The Impacts of Climate Change on Nutrition Security in Coastal Zone of Bangladesh: An Anthropological Study

Abstract

There is undeniable consensus that Bangladesh has already experienced the adverse impacts of climate change in various sectors. Climate change driven flood, cyclone, tidal surge, thundering, heat wave and cold wave, erratic precipitation, salinity intrusion etc. result in destructive loss and damage in respective sectors depending on the scale of reliance on climate sensitive ecosystems. The topic of ‘public health’ has got central attention among the scientific communities over the years and successfully brought about numerous optimizing outcomes though research. Nutrition security has been facing continuous constraints in the regime of climate change albeit the number of studies to explore human health on ground of the livelihood-food-nutrition-climate change nexus analysis is very handful. On the other hand, anthropological study on the subject harnessing in-depth fieldwork methods is not very noticeable in Bangladesh. This study is conducted to fulfill all these knowledge gaps with a view to generating outcomes expedient for all interest groups including policy makers too. This thesis is presented in eleven chapters. Chapter one talks about the introduction to the study. It contains background, problem statement, rationale, importance, scope and potentiality of the study along with limitation. Present study was conducted on ground of one maiden objective to assess the impacts of climate change on nutrition security in coastal zone of Bangladesh. Besides, the specific objectives were to; explore the impacts of climate change on lives, livelihood and food production; assess the situation of health and nutrition in terms of climate change; and find out local adaptation practices. Chapter two deals with the process, methods, and ways how the study was conducted, particularly the data collection, analysis and presentation process went on. It used participant observation, in-depth interview, key informant interview, focus group discussion, case study, oral history, and structured interview methods. Along with mainstream tools and techniques commonly used in cultural anthropology, this chapter highlights the techniques and strategies used to explore food and nutrition security in the regime of climate change. Chapter three contains reviews of the relevant literatures. Literature reviews followed systemic reviews organizing the literatures into some broad umbrella terms. This chapter includes literatures from three major fields, anthropology and climate change, food and nutrition security, and nutrition anthropology. Chapter four covers theories and concepts used in the present research. Present study has been guided by cultural and political ecology theory, ecosystem services theory, and habitus theory. Key concepts used in the study has been provided detailed discussion with own explanation. Chapter five represents respondents’ socio-economic and demographic information from anthropological trends. This part of the thesis clarifies the selection process of the study area Padmapukur union of Shyamnagar Upazila under the district Satkhira. In addition to this, it explains how respondents were selected. All the information and data presented in this chapter are backed up by table, chart, figure, diagram and maps generated mainly from primary data with the help of secondary sources where necessary. Findings and analysis starts from chapter six. This chapter critically assesses the impacts of climate change on the lives and livelihood of the local people of Padmapukur union. This chapter accounts local voices from anthropological lenses. In doing so, it also explored livelihood options and strategies in the face of climate change. Chapter seven demonstrates how climate change impacts local food production, distribution and consumption in the Padmapukur union. Categorizing respondents on ground of vulnerability, it generates comparative findings and analysis among adolescent girls, children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Chapter eight explores about the narratives of climate change impacts on local health and nutrition security. How nutrition status of the respondents face multidimensional hindrances from the stressor of climate change is well illustrated in this chapter with special references to cases. Chapter seven and eight brought about findings focusing on food chain, food culture, dietary pattern, food and nutrition sources, nutrition situation etc. Chapter nine particularly focus on water, sanitation and hygiene knowledge and practices of the respondents. Chapter ten shed light into cultural practices of adaptation strategies to make livelihood, food and nutrition status secure in the era of climate change. The last chapter contains conclusion and arguments in support of the findings of the present study. This study concludes by an internalization that as the climate will continue to change and never stop changing, so people’s activities to make their food and nutrition situation secure will adaptability on change time to time depending on the intensity, extent and frequency of impacts on local livelihoods. For this reason, present study emphasis on future empirical research to account changing activities of local people in response to climate change impacts on food production, consumption, distribution, and nutrition status in Bangladesh and the world as well.