NFRF: Climate Change Adaptation, Dispossession and Displacement: Co-constructing Solutions with Coastal Vulnerable Groups in Africa and Asia

This project is funded through the International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation from The New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF), Canada. This is a collaboration between eight funding agencies from Brazil, Canada, Germany, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The purpose of the initiative is to develop lasting strategies and solutions that can contribute to vulnerable groups being able to maintain their livelihoods, their culture, their communities, and more, despite climate change and the effects these bring. Vulnerable communities in low- and middle-income countries and the Arctic are highlighted in the call, and all projects are in collaboration with affected groups. Numerous climate change adaptation programs are being implemented in coastal communities in Ghana, the Philippines, India and Bangladesh. On some occasions, such programs lead to the dispossession and the displacement of local people from their land, leaving already vulnerable groups in an even more precarious situation. This project, involving both natural and social scientists, aims to examine these dynamics from an intersectional perspective. The project aims to: identify risks of dispossession and displacement in adaptation programs; identify better 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. The Indian Institute for Technology, Dhaka University, University of Liberal Arts, Xavier University, York University, Waterloo University, Stockholm Environmental Institute, The Institute for Social Research, and Glasgow University will co-lead the project and partner with the University of Cape Coast. In addition, the project will collaborate with grassroots organizations and affected communities, and partner with the conservation technology organization Arribada Initiative.

Climate change adaptation (CCA) programs to conserve biodiversity and protect vulnerable communities are implemented in coastal parts of Bangladesh and India, the Philippines and Ghana that are exposed to climate risks. However, coastal communities depend on access to waters and adjacent land. Affected groups’ access to adjacent land conflicts with CCA programs, potentially dispossessing the most vulnerable of their livelihoods, putting them at greater risks of displacement and reinforcing their vulnerabilities to climate impacts. Especially vulnerable groups are landless women and gendered minorities. Yet, linkages between climate change adaptation, dispossession, displacement and its gendered dimensions are under-researched. Hence, we ask: How do CCA programs contribute to gendered processes of dispossession? The challenges posed by CCA programs show how climate and societal change occur simultaneously and must be tackled together. Drawing on theories on dispossession, displacement and climate change adaptation, we will bring out novel connections between these different fields. Because tensions between biodiversity and access to land and waters for vulnerable communities contribute to dispossession, we will use a nature-based solutions framework that “works with and enhances nature to address societal challenges” (Seddon et al 2019) as a lens to look for synergies. To analyze the gendered dimensions of dispossession and highlight contextual and social vulnerabilities, we use an intersectional approach, highlighting the co-constitution of inequalities. evidence based, integrated, and interdisciplinary theoretical contributions. Social theories on gender, dispossession, displacement and CCA can aid in drawing out social factors leading to maladaptation, while NbS takes nature as its starting point for addressing societal challenges and can be used to look for synergies in solutions to challenges that involve both nature and society.