To address the adverse effects of climate change, numerous adaptation programs are being implemented in coastal communities in Ghana, the Philippines, India and Bangladesh. Popular programs include planting trees, which serve as a natural storm barriers, and shrimp farming which replaces traditional farming in areas where rising sea levels have made the soil saline. However, such programs may lead to dispossession and the displacement of local people from the land, leaving already vulnerable groups in an even more precarious situation.
This project, involving both natural and social scientists, aims to closely examine these dynamics. While displacement due to adaptation programs is a matter of class relations, it also looks different for men, women, and gender minorities. Therefore, the project employs a gender perspective. Collaborating with grassroots organisations and affected communities, and supported by a conservation technology organisation, the project goals are: to identify risks of dispossession and displacement in climate change adaptation programs; to identify better climate change adaptation solutions by and for the most affected; and to create a network of knowledge exchange across coastal communities in the three countries, supported by a sustainable low-tech platform.
