Sustainability challenges of adaptation interventions: do the challenges vary with implementing organizations?

Adaptation to climate change is a necessary response to reduce risk and vulnerability and to realize opportunities. However, not all adaptation measures bring about positive changes. In some cases, local-level adaptations may shift risks to other vulnerable places and communities. Both maladaptation, generally recognized to be undesirable at least in terms of the results it generates, and sustainable adaptation has been studied in diverse settings and for a range of climate-related risks. Sustainable adaptation aims at reducing poverty and enhancing social equity and environmental integrity in concert with risk reduction. However, there is limited research on how interventions by state and non-state implementing entities differ in addressing issues related to sustainable adaptation and the threat of maladaptation. In this paper, we use case study analysis to focus on three specific adaptation interventions—homestead plinth level raise, pond sand filter for safe drinking water, and surface and groundwater irrigation—in Bangladesh. Drawing on in-depth interviews with stakeholders facing recurring drought and coastal hazards, we emphasis on the implemented interventions and the roles played by a local NGO and central government. The first two interventions were implemented by a local NGO and the irrigation system by the government. Although the selected interventions led to many benefits, including reduced community vulnerability, enhanced resilience, and adaptive capacity, the stakeholders also identified sustainability challenges. NGO-implemented interventions, for example, suffer from beneficiary selection bias, while state-implemented intervention does not conform, at least partly, to environmental integrity. To limit maladaptation, it is necessarily better to understand beneficiary attitude(s) towards an intervention. Findings can help inform future interventions by raising awareness of agencies’ roles and responsibilities in implementation and recognizing the stakeholders’ adaptation needs and priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]