CSD conference

CSD conference

by | Oct 13, 2023 | Uncategorized

ULAB Center for Sustainable Development Annual meeting

28 to 30 October  2023, ULAB Permanent Campus: https://csdannualconference.com/ 

Registration

Our team is fully involved in the organisation of the CSD annual conference

The urgency and complexity of the current sustainability crisis is a challenge for all. The changing climate of our current world poses challenges to practically every domain of human society, from food security to health well-being, and prosperity. Most pressing among these concerns is the need to manage and govern our natural resources in a way that promotes equitable outcomes, ensuring that the poorest and most marginalized groups, including women and minorities, can access the resources they need to reverse the entrenched exclusion that continues to make them the most vulnerable to a changing climate. 

This interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary conference is organized by CSD-ULAB, and, like in the past five years, will bring together local and international experts from across the globe to have meaningful explorations of cross-sectoral and cross-boundary solutions, provide a platform for accelerating innovation, engage with both public and private actors, and foster an inclusive space for collaboration and transformation – within academia and beyond. The focus of this year’s conference is on a number of interconnecting issues – climate change, blue growth, equity, mental health and well-being, resilience and sustainable education.

We always believe that working in collaboration is the only way we can effectively address sustainability challenges and this year we are partnering with several of our local International Projects Partners- Engage, NOCRISES, V2V, and with local and international Partners – Sajida Foundation, University of Waterloo, BRAC University, ICCCAD and ZMT Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research.

Our session on the 29th of October:

 

The GBM or Bengal river delta, with a population of 250 million relies predominantly on agriculture. In Bangladesh, agriculture accounts for 13% of the country’s GDP and employs 40% of the total labor force. Despite efforts, agricultural production systems remain mostly traditional and subsistence-based. The progress toward sustainable and diversified agriculture is crucial for the overall development of the country. However, Indian and Bangladesh coastal areas are increasingly exposed to climate variabilities, such as frequent flooding, erratic rainfall, droughts, and salinity intrusion which affects the agriculture sector. Climate change, coupled with unsustainable agricultural practices, like shrimp farming, threatens future agricultural production, natural resource sustainability, and the integrity and quality of ecosystems.

In coastal Bangladesh, where land is only centimetres above sea level, large swathes of agricultural land are becoming degraded, and crop yields are shrinking due to increased salinity. This is impacting the livelihoods of millions. Therefore, Ecosystem-based Adaptation, the ultimate solution, uses biodiversity and ecosystem services to help people adapt to climate change, restoring ecosystems, improving food production, and ensuring sustainable livelihoods for millions. Ecosystem-based agriculture/agroecology (EBA) not only has the potential to provide sustainable livelihoods for millions but also to protect ecosystems, prevent land degradation, restore degraded lands, and support biodiversity.

This session aims to critically reassess current ecosystem-based agriculture practices from both practitioners’ and academicians’ perspectives with two very specific objectives in mind; a) Challenges and opportunities of EBA adoption in Sundarbans delta b) EBA Knowledge mobilization for policy advocacy. By bridging practices and theories of ecosystem-based agriculture the proposed session will delve deep into the opportunities EBA offers in terms of livelihoods, ecosystem restoration, and biodiversity conservation, as well as the structural, logistical, policy, and governance challenges that EBA faces. Findings and learnings from this session will be compiled to develop a policy brief to share with stakeholders and policymakers.

Exploring Social resilience Through Ethnographic Research

Exploring Social resilience Through Ethnographic Research

by | Oct 13, 2023 | Uncategorized

Our team has contributed to the South Asia Regional Resilience Hub events on the 11th of October 2023

South Asia Resilience Hub

The main objective of this session was to critically examine the suitability of ethnography as a research tool for understanding social resilience in the Sundarbans delta. We aim to engage scholars, researchers, and practitioners working in the fields of anthropology, sociology, environmental studies, and disaster management to discuss the advantages, limitations, and ethical considerations associated with employing ethnographic methods in this specific context. 

Our action oriented roadmap

by | Oct 5, 2023 | Resources, Uncategorized

MoU 2011 on Transboundary Sundarbans: action-oriented roadmap for ENGAGE

Overview: On September 6, 2011, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the governments of India and Bangladesh, countries that share the common social-ecological landscape of the Sundarbans delta. The MoU was entrusted to the respective ministries of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the two countries, calling for an adoption of joint management and common principles of conservation. To oversee the MoU’s implementation, a Joint Working Group was established. As a part of the consortium, the Bangladesh-India Sundarban Region Cooperation Initiative (BISRCI) was undertaken in June 2015, to implement a ‘knowledge-based advocacy’, facilitating and supporting effective bilateral cooperation in the region. BISRCI brought together research associations, civil society organizations, think tanks, and key members of the strategic community from two countries in order to deliberate on enhancing further cooperation for the formation of a cross-sectoral platform that will provide actionable plans for the management of the delta as well as boost bilateral coordination on Sundarbans.

SOR4D-ENGAGE, a transdisciplinary consortium of three country teams (India, Bangladesh and Switzerland), is motivated to conduct and pursue participatory action research in the transboundary delta with a shared set of objectives and motivation. The project brings together primarily social science researchers, practitioners and user groups, who have long-term experiences working in the delta. The exploratory as well as accommodative approach of the research allows it to deploy archival and ethnographic methods to meticulously explore, map and highlight the physical, political, ecological and social factors mutually operating and driving changes in the transboundary Sundarbans. Through the coupled methodology, four-dimensional realities that have been felt with physical attributes, social demography (migration, assets, livelihoods, gender) and political economy (regulation acts, arrangements, apparatuses, conservation and impacts) in two sides of the common delta, will be sketched, compared and assessed.

ENGAGE acknowledges the MoU as a vital policy template that strategizes mainstream conservation and management of the Sundarbans. Here, we critically read and review MoU articles to understand their current status (from secondary literature) and map the impediments and imperatives to effectuate the provisions, induced by nuanced ‘grounded’ analytics and empirics towards crafting socially resilient trajectories in and for the transboundary delta.

[Note: There are eight articles in the MoU template and among them, three articles (II, III, V) are directly related to the vision and plans of ENGAGE]

 

              

 

 

 

Article II

 Both Parties, with a view to exploiting the potential of the Sundarbans for development and alleviation of poverty, agree to undertake, but not limited to, the following endeavours: a) consider and adopt appropriate joint management and joint monitoring of resources; b) explore the possibility of implementing conservation and protection efforts, encourage mangrove regeneration, habitat restoration and rehabilitation programs, which would eventually increase the potential for carbon sequestration; c) develop a long term strategy for creating ecotourism opportunities for both countries, which will create synergy and generate greater revenue.
Specific provision Current status Envisioning ENGAGEment (SOR4D plans and visions)
Joint management and monitoring of resources

 

 Fragmented, non-systematic and sporadic

 

 Ø ENGAGE critically interrogates the mainstream conservation-management-monitoring framework and instead, conforms to the theoretical context of ‘social resilience’.
Habitat conservation, mangrove regeneration, habitat restoration and rehabilitation

 

 Confined to protection of designated species and spaces

 

 

 

Climate change impacts are not taken into account

 

 Ø The ‘social resilience’ approach and agenda, undertaken by the project, advocates ‘staying’ in the delta pitted against technocratic managed retreat and rehabilitation plans.

Ø ENGAGE is anchored to compile and collate place-based, plural perspectives on climate change-induced risks and resilience to offer solution-oriented ‘pervasive and persuasive pathways’, activating an inclusive governance framework.

 
Ecotourism opportunities

 

 Specific needs and priorities need to be identified Ø We envision participatory, community-agency-based ‘eco-educational tourism’ to simultaneously ensure local socio-economic viability, knowledge exchange and augmentation of research practices (practical-empirical-implementation laboratory attracting field schools and propagating ideas on Environmental Humanities) in the site, rather than following a conventional path that is mostly attracted by business models of outside practitioners or organizations.

 
 

 

 

 

 

Article III

  

The Parties are in agreement that the Sundarban ecosystem is greatly influenced by human use and the human beings living around the Sundarban. The Parties will map and delineate these human settlements on respective sides so that a better understanding emerges of the relationship between human settlements and the ecosystems. The Parties will further develop a management plan that utilizes this information to address issues of livelihood, deprivation by flooding and other climate-related disasters, man-animal conflict, pollution, resource depletion, etc. The Parties will through the management plan, also identify opportunities for livelihood generation that do not adversely affect the Sundarban ecosystem.

 
Specific provision Current status Envisioning ENGAGEment (SOR4D plans and visions)
Map and delineate human settlements on respective sides

 

 Local-level management plans exist but, they are not transformational

 

 Ø A detailed exploration and nuanced analyses of multiple interconnected risks, imbricated in the socio-cultural and political-ecological attributes of the region, will pave the way through which ‘situated adaptive practices’ could be collectively identified, mapped and classified.

 

Ø We would rather be emphasising (trans)local stories of transformation, facilitating knowledge sharing and actions, and envisioning systematic ‘scaling up’ and ‘scaling out’ approaches.

 
 

Develop management plans for:

i. Livelihood improvement

ii. Disaster management

  

Needs to promote the development of cooperation in fisheries, aquaculture and allied activities between the two countries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disaster management plans do not include recovery

 Ø Co-identification and co-adoption of a solution-focused pilot intervention plan for experimentation on small-scale inland fishing and integrated farming in the trans-local project sites.

Ø The project’s impact on knowledge co-creation and livelihoods of stakeholders will be felt in forms of economic stability; socio-cultural belongingness and cohesion; gender empowerment, and improved ecosystem functioning through rejuvenatory practices.

Ø The project’s inclusive approach will allow it to create a comprehensive, practice-oriented knowledge base and facilitate policy outcomes (training guides, knowledge products, digital platforms hosted in the policy network) on disaster risk mitigation mechanisms and climate-resilient, gender-neutral livelihood strategies.
 

 

Article V

  

Both Parties will carry out research to develop a common and shared understanding of the impacts of climate change along with adaptation strategies that can be implemented.

 
Specific provision Current status Envisioning ENGAGEment (SOR4D plans and visions)
Develop a common and shared understanding of the impacts of climate change

 

 

 

 Site-specific knowledge of climate change impacts exists

 

 

 

 

 

 Ø By engaging partnerships among and perceptions of multiple groups of actors (academia, development practitioners, policymakers and local communities) across transboundary, transdisciplinary and trans-local contexts, the ENGAGE platform will bring to the fore prominent drivers of climate change, its varied implications and adaptation ‘tactics’ by communities in the delta.

 
Design implementable adaptation strategies Small-scale projects have been undertaken without addressing ‘adaptation’

 

 Ø The plural understandings of disaster-induced risks and co-mapping of livelihood as well as adaptive practices, will be mobilized, used and shared through local and regional platforms (workshops, seminars, visual presentation, interactions etc.).