'Integrate climate change in the development process'

Dr A Atiq Rahman

The ever busy, internationally lecturing professor of development and sustainability in the past two years, has been working on the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA). He talked to Christine Wanner of The Daily Star the other day. The excerpts follow:

The Daily Star (DS): Dr Atiq Rahman. What were your main issues, when you fought for the recognition of developing countries like Bangladesh in the scientific and multinational talks on climate change?

Dr. A. Atiq Rahman (AR): The northern scientific community was serving their interests, industries and economies. Basically the southern ecosystems were used to support nothern economies. We realised, that the problems of the south will not be solved by those scientific approaches. Thus, we were trying to convince the scientists, that we too, had knowledge.

DS: More than twenty years have gone by now. What are the major lessons, you have learned?

AR: Let me highlight three lessons. First: Climate change must be integrated into the development process. But it should not be marginalised in that process either, as the threat of climate change is already there and will increase in the future. Second:

People, communities know, how to deal with ongoing changes. We have to find the best solutions, put it into formal structures and spread that knowledge. But in doing so, we really have to see the people's views without intermediate views from scientists, ministers or NGOs. So it is a two-way learning process between science, politics and people. Third: To implement these solutions, we have to strengthen local governmental structures.

DS: NAPA heads exactly towards that aim. You have started to work on that progamme two years ago. What is the present state of the work?

AR: Let me go further back. In the debate of the climate change, I have tried to establish equity and justice. Therefore I -- among others -- wanted to hear the voices of the communities, of the women, of the poor. As a consequence I wanted developing countries such as Bangladesh in the debate, as sensitive, usefull actors. That happened two years ago, on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The question was, how developing countries might build up capacities to address the climate changes. NAPA came along as a response and the funding to develop such a programme was peanuts: 200,000 dollar -- this is less than any minor project in the country.

NAPA Bangladesh searches locally practised solutions to maintain agriculture, livestock and biodiversity when it comes to ongoing changes. It focuses as well on water, the coastal area, the dealing with natural disasters, health issues and infrastructures. Six institutes carry out that work: Ministry of environment, WAPA, BARC (Agricultural Research Council), the Institute for Development Studies (BIDS) and the International Union on Conservation (IUCN).

We have developed the NEMAP, National Environmental Management Action Plan, the largest participatory developing plan ever. We therefore cooperate with the Government and India.

DS: NAPA means a lot of paperwork. What are the concrete steps being taken to implement the programme?

AR: Yes, it is on paper. But it will go on, from the paper to a plan that can be implemented. Now, the plan does not yet exist. Right now, there are six groups, working on the issues of poverty, institutions, gender, water and capacity building. In the next three or four months, these findings will come together and complete NAPA.

DS: How do you interact with the persons involved with the Disaster Management Programme?

AR: They came in late, but their experience will be integrated in NAPA. Disaster Management is much more about rapid reactions on coming disasters. The extreme events all over the world -- floods in Bangladesh or heat wave in Europe -- create huge costs, challenging all societies and development processes. Climate change as an ongoing process thus needs much more institutional capacity building.

DS: Give us some examples, please.

AR: We must make the difference between the 'normal' climate variability, the fluctuation, away from the mean temperatures and the additional extremes. A 'normal' temperature is, in Bangladesh average, 25 degrees. 'Normally', people cope with 7 to 40 degrees. NAPA is interested in the how?

When 37 becomes 39, rice yield starts decreasing. Ten days of water of two feet height is an integral part of Bangladesh life. When it becomes 3,5 feet, life becomes more difficult. If it is happening during the growing period of the crops, everything goes. These are the extremes we are talking about.

Other challenges are the increasing salinity or the water security. We are encouraging our agricultural institutes to do research on saline tolerant rice. How do we provide communities with arsenic and saline free water? We need the community to built up the experience.

Out of that, adaptation to climate change is a small part of adaptation to general changes. The floating garden is a response to floods. But you cannot solve all problems of agriculture in Bangladesh by these cultures of vegetables and fruits. But it is an idea. In some coastal areas, we have found specific fruits and vegetables, growing in the intertidal zone, but that is only known in two villages. We want to encourage the interregional transfer.

We are asking the people: How have you been adapting to changes? Some of the solutions are acceptable, others useless. We have to find the ones which are applicable and useful, to, maybe, help other places, other countries.