Abstract
Bangladesh encounters diverse climate change impacts at different scales, which can severely affect rural communities and livelihoods. In response, the government of Bangladesh has initiated a number of institutional interventions through development plans to better support sustainable adaptation. There have, however, been relatively few assessments of how these interventions have impacted sustainable local adaptation. Focusing on the highly climate-affected north-eastern floodplain region of Bangladesh, this paper presents the results of a literature synthesis supported by primary field data to identify how existing policy barriers can threaten institutional responses to climate change impacts, while institutional rigidity and the non-inclusiveness of bureaucratic polity work to undermine efficiency, effectiveness, and equitability—some important considerations for sustainable adaptation. Our results point toward the need for public policy to better enable broader public participation in the design, implementation, and evaluation of adaptation plans.
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Notes
Haors, as defined in Bangladesh Haor and Wetlands Development Board (BHWBD 2012, p. 65), “are the bowl-shaped depressions of considerable aerial extent lying between natural levees of rivers or high lands of the north-east region of Bangladesh. In most cases haors have been formed as a result of peripheral faulting leading to the depressions”.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding support received from the William Dawson Scholar Award, McGill University, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the IPCC, South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE) and Asian Centre for Development (ACD) for this research. The comments of the paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and under no circumstances may be considered a reflection of the position of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the IPCC SANDEE and/or ACD. We also convey our gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which improved the manuscript.
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Rahman, H.M.T., Hickey, G.M. Assessing Institutional Responses to Climate Change Impacts in the North-Eastern Floodplains of Bangladesh. Environmental Management 63, 596–614 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-019-01155-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-019-01155-w