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How Do Capital Asset Interactions Affect Livelihood Sensitivity to Climatic Stresses? Insights From the Northeastern Floodplains of Bangladesh

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  • Tuihedur Rahman, H.M.
  • Robinson, Brian E.
  • Ford, James D.
  • Hickey, Gordon M.

Abstract

This paper offers a novel methodological approach for better understanding how different capital assets can be organized, transformed, and used in different combinations to reduce livelihood sensitivity to climatic stresses – an area that requires greater research attention in the context of adaptation policy. Research was conducted in the northeastern floodplain communities of Bangladesh, regarded as one of the most climate sensitive, resource poor, and highly understudied areas of the country. This wetland-dominated ecosystem is home to diverse resources user groups (e.g., farmer and fisher) who are subjected to regular seasonal flooding, excessive rainfall, drought, and flash floods. Working in 12 adjacent villages of two significant wetlands (Hakaluki haor and Tanguar haor), qualitative and quantitative data were collected through 15 focus groups (n = 15), 35 key informant interviews, and 356 household surveys to better understand how community members adapt in response to their livelihood sensitivity to the climatic stresses. Results indicate that community members organize and transform capital assets in diverse ways to escape climate-induced “poverty traps”. Findings also reveal that interventions from external agencies (e.g., government, non-governmental organizations and market institutions) are an important key to livelihood sustainability for many households.

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  • Tuihedur Rahman, H.M. & Robinson, Brian E. & Ford, James D. & Hickey, Gordon M., 2018. "How Do Capital Asset Interactions Affect Livelihood Sensitivity to Climatic Stresses? Insights From the Northeastern Floodplains of Bangladesh," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 165-176.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:150:y:2018:i:c:p:165-176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.04.006
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    Cited by:

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    3. Feixue Xiong & Shubin Zhu & Hui Xiao & Xiaolan Kang & Fangting Xie, 2021. "Does Social Capital Benefit the Improvement of Rural Households’ Sustainable Livelihood Ability? Based on the Survey Data of Jiangxi Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-17, October.
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    5. Muhammad Humayun Kabir & Kh. Zulfikar Hossain & Md. Javed Azad & Mou Leong Tan, 2022. "Farmers’ climate change risk perception, adaptation capacity and barriers to adaptation: a multi-method approach," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(4), pages 769-781, December.
    6. Hanvedes Daovisan & Thanapauge Chamaratana, 2018. "Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Assets That Influence Informal Garment Workers’ Livelihood Security in Laos," Societies, MDPI, vol. 8(3), pages 1-11, June.
    7. H.M. Tuihedur Rahman & Gordon M. Hickey, 2020. "An Analytical Framework for Assessing Context-Specific Rural Livelihood Vulnerability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-26, July.
    8. Dingde Xu & Xin Deng & Shili Guo & Shaoquan Liu, 2019. "Sensitivity of Livelihood Strategy to Livelihood Capital: An Empirical Investigation Using Nationally Representative Survey Data from Rural China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(1), pages 113-131, July.
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