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Forest Management for Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh

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Confronting Climate Change in Bangladesh

Part of the book series: The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science ((APESS,volume 28))

Abstract

Tropical forest management has a vital role to play in improving local adaptive capacity to climate change. Although forests are themselves often vulnerable to the consequences of climate change – such as the increased risk of fires or sea level rise – concerted management can also enhance the resilience of local communities to climate change-related events such as storm surges, coastal erosion, and landslides. This chapter explores the many ways that strategic forest management plays a role in climate change adaptation in Bangladesh, reviewing recent initiatives for conservation of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest, coastal afforestation, and reforestation of hill tract forests. Community-based social forestry, livelihood diversification, as well as disaster management are also key components of many of these programs. However, because baseline data and continual monitoring have been sparse, important uncertainties concerning long-term project effectiveness remain. Additional research is therefore necessary to evaluate the successfulness of forest-based adaptation in Bangladesh.

Jeffrey Chow, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh, Corresponding Author, e-mail: jchow.conservation@gmail.com.

Tanzinia Khanom, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Riadadh Hossain, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Jennifer Khadim, International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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Chow, J., Khanom, T., Hossain, R., Khadim, J. (2019). Forest Management for Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh. In: Huq, S., Chow, J., Fenton, A., Stott, C., Taub, J., Wright, H. (eds) Confronting Climate Change in Bangladesh. The Anthropocene: Politik—Economics—Society—Science, vol 28. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05237-9_4

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