networking
Observed climate change impacts
• Temperature:
• No major changes in recent past
• The span of summer season has
increased
• Span of winter has decreased
•
• Rainfall & Humidity :
• Rainfall has considerably increased (
known to be one and half times more
than what it was 15 years ago)
• The span of monsoon season has
shifted (approximately it is now
delayed by 15 - 20 days)
• The number of cloudy & humid
summer days has increased
Sea Level Rise
• Villagers
see
definite
changes in terms of sea
level rise
• They have seen sufficient
increase in the level of water
during high tide (Bhara
Kotal)
• Community
also
talked
about settlement of the local
habitat and river siltation as
major causes for flooding of
rivers
Climate change as percieved by
communities
• Intrusion of saline water into the farmland - loss of yields
and drinking water availability and people migrate
(environmental refugees)
• Change in monsoon pattern severe stress on agriculture
which is fully dependent on weather
• Increase in span of summer increases insect attack on
crops
• The delayed winter hampers the cultivation of “Ravi
Crop” ( winter crops)
• Increasing humidity leads to incremental phenomenon of
vector borne diseases
Building long term resilience
• Programmes targeted
towards adaptation
strategies to build long
term resilience.
• Local people make choices
daily, and Governments
with adequate assistance
must step up their
efforts to support them in
coping
Adaptive response
• Change in cultivation time in
anticipation of changed monsoon
(rains) pattern
• Growing weather resistant crops
• Rainwater harvesting and storage:
ponds and canals
• Construction of mud-barrages
around the island to protect it from
incursion of saline water
Adaptation Responses
• Reforestation
activity
(mangroves) on the mud barrage
to make it durable
• Alternative livelihood options for
proper substitution of certain
livelihood activities like baby
prawn/ shrimp catches, timber
smuggling etc.
• Capacity building activity through
scientific
and
organizational
intervention in support of their
indigenous adaptation efforts.
Support Policies
• Community Learning and Participatory
Centres for building adaptive capacity
• Enrichment of knowledge base on
adaptation through systematization of
relevant indigenous knowledge
• New Blue Revolution for increased water
availability for crop production
• Livelihood diversification increases
resilience to extreme events as much
as income level and should be supported
through investments.
Cultural responses
• The multi-cultural rural communities
provide approaches that are tailor-made
for long-term adaptation plan involving
civil society organizations through
conserving the living cultural heritage.
• For India, with its rich mosaic of subcultures, preserving traditional knowledge
is a matter of urgency.
• Messages related to traditional
adaptation practices need to be
disseminated
Way forward
• Data base on lesser-known/
unknown elements of
indigenous knowledge on
sensitivity, vulnerability and
adaptation to climate change,
sustainable use of natural
resources and socio-cultural
capital favoring environmental
sustainability, social equity and
community solidarity