Climate change, environmental stress and loss of livelihoods can push people towards illegal activities: a case study from coastal Bangladesh

Ahmed, Istiakh, Ayeb-Karlsson, Sonja, van der Geest, Kees, Huq, Saleem and Jordan, Joanne Catherine, (2019). Climate change, environmental stress and loss of livelihoods can push people towards illegal activities: a case study from coastal Bangladesh. Climate and Development, 11(10), 907-917

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  • Sub-type Journal article
    Author Ahmed, Istiakh
    Ayeb-Karlsson, Sonja
    van der Geest, Kees
    Huq, Saleem
    Jordan, Joanne Catherine
    Title Climate change, environmental stress and loss of livelihoods can push people towards illegal activities: a case study from coastal Bangladesh
    Appearing in Climate and Development
    Volume 11
    Issue No. 10
    Publication Date 2019-03-05
    Place of Publication United Kingdom
    Publisher Taylor & Francis
    Start page 907
    End page 917
    Language eng
    Abstract This paper aims to understand how environmental stressors influence people’s livelihood options in the coastal belt of Bangladesh. We argue that environmental stressors such as cyclones, riverbank erosion, salinity intrusion, and floods have negative impacts on people’s lives by reducing their livelihood options. Twelve in-depth interviews (Livelihood Histories) and twelve Focus Group Discussions (FGD) based on two Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools (Village Timeline and Contextual Change) were carried out in three different sites in coastal Bangladesh. Our study finds that when there are insufficient adaptation strategies to environmental stressors, many people turn to livelihoods banned by the government. These ‘illegal livelihoods’ include using fine mesh nets to collect shrimp fry in the rivers as well as logging in the Sundarbans. These people are often the poorest and vulnerable, and law enforcement only exacerbate their vulnerability. We end by concluding those that have turned to ‘illegal livelihoods’ as a result of detrimental environmental stressors should be viewed as a special category of vulnerable people by policymakers, and steps need to be taken to ensure resilience to different environmental stressors.
    UNBIS Thesaurus CLIMATE CHANGE
    BANGLADESH
    Keyword Illegal livelihoods
    Environmental stress
    Resilience
    Copyright Holder The Authors
    Copyright Year 2019
    Copyright type Creative commons
    DOI 10.1080/17565529.2019.1586638
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    Created: Tue, 14 May 2019, 22:00:44 JST by Aarti Basnyat on behalf of UNU EHS