Reviewing climate change impacts on Indigenous women in Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh under the lens of Feminist Political Ecology
By Mst. Sabikun Naher
Introduction
Climate change is a global phenomenon with unequivocal impacts, from large-scale systemic transformation to localized implications such as biodiversity and crop loss. Climatic events like storms, hurricanes, and sea-level rise result in the salinization of fresh-water sources, flooding, population displacement nationally and internationally, and serious diminishing of habitable land (Prior & Heinämäki, 2017). Almost every part of the planet is negatively impacted by climate change. Climate change threatens individuals' rights to life, food, water, and housing—affecting traditional livelihoods and causing anxiety and psychological stress (Heinämäki, 2010).
However, the effects of climate change are unequal. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), “the impact of climate change will fall disproportionately upon developing countries and the poor persons within all countries...” (Stiftung, 2009). Several studies found that marginalized populations, such as Indigenous people, who contribute the least to carbon emissions and are deeply connected to nature, are disproportionately affected (Prior & Heinämäki, 2017). The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) states in the Human Development Report that climate change impacts affect disadvantaged groups and highlights the existing pattern of gender inequality (Watkins, 2005). Countries with better environmental performance have lower rates of gender wage gap and poverty, and vice versa (Prior & Heinämäki, 2017). Therefore, climate change also exacerbates the gaps in the power structure of a society. It can worsen existing historical disparities and women's access to resources such as land, social capital, fuel wood and water collection. Limited access to resources by women leads to insufficient representation in decision making which again increases gender inequality and their vulnerability (Habtezion, 2016).
Indigenous women are no exception to the vulnerability of climate change. 185 million Indigenous women are experiencing climate vulnerability in different parts of the world, (AIIP, n.d.) for example, the water crisis in Den village in Vietnam, food security crisis in Cambodia and Myanmar (Bhattachan et al. 2000).
The vulnerabilities of Indigenous women are exacerbated more because they are marginalized among the marginalized, politically disempowered, and discriminated against culturally and socially (Williams, 2018). Women’s suffering is intersectional for being women, for being Indigenous, and for being Indigenous women.
The global efforts to address climate change with a focus on Indigenous women abound. However, they are heavily criticized for (re)producing Western knowledge and ignoring Indigenous knowledge in climate change policy and action overarchingly by the anti-colonialist approach (William, 2018). The anti-colonialist approach strives to reclaim Indigenous knowledge (Dei, 2006) through systemic transformation, applies intersectional analysis (Coulthard, 2014) on climate change impact, and recognizes the unique contribution of Indigenous women in mitigating climate change (Kaijser & Kronsell. 2014). Moreover, global attention to climate change is also criticized for being masculine, as most of the decision-makers in climate change are male (William, 2018). Here, the distribution of power relates to climate change and subsequent action to address it. Without considering the power structures in climate change, the vulnerability of women will not be addressed adequately.
Feminist political ecology (FPE) is a powerful tool to demonstrate the correlation between the human environment relations and climate change considering gender and societal power dynamics. (Elmhirst, 2011; Harcourt & Nelson, 2015). It reveals the gender perspective of land rights and land dispossession, knowledge production and discourse, and ontology and epistemology in the construction of the environmental subjectivity of women. It also emphasizes ‘politics and power at different scales, highlighting gendered power relations, and making an explicit commitment towards tackling gender disadvantage and inequality’ (Elmhirst, 2015, p. 519). Special attention is given to “how gender and other power dynamics between men and women and/or between women intersect to shape their access to and control over a resource or property in a specific place” (Sato, 2019, p. 37).
Based on this theoretical underpinning, I will present a feminist political ecological analysis of the climate change impact on Indigenous women in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The paper starts with a theoretical discussion of climate change’s impact on Indigenous women. Then I will go through a brief historical sketch of the CHT, followed by a climate change scenario of CHT with a special focus on women. Then, a feminist political ecological analysis will be discussed to reveal underlying power dynamics and a plausible way forward to address climate change.
Climate Change Scenario in the CHT in Bangladesh
Figure 1 Map of the CHT (Chakma et al. 2012).
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh is the only mountainous area in the country, with 43 percent of the total county's forest, 10 percent of the country's territory, about 10 million forest-dependent people, and where at least 15 tribal communities live (Ahammad & Stacey, 2016; Rasul, 2007). (See Annex 1: Map of CHT).
The CHT, as one of the six climate change hotspots of Bangladesh, is prone to significant climate change impacts due to variations in average temperature and precipitation (MoCHTA, 2021). Such as, it may experience a significant shift in rainfall patterns (MJF, 2020; Haque, 2021). In addition, the CHT’s mountainous geography makes it susceptible to earthquakes, waterlogging, and flash floods. Its silty clay soil, unstable slopes due to human activities, and heavy rainfall during monsoons contribute to landslides, the most common environmental disaster (Haque et al., 2021). In the last fifty years, the CHT experienced roughly twelve significant landslides with the two most catastrophic landslides occurring in 2007 and 2017 (MJF, 2020).
Moreover, flash floods are more common in Bangladesh's southeast hilly region. They occur annually in Bangladesh's hilly regions and carry silt, rocks, sediments, and other materials that harm agricultural goods and cause casualties. Preparation for floods requires extensive preparation, as they are difficult to predict and can last for days. Strong winds frequently produce powerful cyclones that pose a threat to the CHT. The most severe effects of 14 tropical cyclones that form in the Bay of Bengal are storm surges (MJF, 2020). These catastrophic cyclones and storm surges are caused by several factors, including climate change (Haque, 2021).
Climatic phenomena such as changing rainfall patterns, earthquakes, waterlogging, flash floods, and cyclones greatly impact the lives of the CHT Indigenous people. When it comes to development variables like income, employment, poverty, health, and water, the CHT lags far behind. The current farming techniques in the region are no longer able to sustain the population due to the rapid degradation of the environment and the limited ability to react to the effects of climate change. The depletion of natural resources in the region is a result of various factors contributing to environmental deterioration, and the citizens of the CHT are gradually losing access to their forest resources. According to Lee et al. (2009), the percentage of landless people in CHT is almost one-fourth (23.93 percent) of the overall population.
Climate change negatively impacts several areas:
Impact on livelihoods: Climate events result in loss of crop, communication, jobs, economic activities and land fertility. Around 77 percent of CHT people are vulnerable due to climate change (MoCHTA, 2021), among them 34 percent are women (MJF, 2020). Among the affected women, 61 percent suffer from crop loss, and 84.75 percent have been forced to change their profession. A study found that around 19 percent to 66 percent of women are involved in agriculture and 23 to 55 percent of women earn their living from livestock or poultry rearing (MJF, 2020).
Impact on water, health, and sanitation: About 27 percent of CHT Indigenous women have their health negatively impacted by climate change. Most of the health risk comes from water-borne diseases during floods which have increased due to climate change (MJF 2020). Changing rainfall patterns are also responsible for drought or flash floods (Chowdhury et al. 2017). Major reasons for water scarcity are deforestation, shrinking water levels, increasing temperature, and rock harvesting. Overcollection of water from the same source shrinks water availability and increases competition among women. This is worsened during the summer season (February to April), because women have to spend more time and travel more distances to collect water. Apart from the regular scarcity, 60 percent of women also face issues with water availability during natural disasters (Raza & Khan, 2022).
Impact on infrastructure: 71 percent of the CHT people have suffered from climate change impacts on infrastructures, such as roads, culverts, and bridges. Any damage to infrastructure severely impacts communication and crop sales which harms income. Women face health care and education problems due to loss of communication.
Impacts on agriculture, poultry, and livestock: The CHT’s cattle, poultry, and agricultural operations have all been significantly impacted by climate change. Major causes include hill cutting, jhum cultivation (traditional shifting cultivation), teak culture, pineapple cultivation, and deforestation. Around 86 percent of the CHT people including women have been impacted negatively due to climate change on crop patterns, and 85 percent face price loss of products (MJF, 2020).
Government and non-governmental organizations widely recognize the negative impacts of climate change on the CHT. Bangladesh's government implemented many policies and programs to curb the climate change impact in the CHT. The Eighth Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) incorporates adaptation to climate change, with most of the goals based on pressing needs as identified by continuing planning efforts for adaptation. In addition, the national policies on climate change adaptation, such as the National Adaptation Programme of Action (NAPA), the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP) in 2009, the Vision 2021, the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, and the Climate Change National Adaptation Strategies and Plans (NASs), prioritize adaptation and mitigation measures by acknowledging the effects of climate change on ecosystems, livelihoods, agriculture, and food security, among other sectors.
A way forward: Feminist Political Ecological analysis
The government and non-governmental organizations in the CHT acknowledge the impacts of climate change, yet attempts to address them often overlook gendered power dynamics, inequality, and power disparities across different scales.Considering indigeneity, gender, power structure, and vulnerability, a feminist political ecological approach could present a plausible pathway to address climate change's impact on Indigenous women in the CHT.
First, FPE considers the existing power structure and gendered power relations and then commits to addressing gender disadvantage and inequality. As the impact of climate change in the CHT is gendered and unequal, a theoretical effort is essential to address inequality in climate change impact. Any policy program or initiative based on FPE will place gender-power relations at the center of its operation (Elias et al., 2021). Although there are no case studies in the CHT about the use of FPE in policy and programs, there are several examples in other regions of the world. Mollet and Kepe (2018) focus on power from an intersectional approach concerning economies to propose a solution for environmental restoration rather than a simplistic solution to a complicated deep-rooted problem (Elies et al, 2021).
In Canada, the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) works with Indigenous women's organizations to combat resource extraction and promote environmental justice. Indigenous rights were addressed by emphasizing the intersectionality of gender, culture, ethnicity/race, language, and class (Baruah & Biskupski-Mujanovic, 2023). Similarly, in Bangladesh, FPE can help Indigenous women better understand and handle the impact of climate change on women. Working with a disadvantaged community like Indigenous women of the CHT, a PFE analysis can reorient the focus of climate change mitigation programs based on local reality and women’s needs.
Second, FPE develops instruments that comply with the ontological and epistemological origin of Indigenous knowledge by challenging the legitimacy of patriarchal knowledge, its holders, and its production process. The environmental knowledge production process and understanding of climate change and its impact on the CHT are the product of patriarchal social structure. It is required to ask the producer of knowledge, and the interest behind this knowledge production. The paucity of sanitation facilities in the CHT, and the water fetching process and distance need to be considered from women’s point of view because women are the worst sufferers of these problems. For example, a study of Khayang women in the CHT shows that any environmental crisis adversely impacts women and highlights the negative impacts of neoliberal state policies and patriarchal structure (Dhali, 2008). Changing state policies and patriarchal structure needs altering the epistemological and ontological origin of knowledge production in the CHT. PFE is a required pathway.
Third, FPE supports pluriverse knowledge to ensure climate contextualization. Any universal action may not alter the system and existing power relations and knowledge about environment and development and it may not suit local context. The concept of pluriversism “ recogniz[es] the diversity of people’s views on planetary well-being and their skills in protecting it.” (Kothari et al. 2019). It explains the potential for a convivial coexistence of worlds, a configuration that would permit everyone to live in harmony and dignity, free from oppression, exploitation, and suffering. Embracing this idea in policy planning to address climate change's impact on Indigenous women in the CHT can ensure the contextualization of women’s experiences.
Fourth, Western or colonial perspectives of environmental justice fail to acknowledge the Indigenous context (McGregor et, al, 2020). This occurs despite there being myriads of claims that Indigenous knowledge would bring positive benefits to the continuously deteriorating environment (McGregor, 2018). FPE emerged as a critique of Western or colonial perspectives of environmental justice that ignore the Indigenous context. The relations between ecological crisis, colonialism (including settler colonialism), and environmental justice are evident (Parsons et al., 2021). In the CHT, environmental justice has been constructed based on colonial and Western ontology. From 1760, the colonial British intruded into the CHT, and intrusion continued to the Bangladesh period (1971 to onward) (Mohsin, 1997, p.4). PFE can decolonize environmental justice and can provide a new way to understand the environmental impact on Indigenous women in the CHT context. Several development policies and programmes such as the Kaptai Hydroelectric Project and Chandraghona Paper Mill in the CHT from 1950 onward focused on economic benefits without considering the local contextual culture which marginalizes the CHT people (Mohsin, 1997). Against these interventions, the CHT people have been demanding justice by implementing proposals to maintain the CHT region's specialty, respect their culture, avoid land dispossession, facilitate benefit-sharing between government and Indigenous people, and interpret neo-liberal concepts like eco-tourism in line with Indigenous lifestyles (PCJSS, 2023).
Lastly, FPE challenges power relations that produce gendered impacts of climate change. Through changing power structure, it is possible to offer a better outcome to address climate change impacts:
Figure 2 Methods of addressing the impact of climate change on women in the CHT
Conclusion
Climate change impacts the planet negatively. Individuals and their rights to life, food, water, and housing are being threatened by climate change. Any negative impact on culture such as traditional livelihoods, may result in anxiety and psychological stress. However, climate change impacts are unequal. Some groups suffer more than other groups based on power, privilege, and the structure of society. Indigenous women are the worst victims of climate change, sometimes called triple discrimination: for being women, for being Indigenous, and for being Indigenous women. The CHT in Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Indigenous women in the CHT are suffering more than men in many ways, largely from patriarchal, imbalanced power structures. FPE drives for emphasizing ‘politics and power at different scales, highlighting gendered power relations, and making an explicit commitment towards tackling gender disadvantage and inequality,’ (Elmhirst, 2015). It also analyzes climate change scenarios based on gendered power relations, environmental knowledge production, the distribution of loss and benefit, and the winners and losers of climate change impact. Based on research, it is claimed that in various ways, PFE can change the impact of climate change on Indigenous women through changing power structure, knowledge production process (both ontologies and epistemologies), patriarchal structure, challenging Western notion of climate justice and gender-sensitive impact analysis and policy making. Thus, a feminist political ecological analysis can reveal underlying power dynamics and pave a plausible way forward to address the negative impact of climate change on Indigenous women in the CHT.
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