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© 2020 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Adaptation is an essential part of climate change policy. In areas where impacts are likely to be severe, migration is considered to be an adaptation option. In Bangladesh coastal areas migration due to climate change is contingent on people’s freedom of choice at individual and household level. Following Amartya Sen’s capability approach, we argue that there should be a line drawn between migrations by free choice versus forced migration. Sen’s capability approach focuses on the importance of people’s freedom of choice to act, and the ability to achieve what they consider valuable in their life. In this paper, we use an extensive empirical work engaging 22 focus groups discussions (8–12 individuals in each group) and 14 Key Informants Interviews in South-West Bangladesh to elicit how freedom of choice changes with the economic class and social status of an individual. Using these data we apply Sen’s capability approach to understand the role of the freedom of choice when considering migration as an adaptation option. We argue that the capability approach is essential in revealing a thin border between migration as a (planned) adaptation option and forced migration.

Delta communities worldwide are facing a multitude of challenges in their life and livelihood. In many developing countries, improving the quality of life and livelihood is a key challenge. While development is a central goal of delta planning in such countries, the effectiveness of planning is challenged by uncertain changes in climate and socio-economy. Bangladesh (one of the countries) is moving towards the adaptive delta management approach to deal with such uncertainties. Historical examples illustrate that Community Livelihood Adaptation (CLA) can critically influence the effectiveness of a policy strategy. Therefore, there is a clear need to explore CLA under uncertainty. For that purpose, this paper develops and applies a conceptual model-based approach combining the mental model and scenarios techniques. Our approach starts by using a participatory process to elicit mental models a farmers’ community uses when considering adaptation decisions; we capture these in the form of a cognitive map, and this map can serve as a conceptual model for analyzing livelihood adaptation decision-making in a future-oriented scenario analysis. To illustrate the approach, a case study of cropping decision-making of farmers community at a polder location under the saline condition in the southwest of Bangladesh has been elaborated. Results show that the approach is useful in structuring the cognitive and qualitative nature of complex decision-making process, and helps in understanding the dynamic interactions of farmers’ adaptation decisions with other actors, their environmental attributes, and market traits. It can help policymakers anticipate the adaptation direction of policy strategies.