This book applies a gendered lens to evaluate the dynamic linkages between climate change and livelihoods in developing countries. It examines how climate change affects women and men in distinct ways, and what the implications are for earning income and accessing the natural, social, economic, and political resources required to survive and thrive. The book's contributing authors analyze the gendered impact of climate change on different types of livelihoods, in distinct contexts, including urban and rural, and in diverse geographic locations, including Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. It focuses on understanding how public policies and power dynamics shape gendered vulnerabilities and impacts, how gender influences coping and adaptation mechanisms, and how civil society organizations incorporate gender into their climate advocacy strategies.

Very few studies have been conducted to explore the vulnerability of women in the context of climate change. This book addresses this absence by investigating the structure of women’s livelihoods and coping capacity in a disaster vulnerable coastal area of Bangladesh. The research findings suggest that the distribution of livelihood capitals of vulnerable women in rural Bangladesh is heavily influenced by several climatic events, such as cyclones, floods and seasonal droughts that periodically affect the region. Women face several challenges in their livelihoods, including vulnerability to their income, household assets, lives and health, food security, education, water sources, sanitation and transportation systems, because of ongoing climate change impacts. The findings have important policy relevance for all involved in disaster and risk management, both within Bangladesh and the developing countries facing climate change impacts. Based on the research findings, the book also provides recommendations to improving the livelihoods of women in the coastal communities. This book will appeal to academics, researchers and professionals in environmental management, gender and development, and climate change governance looking at the effects of and adaptation to climate change, gender issues and natural disaster management strategies.

Globally climate-induced disasters have been impacting marginalised communities’ lives, livelihood and gendered relations. This book explores the effects of Cyclone Aila (as a result of climate change) in 2009 on the rural livelihoods and gendered relations of two ethnically distinct forest communities – Munda, an indigenous group, and Shora, a Muslim group – dwelling near the Sundarbans Forest in Bangladesh. Examining the cyclone’s medium- to long-term impacts on livelihoods and comparative aspects of gendered relations between these two contrasting communities, this book addresses a gap in current critical development studies. It adopts an ethnographic research design and analyses the alterations to livelihood activities and reconfiguration of gender relations within the Munda and Shora communities since 2009. The study primarily contends that post-Aila, livelihoods and gendered relations have been substantially transformed in both communities, making the case that the improvement of local infrastructure, as an important part of the geographical location, has noticeably progressed the living conditions and livelihoods of some members of the Munda and Shora communities. Connecting climate-induced changes with the construction and alteration of gendered livelihood patterns, the book will be of interest to a wide range of academics in the fields of Asian Studies, Sociology of Environment, Social Anthropology, Human Geography, Gender and Cultural Studies, Human Geography, Disaster Management and Forestry and Environmental Science.

This comprehensive Handbook assesses the escalation of global natural disasters as a result of climate change. Examining the complex interplay of human and natural activities, it highlights the growing vulnerability of people and communities in developing countries to floods, landslides, cyclones, heat waves and wildfires.

Despite the legal and policy foundation of BiH, gender considerations have only marginally been mainstreamed in state and entity policies on rural development or other sectors related to agriculture. At the state level, the Strategic Plan for Rural Development of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018-2021) addresses support for women as a cross-cutting initiative but fails to fully mainstream gender. Rather, the strategy includes a stand-alone sub-section on gender equality that presents rather superficial analysis of gender disparities in rural areas and includes no strategic guidance. Measures are suggested for “young people/women” in combination and for improving access to business grants, rural loans and agricultural associations. One monitoring indicator measures “women’s participation” in investment programs for agricultural holdings and diversification of rural economy (Strategic Plan for Rural Development of Bosnia and Herzegovina (2018-2021). The inconsistent application of gender mainstreaming to policy development and the very limited capacity of most line ministries to include a gender perspective in their core work contribute to a situation in which gender equality is poorly reflected in state policies that concern agriculture and rural development. Meanwhile, rural areas are marked by women’s poverty, which is linked to their economic dependence, over representation in informal and unpaid work, and the fact that elderly rural women in particular tend not to be covered by the pension system and are often living alone because they are widowed.

Arid environments are basically associated with water scarcity. Therefore, soils will have an extremely low moisture level to support plant and animal life as well as human social life. Sustainability is the long durability of systems and processes within various adapted environmental conditions. Recently, systematic scientific studies on arid environments and sustainability have become more attractive, critical, and sound than the previous years. Sharing such experiences related to different environmental circumstances will absolutely help scientists and decision-makers to have better interpretation of their own environment. By learning lessons, appropriate, fast, and effective approaches require to implement for overwhelming such problems. Such actions will certainly lead to more secure and sustainable environments for plant, animal, and human life.

This book offers a wide, in-depth study of the gender-climate change-agriculture nexus. The crux of understanding these connections comprises gender equality and tools to measure gender discrimination, the evolution of the concept of gender inclusiveness and its concerns; and the need to address the same by formulating gender-inclusive policymaking. Despite the fact that more than 50 years have elapsed since gender concerns were included in explorations of this nexus, there is still ambiguity around the foundations, connections, and approaches for planning gender-inclusive climate policies. It will be of wide interest to students, scholars, and researchers in gender studies, agriculture, climate change and rural development research, and also to practitioners, extension workers, and planners designing new climate-resilient practices.

This book explores gendered perceptions of the Sundarbans Forest in Bangladesh, and the extent to which these perceptions are affected by extreme weather events (specifically, cyclones Aila and Sidr). Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Shora, a rural village in southern Satkhira, Bangladesh, the book explores gendered activities in the forest, especially women’s interaction with the forest resources. The findings present a clear picture of the Shora community’s local knowledge about the Sundarbans Forest, as well as the ecological and economic contributions for the forest people. The book makes a timely contribution to the wider study of gender, post-cyclone recovery, ecology and resilience.

This book examines changing gender roles, relations and hierarchies in an ethnic minority community in Central Viet Nam. After decades of war, the community continued its self-sufficient way of life in this remote forested mountainous region, but in recent years has been forced to respond to severe climate threats combined with sudden and destabilizing socioeconomic and regulatory change. Through the use of both qualitative (interview-based) and quantitative research methods, the book offers insights into the complex interactions between climate, regulatory and socioeconomic changes – including, paradoxically, the emergence of significant problems for both the community and the environment in the wake of policies designed to protect the natural environment. Facing greatly increased food and livelihood insecurity, the women and men of the community were pushed into the mainstream market economy without being fully prepared to participate in an economy that is still very new to them. These sudden transitions caused major shifts in gender roles and hierarchies, opening up new possibilities for women to increase their social status in a highly patriarchal context, but also at a cost for both women and men as women’s burdens increased and men’s traditional roles and livelihoods were lost. The book examines recent trends, including unanticipated changes and new possible policy-related approaches, and draws international comparisons with other ethnic minority, indigenous and remote communities facing similar complex forces of change. This book will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students of climate change, gender, environment, and public policy and development studies.