Seeds, Water, and Storms: Women’s Knowledge as Climate Adaptation in Coastal Bangladesh

Coastal Bangladesh, which has shifting riverine chars, weak islands, and the Sundarbans, is experiencing growing climatic demands such as cyclones, marine inroads, erosions, and unpredictable monsoons. Women are critically important but overlooked in ensuring household and community resilience in these regions, especially in the upazilas of Manpura, Hatiya, and Shyamnagar. They use many generations of indigenous learning to practice such things as growing salinity-resistant crops, collecting rainwater, and reading water and environmental signs to respond to disasters. Although women possess a profound understanding of ecology, their contributions are still largely absent from official plans for adapting to climate change. The present research attempts to seek answers to how women in the three climate-sensitive upazilas embrace indigenous practices in agriculture, water management, and disaster preparedness. It also investigates the way this knowledge is being passed on to generations and adjusted to acute changes in the environment. For 7 ethnographic focus group discussions (FGDs), 8 to 10 women aged 20 and above and stratified by age and occupation were recruited. Drawing together inductive and deductive thematic coding, transcripts and field notes were analyzed with the help of NVivo software. Data were categorized into five themes: (1) domestic agricultural activities, such as seed selection and organic control of pests; (2) rainwater collection in the form of rainwater storage and natural filter; (3) environmental disaster preparedness based on local triggers, i.e. animal behavior; (4) intergenerational transmission of knowledge through stories and informal education; (5) centerpiece innovation, i.e. hybrid innovations, which combines practices and modern tools. Evidence shows that women practice indigenous knowledge that is projective, dynamic, and key in coping with climate issues. This experience can be integrated into a gender-responsive policy by means of seed banks, training, and community water systems, which can increase the sustainability and fairness of adaptation initiatives in vulnerable coastal communities.