Climate change-related flooding and water level rises combined with a series of recent cyclones have made the waters of the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, the world’s largest mangrove forest, too salty for many creatures. It’s been a hard blow for many women from the indigenous Adivasi Munda Community, who have traditionally made a living gathering shrimp and crab from their hiding paces between the mangroves, for sale on local markets. A new fund is providing start-up capital and skills development for women to set up climate-resilient crab farms and secure the women’s incomes and livelihoods.

Belonging to a poor and marginalised community, life has long been harsh for the Indigenous Adivasi Munda community in the village of Horihorpur in Koyra Upazila, Khulna district of Bangladesh. Situated adjacent to the riverbanks of Shakbariya, near the Sundarbans mangrove forest, the population of Horihorpur village has recently grappled with a series of natural disasters that have pushed their existence to the very brink.

“I have never seen disasters of this magnitude, which was Cyclone Amphan and Aila, ever before in my life. Never seen so much flood either,” lamented 60-year-old Bashonti Munda, from Horihorpur village.

“I used to work on a crab farm where I earned a monthly wage of Taka 2000-3000 on which my family and I survived. The two deadly cyclones followed by floods, salinity intrusion in water and more, have left us with nothing and I struggled to provide three meals to my family,” added Shunil Munda, also from the community.

To ensure that such climate vulnerable communities have a steady revenue stream, The Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, which in Bangladesh is implemented through the Local Government Initiative on Climate Change (LoGIC) project, is promoting locally-led climate-adaptive livelihoods. A Community Resilience Fund has been set up to provide climate-vulnerable women with capital for sustainable and resilient income investments. The women also received training in how to raise and care for the crabs.

LoGIC is a joint initiative led by the Local Government Division of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development, and Cooperatives, supported by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), European Union (EU) and Sweden.

Of the total 45 indigenous communities in Bangladesh, there are about 6,000 people of the Munda community living in the plains with a smaller community of some 1,200 families in the six upazilas of Khulna and Satkhira districts in the low-lying delta Sundarbans. Living on the coastal edges of the country these delta Adivasi Munda families are one of the most climate vulnerable and marginalised communities in all of Bangladesh.

About 50 families of the Adivasi Munda community, which traces its roots back to India, live in Horihorpur village and all of them struggled to make ends meet.

“The economic condition of the people living in this area is grim,” says Mohammed Rokunnuzzaman who is the Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Koyra Upazila. Even in normal times, the Adivasi Munda community members are barely able to make ends meet. Now, with shrimp and crab cultivation work drying up due to such disruptions in the climate, they have no work, he added.

“Long before, at one time this community owned land in Bangladesh but lost it bit by bit to natural calamities, and now almost all the [Adivasi] Munda families are entirely landless, which makes them even more vulnerable to such natural disasters. These families live on ‘khas land’ that is land controlled by the government,” says local Chairman of Uttar Bedkashi Union, Sardar Nurul Islam.

LoGIC profiled the most climate-vulnerable marginalized communities in Horihorpur village, who are largely women. The women were divided into smaller groups where each member received a community resilience fund of approximately BDT 29,000, or around US$ 280, as direct support to undertake climate adaptative livelihoods with immediate benefits for their income. LoGIC then supported these groups through every step to develop a profitable climate-adaptive business model such as planning, financing, pond leading for cultivation. The project also provided training, creating access to financial institutions, and establishing market linkages for them.

The groups chose to remain with crab cultivation because they had prior expertise with it Long before the present methods of crab farming were introduced, the old “Gher” or ponds used by the Adivasi Mundas in coastal areas to raise crabs. But this type of crab farming saw a severe fall due to the salinity of the water trapped in the pond. So, the women, with their community resilience funds, were taught the process of farming crab by building “Pata” or bamboo-framed structures with nets around the crabs instead, at a cost of BDT 14,000 or US$136. The women are also taught to check the water regularly so the crabs don’t get affected by a virus or die.

With this new learning using climate-resilient farming techniques, 35 women in Horihorpur village are now employed in crab cultivation. They invested a total of BDT 350,000 or US$3,400 and by working together as a group for a month, they made a total profit of BDT 385,000, or about US$3,740, earning each woman approximately BDT 11,000 or US$106.

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