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• Environmental voluntary non-migration as an adaptation strategy is assessed. • Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM) is applied. • Access to basic needs increases people at risk's well-being. • Different social-psychological-economic factors are the key elements behind the voluntary non-migration decision. Despite suffering significantly from the adverse impacts of climate change and human-induced hazards, many people at risk deliberately choose not to migrate from hazard-prone areas in coastal Bangladesh. As many of them encounter significant challenges in maintaining their livelihoods, ascertaining how and under what circumstances voluntary non-migration decisions occur is crucial. Only a handful of studies have investigated whether individuals and groups who decide to stay put in the face of climatic hazards consider their decision to be an adaptive action. In this regard, this study contributes to the existing literature by empirically investigating the voluntary non-migration decision as an adaptation strategy through an exploration of the factors affecting this decision. We employed a systematic random sampling technique and selected 627 respondents from two climatic hazard-prone coastal districts: Khulna and Satkhira. Using the Generalized Structural Equation Model (GSEM), we found that voluntary non-migrants (84% of total respondents) appeared to enjoy the significant advantage of access to their communities' basic need provision and social support. Furthermore, the social, psychological, and economic opportunities found at their existing location (e.g., better income prospects, affordable living costs, receipt of financial help during post-disaster periods, and skills allowing them to stay in that location), as well as their access to local natural resources, strengthened their social capital and thus influenced their desire to stay. Together, these factors enhanced people's adaptability to climatic shocks and motivated them to choose voluntary non-migration as an adaptation option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The cumulative effects of climate change exacerbate interruption of social-ecological system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the consumption smoothing along with other socioeconomic parameters of households affects the common pool resource base of a forest in an economic depression resulted from climate change triggered disasters. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a field level study of Koyra sub-district in the Southwestern coastal region of Bangladesh. Several parameters namely climatic trends and events, damage pattern suffered by households, change in land ownership and occupation pattern and consumption dependency pattern were considered. Methods used for data collection were household questionnaire survey and focus group discussions in the study area. Findings – Both the intensity and frequency of climate change led catastrophes are found higher in the study area resulting damage of assets and capital goods of households. The average annual disaster damage borne by per household is found US$177. Over the last two decades 8.21 per cent households become landless. During same time span more than 25 per cent households switched from cropping to other non-agricultural occupations and more than 26 per cent households depend on forest resource for their consumption smoothing. Originality/value – The paper provides insights how climate change led disasters induce the households to depend on the resource from the mangrove forest Sundarbans for their livelihood earning as well as consumption smoothing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We develop a Socioeconomic Vulnerability Index (SeVI) for climate change affected communities in seven unions 1 [1] Lowest tier of Local Government in Bangladesh. of Koyra upazilla 2 [2] Sub-district. in south-western coastal Bangladesh. We survey 60 households from each union to collect data on various vulnerability domains and socioeconomic indicators. The SeVI aggregate these collected data using a composite indicator index, where a relative weight is assigned to each indicator with a view of obtaining weighted average index scores for different vulnerability domains in different unions. Results suggest that southern and south-eastern unions are relatively more vulnerable, which are the most exposed to natural hazards and mostly surrounded by the mangrove forest Sundarbans. Furthermore, social, economic and disaster frequency are found as more influential indicators to adaptive capacity, sensitivity and exposure respectively in Koyra. This pragmatic approach is useful to figure out and monitor socioeconomic vulnerability and/or assess potential adaptation-policy effectiveness in data scarce regions by incorporating scenarios into the SeVI for baseline comparison. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]