What does a village in the Sundarbans look like? We have already posted some photos of the village of Tipligheri that show how the residents here been affected by Tropical Storm Alia in May 2009 — and by extension how vulnerable such villages are to other tropical storms, which are strengthening in intensity as a result of climate change. My report here is in continuation of myupdate (ED: Anurag Danda’s) of 22 June profiling the impacts of Tropical Storm Alia on one village in the Sundarbans and the necessary recovery steps we are envisaging as part of the disaster risk reduction work of the Sundarbans Climate Adaptation Center. For those not familiar with the Sundarbans, Tipligheri stands in for many other villages in the region and is typical in many ways for the millions of people living in the Sundarbans.
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Tags: climate adaptation, asia, india, drr

The Sundarbans are a chain of islands spanning the mouths of the Ganges-Brahmaputra rivers off the shores of India and Bangladesh. They’ve been the subject of several entries here, including some of their human, species, and ecosystem-based vulnerabilities to climate change, disaster risk reduction, and the founding of a regional climate adaptation center. A major tropical storm has hit the region. The regional WWF director for the Sundarbans is Anurag Danda, where he focuses on community-based adaptation and assists with the Bengal tiger program. He emailed me this morning with an update, which I have edited here. Please read his update, see the images he’s sent of the damage, and consider his request for assistance. Contact information included.
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Tags: india, drr, bangladesh, community adaptation, Development

Those of us working in climate adaptation often work alone and in isolation within our organizations. It’s hard to find each other to learn and grow professionally. Moreover, we know we need support — emotional as well as professional, since climate adaptation is challenging and draining work whether you work in DRR, conservation, policy, or economic development. There have been a growing number of online communities that focus on climate adaptation. Here, we’re launching a new one called ClimateAdapt.Info. Read More...

Tags: climate adaptation, policy, conservation, Development, drr, community adaptation

A significant number of the hits to this blog are from South Asia, mostly directed at a 2008 entry on the Sundarbans islands that sit on the coast of Bangladesh and northeastern India. These islands are home to millions of very poor people, have one of the largest coastal mangrove forests in the world, and are the major refuge for the remaining Bengal tigers. These island exist in a balance between accruing sediment flowing down the Brahmaputra-Ganges rivers, the ability of the mangroves to capture the sediment, and the erosive action of the Indian ocean. A 1970s-era sediment-capturing dam upstream in combination with rising sea levels have caught the islands in a dangerous vice: sediments are no longer accumulating at sustainable levels, while tropical storm frequency and severity seem to be increasing — on top of accelerating sea-level rise. According to Arjan Berkhuysen, an expert on climate adaptation in river deltas and estuaries with WWF-Netherlands, “These problems are similar in deltas all over the world.... [We’re] looking for natural solutions that respect the dynamics of the system while helping people towards sustainable development in the face of climate change.” Happily, we have some good news about the Sundarbans: a regional Climate Adaptation Center has just been founded on Mousuni island on the Indian side on 29 March 2009.
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Tags: india, climate adaptation, wetlands, mangroves, bangladesh, drr, asia