12. Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations in Wetlands

Despite the substantial contribution of wetland resources to support human wellbeing and the threats of climate change on wetland resources, climate studies have paid less attention to wetlands in South Asia. Hence, this chapter explores the impacts and adaptation to climate change on the wetlands of southwest coastal Bangladesh using the time series (e.g. Mann–Kendall) analysis of climate data and survey data analysis for the adaptations to climate change. We have also reviewed the literature to explore whether the local development projects in wetlands integrates climate change adaptations according to the national adaptation plan. The trends of temperature in pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon are increasing over the period 1948–2012. Pre-monsoon rainfall trend is decreasing, in contrast to the increasing rainfall trends in monsoon and post-monsoon seasons. In response to the changes in climate, 78% of respondents have adopted multiple adaptation options, and 94% of respondents have adopted expensive boring methods to support agriculture. The production cost has increased threefold in response to the changes in crop varieties to cope with climate change. The bivariate probit regression (BPR) reveals that loan taking is the determinant of climate change adaptation. Though the review of literature suggests that the impacts of climate change will be severe in the future, adaptation planning is yet not integrated into the wetlands’ development plans. Some of the adaptation options (e.g. access to credit and innovating crop varieties with low production cost) may be included in the global development goals to strengthen climate change adaptation at global and regional scales.