Climate Change, Man-made Destruction and the Loss of Rural Livelihoods

The devastating effect of climate change can be seen especially in geographically vulnerable countries. Every year, a disaster-prone country like Bangladesh; loses much of its resources as a consequence of natural calamities. Bangladesh is situated in a geographical position where natural devastation occurs often-resulting in substantial damages to poor villagers.It has also been observed that both natural and man-made changes can alter the patterns of poor peoples' lives and livelihoods. Faulty development policies and economic interests of the rich, such as promoting shrimp farming in a saline-prone zone make the environmental settings more vulnerable. Communities living around the Sundarbans region have suffered severely from environmental changes which have created huge obstacles against livelihood options or economic development in the region. These changes are threatening the food and water security of poor communities and making them more marginalized than before. The purpose of this study is to scrutinize the reasons of ongoing changes of livelihood patterns of these communities and to examine the strength of government policies against environmental exploitation.