In September 2024, the ENGAGE4Sundarbans regional workshop aimed to join together our team members from India from IIT Kharagpur and the SJM village community, Bangladesh teams from SAJIDA Foundation and ULAB, and Switzerland UNIL, and exchange around our project with regional and international experts in the field of river sustainable development observed through arts and creativity. Understanding the river through the perceptions and the livelihoods of the inhabitants of the Sundarbans and supporting the communities in their agricultural entrepreneurship of fisheries and cropping to revert or resist to the multi-hazard risk has arisen as the main target of our project.
Download the brochure: ENGAGE4Sundarbans-workshopbrochure-September-2024
Living along the coast of Bangladesh: A Floating Country with a Sinking Culture
Md Faisal Imran1, Samiya A Selim1 and Emilie Crémin2
1Center for Sustainable Development, University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh
2Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Abstract
Bangladesh is considered one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change due to its low-lying topography and a geographical location susceptible to cyclones, floods, and tidal surges. Consequently, coastal and riverbank erosion has resulted in the displacement of many villages. These displacements contribute to population densification, social and economic vulnerability, and rapid urbanisation. After losing their farmlands and homes, people are forced to find new land, often settling along the embankments or on state-owned land along coasts and rivers. Given this general context, ENGAGE4SUNDARBANS project aims to understand plural accounts and interpretations of the Sundarbans’ ‘riskscape’, produced by state and non- governmental actors and diverse members of the local communities. It seeks to support situated adaptive practices that enhance social resilience through transdisciplinary engagement across the political boundaries of the Sundarbans.
In my presentation, I will first portray the tools and the methodology used by our transdisciplinary team to understand the ‘riskscape’ which includes archival research ethnography and GIS that show the process of ‘polderisation’ of the delta, embankment construction, coastal erosion, and embankment breaches, leading to loss of land and displacement of communities. I will briefly outline the resulting displacement patterns (Khas land occupation or rehabilitation in camps), reasons for displacement, and the number of displaced people in Bangladesh. Firstly, an overview of the living conditions of the people who found space on Khas land will be presented, along with the
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Regional Workshop on Relocation as a Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy in South Asia 2024
constraints they faced while being entitled to land according to the ‘Khas Land Settlement Policy, 1997’. Secondly, the rehabilitation and resettlement programs implemented by the Bangladesh government in camps, to highlight the challenges faced by the inhabitants of the Guchogram/Climate Victims Rehabilitation Program/Ashrayan Project in different districts. In conclusion, I will critically analyse the terms used by the governments, media, and academia to describe the situation observed in the region of the Sundarbans: ‘Entitlement’, ‘Encroacher/s’, ‘Tenancy’, ‘Squatters’, ‘Common Property Resources (CPR)’, ‘Acquisition and Requisition’, ‘Immovable Property Rights’ under policies in Bangladesh. Finally, recommendations will be given on how these processes could be improved.
Keywords: Relocation, Resettlement, Riskscape, Relocation Policy
In May 2024, we are participating in the 18th International Society of Ethnobiology Congress (ISE Congress 2024) in Marrakech, Marroco, with the poster presented below.
The Congress is a great opportunity to meet with World experts in ethno-ecology, ethno-biology, and political and environmental sciences. The variety and variability of life known as biodiversity and the symbiosis of human activity and environment expressed in cultural landscapes nourish debates within international conventions ratified by hundreds of nations.
Our team has presented a poster on Inland fisheries agro-ecological knowledge in the coastal areas of the Sundarbans (India and Bangladesh), Emilie Cremin, University of Lausanne (UNIL), Switzerland.
Emilie CREMIN* 1 , Souradip Pathak2 , Faisal Imran Md3 , Jenia Mukherjee2 , Samiya Selim4 , Poulami Ghosh2 , René Véron1
1 University of Lausanne (UNIL)
2 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur
3 University of Liberal Arts of Bangladesh (ULAB)
4 Sajida Foundation
Small-scale fishing practices including forest and inland fishing are found to be one of the dominant livelihood practices in Sundarbans. This small-scale fishing practice in the Sundarbans is exposed to various socio-ecological and political challenges before rapidly increasing climate change-induced risks and hazards. In the recent past, the Indian Sundarbans marked a gradual tendency among the small-scale fishing community to adopt inland fishing for generating livelihood as forest fishing entails manifold risks ranging from various stressors. However, the prevalent traditional practice of inland fishing in Sundarbans still lags in terms of scalability as it comes across various constraints. Moreover, reflections from the Indian Sundarbans reveal that in each of the laps, the current inland fishing practice is found to be vulnerable as it miserably fails to tap the local natural-ecological, socio-economic, and cultural knowledge base and other several technical know-how, and supportive interventions. The current study captures how the method of knowledge co-production could gain relevance in addressing the existing set of vulnerabilities toward coming up with a practice-based inland fishing design. Focusing on the case study of Kumirmari, one of the remotest islands from the Indian Sundarbans, the study explores how the (free) flow and exchange of knowledge toward the co-development of an inland fishing design could be potent enough to capture the best practices in inland fishing. Thus, this study presents how the method of knowledge coproduction through the transdisciplinary engagement of different stakeholders is imperative in translating g place-based, bottom-up agro-ecological knowledge base into an action-oriented inland fishing
design by tapping the nodes of challenges and opportunities.
Keywords: Coast, resilience, fisheries, coproduction
THEME4-#107-CREMIN-ISE-2024-Poster-ENGAGE4Sundarbans
The 4th Annual Gobeshona Global Conference took place on 1st March to 8th March 2024, virtually by International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD). The conference provided the opportunity to bring together a distinguished and multidisciplinary group of scholars, policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners from around the world who shared their knowledge, research, and practical experiences on climate change issues with a broad range of themes and sub-themes. The event featured keynote speakers, panel discussions, workshops, thematic sessions and networking sessions, and provided a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration on Climate Change. This year’s Gobeshona Global Conference focused on ‘’Monitoring the Locally-Led Adaptation and Resilience’’. The conference provided floor to those local organizations who directly work with the vulnerable communities who are at the frontline of climate change impacts.
Our team talked in the Session “Building resilience: climate change impacts and governance in the sundarbans”
Watch the record of the session:
The inaugural edition of the Sundarbans Winter Field School on Transboundary, Transdisciplinarity, and Transformation through Transitions took place in the Kumirmari village of Indian Sundarbans from 19 – 26 January 2024. This year’s theme was ‘Social-Ecological Resilience for Vulnerability to Viability in the Sundarbans’ Riskscape’.
Center for Sustainable Development, ULAB in collaboration with University of Waterloo, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, University of Lausanne – UNIL, SAJIDA Foundation and Sundarban Jana Sramajibi Manch (SJSM) have successfully organized the Sundarbans Winter Field School in Kumirmari, Gosaba Block, Sundarbans, India. Starting on January 19th, 2024, the remote rural setting of Kumirmari have gathered 30 people, including members from the local communities hosts and the SJSM NGO and researchers (seniors, early career researchers and graduate students from academia) to engage in an in-depth discussions, learning sessions, and collaborative brainstorming with the aim of exploring social-ecological theories and their practical uses to foster democratic dialogues and exchanges among participants, creating a conducive environment for understanding and crafting just transitions from environmental vulnerability to community viability in the long run. The field school encompassed a total of six days- concluding on 24th January, 2024.
The versatile and interactive platform of the Sundarbans Winter Field School has equipped the participants with concepts, approaches, and methods through the classroom teaching practices and then they took the learning into the field training while engaging with the community. Sundarbans Winter Field School expects that the theoretical, conceptual, and practical insights and knowledge gained during these six days will enhance the critical problem solving skills and the participants will take this learning further by contributing towards just and equitable vulnerability to viability transitions for sustainable transformation and eventually to the broader goal of sustainable development.
ENGAGE4Sundarbans team arrived a few days before the winter school, starting from the 16th of February in Kumirmari, to benefit from 10 days of intensive field research. We planned to test our survey tools (Questionnaire, FGD, KII), brainstorm on paper outlines and collaborate on the development of a paper on 4T concepts e.g. Transdisciplinary, Transboundary, Transformation and Transition led by the V2V team.
Here is our field diary
16th to 19th of January : ENGAGE 4 Sundarbans Field work before the meeting with V2V
On the 16th of January, we started from Kolkata early in the morning. The winter mist was covering the coastal plain and the large agricultural fields. We could see the large area of wetlands in the east of Kolkata and the large drainage system of waste. Then, we crossed 100km of kilometres of shrimp farms (locally called gher). This inspired us for our manuscript on shrimp farming and supply chains which depend on the global market of shrimp.
Our small Maruti drove us until the first ghat, where we needed to take a boat to cross a tidal river. We took again a second Maruti, and a second boat to finally reach Kumirmari.
In the evening, we arrived at Kumirmari and discovered the Sundarban bari. We were struck to see the production of Brinjal (aubergines) and carrots and vegetables. Souradip also showed us the experimental pond on our campus. The Kumirmari Bari campus was created only two years ago. The land was given by our team member Debajyoti and Tapas Mondal helped a lot to develop the site. The village community also joined the effort and was now preparing the camp to host our winter school members. They were also thankfully cooking delicious vegetables and local fish products for us!
The next day, the 17th of January, we went for a walk to look at the planting of paddy. we were able to observe the entire process, from the burning of the last season’s straw to the preparation of nurseries and the transplantation in the field. When we came back, Mahmuda and Biplob were fishing in the pond.
On the 18th of January, we woke up early in the morning, without any breakfast, we started our day by running some of our Questionnaires and observing the conditions of the Kumirmari embankment. We could observe the very weak condition of the embankment, even during the dry season. We went to the area where a strong embankment was built in 20XX. But this embankment was damaged by Aila and subsequent cyclones. Only the trees could some patches of embankment. The mangrove remains also strengthen a part of it. After observing the embankment, we went to the house of the veterinary and our team organised an FGD with the inhabitants of the area.
On the 19th, we went to another embankment to see the condition and run another FGD. The Monda community members explain to us how they used to go to the Sundarbans forest to harvest some small fishes and crabs, but how they feared the tigers. A fence was built along the bank of the Sundarban forest to limit the area of the tiger …
In the evening, 15 colleagues arrived at the camp. We worked all together on the concepts of Transboundary, Transdisciplinary, Transformation and Transition.
20th January: First Day of the V2V-ENGAGE winter field school
The following day began with reflections on the previous day, followed by insightful sessions with Dr. Prateep and Dr. Jenia introducing the concept of the 4 Ts: Transboundary, Transdiscipline, Transformation, and Transition. Divided into groups, each focusing on one T, the day’s task involved household interviews to understand the local perspective through the lens of our chosen theme.
The afternoon sessions comprised presentations and discussions on our findings, setting the stage for the days to come. The day concluded with each participant sharing two elements from their research, fostering a culture of shared learning.
21st January: Biodiversity Walk and Social Walk
The day began with a biodiversity walk, discovering and tallying different species of wild birds. In the afternoon, a social walk explored various aspects of Kumirmari based on each group’s theme, culminating in insightful presentations on the findings.
22nd January: Focused Discussion Groups (FDGs)
Groups worked collaboratively, conducting Focused Discussion Groups with fixed audiences to gather points and ideas for the final presentation on the 23rd. The discussions revolved around the four Ts, uncovering key aspects of Kumirmari’s situation and proposing solutions.
Final Presentation and Conclusion:
On the 23rd, the Winter School reached its climax with presentations based on the findings. Technological advancement, social unity, gender equality through the Panchayat system, and various other factors emerged as highlighted aspects. The final suggestions and reflections by peers guided the formation of comprehensive group papers.
The Winter School concluded with a sightseeing tour of Sundarbans, providing a perfect ending to a knowledge-filled and memorable five-day journey. As we embarked on the 5-hour journey back to Bamun Ghat, the Winter School left us not just with knowledge but with enduring memories and a strengthened sense of community.
