7th International Conference on community-based adaptation to Climate Change

7th International Conference on community-based adaptation to Climate Change

Faizul Khan Tanim writes on the recently concluded CBA conference in Dhaka and how climate change today is regarded as one of the greatest human-induced environmental threat which affects a very significant aspect of Bangladesh's

development

Bangladesh is a riverine country and despite having only seven per cent land mass of South Asia, it drains 90 per cent water of the region into the Bay of Bengal. The country also happens to be an active deltaic region literally criss-crossed with rivers and canals which play a significant role in the livelihoods of millions of people. Given its population density, climatic changes will have serious consequences on the people of the country which has about 150.5 million with around 60 million living below the poverty line. Over half the population of the country depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and even minor changes in the agricultural calendar are having a devastating domino effect on the rural economy.

The impacts and changes in weather patterns and physical systems have severe impacts. Speaking to a farmer from Manikganj, Shahid Anwar said, “The most disturbing thing that agonises me is that kal baishakhi storms (Nor’westers) are no longer arriving from the usual ishan kon (northeast) direction. This is how our ancestors have known it.”
To answer these questions and more, Bangladesh centre for advanced studies (BCAS), international institute for environment and development (IIED) along with the government, UN and development agencies including IUCN, DFID, EU, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Care International, Action Aid and more are promoting community based adaptation (CBA). CBA highlights innovative and participatory methods to help communities analyze the causes and effects of climate change at local contexts, identify the level of risks and vulnerability, integrate scientific and community knowledge in planning appropriate local adaptation strategies and measures.

Considering the growing interests of the actors and stakeholders about the emerging approaches of CBA and how to promote it within the communities, BCAS, IIED and partners organized the first CBA conference in 2005 in Dhaka. Following CBA1, there were six other CBAs in Tanzania, Vietnam and the last – seventh one held in Dhaka last week from April 22-25 with participation from 45 countries.

This correspondent from The Independent spoke with one of the key individuals of CBA7, Dr Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS to get a sketch of how CBA would help mitigate climate change disasters. Rahman is a prominent environmentalist, scientist, development expert and a visionary thinker in South Asia. He is well-known worldwide for his pioneering role and contribution to environment and nature conservation, climate change, Poverty alleviation and sustainable development. He was honored with the highest UN- Environmental Award - Champion of the Earth - for the year 2008 in recognition of his work for the protection and sustainable management of Earth’s environment and natural resources. Another outstanding achievement was the National Environment Award (Poribesh Padak) for the category of innovative environmental research and technology development from the Government of Bangladesh. He is as well a long standing lead author (LA) and convening lead author of (CLA) of intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). As a lead author of the IPCC fourth Assessment, he was a co-recipient of the “Nobel Peace Prize” of 2007, jointly awarded to IPCC and Al-Gore.

Faizul Khan Tanim / The Independent (FKT/Ind): What was the biggest highlight of the CBA7 Conference and how would you sum it up from the Bangladesh perspective?

Dr Atiq Rahman/BCAS (AR): The highlight was to gather both the national and international practitioners, scientists, researchers, communicators, financial agents and our Government coming on the same platform using integration of knowledge, experience, scientific methodologies to discuss issues and capabilities of organizations both in and out of the government like NGOs, civil society and more in regards to CBA. The core theme of this event was: Mainstreaming CBA in to national and local planning. And since there is need for the knowledge to be transmitted properly; with transferring of knowledge from one ecosystem to another, country or region, and for that, the whole system has to be systematised. In the national level, CBA has to be integrated in to the national planning and implementation process and it is very difficult since it involves multiple ministry like water, fisheries, finance, planning, livestock to name a few. So we have discussed those issues and have already decided on the main theme of the next CBA-8 in Kathmandu, Nepal, which will be ‘Financing of CBA’, where we will discuss the amount of funding required for effective CBA in vulnerable areas and places from where we can expect funds so that poor people get the real fund and it does not get filtered elsewhere. So you can see that there is a pattern and a step-by-step approach to address both national and global policies of the vulnerable countries.

FKT: As you know that ‘communication’ of CBA with the distressed people, climate change refugees or the citizens living in vulnerable areas is very difficult. Did CBA7 discuss ways to do this? If not, did BCAS think on this line?

AR: If we go back, CBA 6 in Hanoi, Vietnam was about communicating CBA. So this topic was not discussed largely here. However, CBA 7 in Dhaka ensured maximum global participation by webcasts and involved people virtually via webinars. Almost 3,000 people worldwide registered as users and more than 1000 people participated everyday. So we have taken lessons from Hanoi and indeed communicated globally.
And about communicating with the local people from vulnerable areas, one of the most attractive part of a CBA – field visits – were cancelled due to the present turmoil but since BCAS and CBA stakeholders deals with this issue regularly and from my personal experience I can say that the challenge of good communication can never be undermined. Since the scientists by definition are not good communicators because their objective is to get things accurate rather than presenting in attractive way, communication planning and integrating people’s voices and concerns in to the planning procedure is a whole different game altogether. From BCAS we have done plenty of grassroot level activities, especially training of field workers on field situation with the right statistics, education for effective communication with ordinary villagers. Secondly, we have training for communicators such as media people on effective communication of CBA and soon we will start other programmes.

FKT: As you mentioned that the field visits could not be done this year, from where the participants could get first hand views from the affected people on abnormal rain, flash floods, resulting in unusual crop patters, erratic behaviours of nature faced by farmers due to climate change. Could you cite some more examples from BCAS field studies on this issue?

AR: We have got at least 30 projects all over the country and the most common thing you would hear people complaining is: something is not right in our life, what used to be in our life does not happen anymore. And some variables are erratic rainfall, floods, drought etc and then they mentioned something we haven’t heard before – formation of fogs which covers the sun, blocking the nutrients for plant/crop growth. Our computer-based modelling showed that in the Chittagong Hill Tract areas, the rainfall in those areas will remain the same in the next couple of years but that rain will come over a shorter period so what will happen is there will be more rapid water flow resulting in top soil getting devastated and we will most likely see more landslides and local people from there have already started complaining.

*This article was first published in The Independent - http://theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=45&date=2013-05-03