Coping with Climate Change in the Sundarbans: Lessons from Multidisciplinary Studies (original) (raw)
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Climate Change – Impact on the Sundarbans: A Case Study
Sundarbans is the world's largest contiguous mangrove forest and is a designated world heritage site. Shared by India and Bangladesh, it is home to several species including tigers. The habitat supports approximately 4.37 million people. As per the research conducted it is believed that the Sundarbans have soaked in 4.15 crore tonnes of carbon dioxide. Due to climate change the Sundarbans faces several challenges. With rising sea levels, islands are disappearing and the increasing salinity in the water and soil has severely threatened the health of mangrove forests and the quality of soil and crops. Additionally, there have been serious disturbances to hydrological parameters and change in fishing patterns, resulting in disastrous consequences for fishermen. Frequent cyclones and erratic monsoon raining pattern are damaging ecology and humanity. In addition to general environment protection laws, India has also set up institutes at both the Central and State levels to specifically tackle the effects of climate change on Sundarbans. However, split responsibilities between Centre and States and multitude of institutions has resulted in overlap of responsibilities, loss of time and resources, which makes the institutions ineffective. With risk of the Sundarbans submerging, there is an urgent need for global reduction of emissions and replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy. Governments also need to promote plantation of local saline resistant seeds. Even as the State and Central Government of India finalise action plans to tackle the problems of climate change and take steps for poverty alleviation in one of the world's poorest regions, there is a pressing requirement to set up flood relief centres and rapid action response teams to cyclones and storms.
Sundarbans Living on the Edge: Climate Change and Uncertainty in the Indian Sundarbans
Living on the Edge: Climate Change and Uncertainty in the Indian Sundarbans, 2018
The Sundarbans is a coastal delta and major climate hot spot located at the southern end of Bangladesh and in the state of West Bengal in India. The delta faces significant climatic and other ecological challenges (e.g. disappearing mangrove forest, islands affected by rising sea levels, erratic rainfall and cyclones). While there has been a lot of documentation on climate change impacts and their uncertainties in the Sundarbans, this has largely been from 'above' by experts, natural scientists and modellers. What is missing is how the local islanders view, and live with, these uncertainties and manifestations of climate change and what these mean for their daily lives and livelihoods. This working paper seeks to examine climate change and uncertainty in the context of how diverse actors, especially men and women in the Sundarbans, live with, understand and cope with climate change and uncertainty. The paper demonstrates that even though uncertainties related to climate change are increasing, local people are attuned to living and coping with them. However, climate change uncertainties and other drivers of change are now increasing which is affecting the local people's vulnerability and ability to cope. Largely, the 'above' has tended to ignore local realities and as well as closing down pathways for more inclusive adaptation. Thus, a multiplicity of knowledge and approaches need to be deployed to promote adaptation in the Sundarbans that respond to the socio-ecological diversity of contexts and is socially just.
Climate change adapted livelihoods of Sundarbans.pdf
Mangrove forests provide a wide range of provisioning services like timber, fodder, honey, wax, tannin, fishes etc. and a wide range of environmental services like erosion control, protection from the natural disasters, bioremediation, biodiversity conservation, carbon sequestration etc. The ecosystem contains much larger quantum of stored carbon compared to many of the terrestrial forests and also known for their high rate of primary production. The role of mangroves to resist climate induced sea level rise, salinification, temperature rise, acidification have been studied in details, but in context to Indian Sundarbans delta their effects are not well defined with data sets. The livelihoods associated with the mangrove ecosystem at the apex of Bay of Bengal are also poorly understood. Connect"abhijitresearchmitra" for full collaboration, training and certificate course on ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY
The impact of global warming, through the predicted sea level rise, on Sundarbans estuary, in the Bay of Bengal is an inevitable phenomenon. While the mitigation measures have to be primarily at the global level as well as at local level, the adaptation strategy will also involve participation of global and local communities. This study has clearly shown that the people living around the mangrove forests have to be provided with a sustainable alternate livelihood to cope with the increasing salinity in the region. As regards the destructive livelihood activities practiced by the villagers of Sundarbans, generating employment through other livelihood options and training in skill development have to be resorted to. However, all these socio-economic activities need huge amount of fund support at the beginning. Since Sundarbans mangrove, if properly conserved, can store billions of tonnes of carbon thus mitigating the effect of global warming, the people of the region also need to be duly compensated under REDD+ projects. The study has shown the prospect of conservation of Sundarbans mangrove flora and fauna through active participation of local people. The global community cannot avoid their commitment for conserving one of the largest sink for atmospheric carbon.
The Sundarbans mangrove forest of Bangladesh provides ecosystem services having great importance for local livelihoods, national economy and global environment. Nevertheless, the Sundarbans is threatened by various natural and anthropogenic pressures including climate change. This paper presents the potential impacts of climate change on the ecosystem services of the Sundarbans and the forest dependent livelihoods. Both secondary information on climate change impacts and primary data on forest dependent livelihoods were used for the analysis. Recent study revealed that the suitable area of two dominant tree species ofthe Sundarbans-Sundri (Heritiera fomes) and Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha) may be decreased significantly by the year 2100 due to sea level rise (88 cm) in the Sundarbans compared to the year 2001, which may be reduce the timber stock of those trees. This indicates the potential loss of economic value of the key provisioning services of Sundarbans. Similarly, the other ecosystem services (e.g. fisheries, tourism, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, etc.) maybe affected by climate change. Consequently, the forest dependent livelihoods would be affected by the degraded ecosystem services of the forest. Further studies should quantify the impacts of climate change on all the ecosystem services and explore the potential loss and opportunities in future. A new paradigm of management should look forward considering climate change, ecological integrity, sustainable harvesting and ensuring continuity of the ecosystem services of the Sundarbans.
APN Science Bulletin, 2014
The present publication is the 4th issue of the APN Science Bulletin series to be published in the APN's Third 5-year Strategic Phase, which runs until March 2015. Issue 4 (2014) is a peer-reviewed publication that has become a main source, next to the APN website, for up-to-the-minute information on activities undertaken by the APN. As a landmark publication written by the global environmental community and supported by the APN, the bulletin focuses on issues of underpinning science that are policy-relevant. The 2014 Science Bulletin aims to satisfy readers in both the science and non-science communities who have a keen interest in Global Environmental Change in the Asia-Pacific region.
Sundarban mangroves: diversity, ecosystem services and climate change impacts
2016
The Bengal delta coast harboring the famous Sundarban mangroves is extremely vulnerable to climate change. Already, salinity intrusion, increasing cyclones and anomalies in rainfall, and temperature, are causing many social and livelihood problems. However, our knowledge on the diversified climate change impacts on Sundarban ecosystems services, providing immense benefits, including foods, shelters, livelihood, and health amenities, is very limited. Therefore, this article has systematically reviewed the major functional aspects, and highlights on biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, and services of the Sunderban mangroves, with respect to variations in climatic factors. The mangrove ecosystems are highly productive in terms of forest biomass, and nutrient contribution, especially through detritus-based food webs, to support rich biodiversity in the wetlands and adjacent estuaries. Sundarban mangroves also play vital role in atmospheric CO 2 sequestration, sediment trapping and nutrient recycling. Sea level rise will engulf a huge portion of the mangroves, while the associated salinity increase is posing immense threats to biodiversity and economic losses. Climate-mediated changes in riverine discharge, tides, temperature, rainfall and evaporation will determine the wetland nutrient variations, influencing the physiological and ecological processes, thus biodiversity and productivity of Sundarban mangroves. Hydrological changes in wetland ecosystems through increased salinity and cyclones will lower the food security, and also induce human vulnerabilities to waterborne diseases. Scientific investigations producing high resolution data to identify Sundarban " s multidimensional vulnerabilities to various climatic regimes are essential. Sustainable plans and actions are required integrating conservation and climate change adaptation strategies, including promotion of alternative livelihoods. Thus, interdisciplinary approaches are required to address the future climatic disasters, and better protection of invaluable ecosystem services of the Sunderban mangroves.