When hazards become disasters: coastal fishing communities in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT Using the DPSIR (Drivers, Pressures, States, Impacts, and Responses) framework as an analytical lens, this study elucidates how climate-related hazards, coupled with other drivers and pressures, create vulnerability to disasters for coastal fishing communities in Bangladesh. Primary data has been collected through fieldwork in four communities in the Southern Region, consisting of individual interviews, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The study reveals that coastal fishing communities in Bangladesh face recurrent hazards that, coupled with other natural and anthropogenic drivers and pressures, have disastrous consequences on human well-being and the environment. Disaster impacts on coastal communities vary and differ by the capacities, situations, experiences, and capitals of households. In response to disasters’ adverse impacts, affected communities adopt various coping strategies, which produce both beneficial and harmful impacts. To include those impacts into long-term development goals of coastal communities, the study calls for the implementation of the Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines (SSF Guidelines), which could help in the immediate relief phase, as well as the rehabilitation, reconstruction, and recovery after disasters and reduce vulnerabilities of small-scale fishers.