ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN BANGLADESH

A key concept in this book is the notion of ‘autonomous adaptation', which Younus has been researching for more than 10 years. Younus has selected one of the riverine flood prone areas in Bangladesh, ‘Islampur' as a case study area. He has explored how affected farmers adapt and adjust with normal floods which occur in most years. He then selected three recent extreme flood events in Bangladesh, occurring in 1988, 1995 and 1998 and retrospectively studied the adaptation techniques and strategies embraced by the same group of farmers in order to survive the more devastating deluges. He has used a multi-method research comprising a questionnaire survey, focus group discussion, agriculture block supervisors'interviews and in depth case study in order to identify community- based crop adaptation processes.Younus argues that in order to respond to the predicted impacts of climate change it is necessary to incorporate autonomous adaptation in planning and policy-making and to enhance and support community-based adaptation.