High tide in the Sundarbans brings the fruit of the keora tree, a species of mangrove, floating upriver. The fruit, which is popular across the coastal belt of Bangladesh, can be easily collected and sold.
For years, 45-year-old Shilpi Rani, who lives in the small rural administrative unit of Padmapukur in Satkhira district of southwestern Bangladesh, made a living from keora fruit. Then in 2009, Cyclone Aila breached the embankment protecting her village. The sudden intrusion of saltwater caused many mangroves to die. Despite being close to the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, the villagers faced an acute shortage of wood for fuel.
Once the floodwaters retreated, Rani and other women in the village started collecting keora fruits again. But this time they planted them, hoping to replace the mangrove trees and ensure their source of fuel and income. In the years since, the communities of Padmapukur have observed another benefit to mangrove reforestation: the trees protect them from storm surges in the Bay of Bengal. So, on the new flood-control embankments that surround villages, they have planted mangroves as a shield. With the extra fruit from these trees they make jams and pickles, which they can sell. This is a significant addition to families’ incomes and empowers the women of Padmapukur.
Rabeya Khatun, another resident of Padmapukur, has gone a step further than collecting keora fruit and planting it. After Cyclone Aila, she started to go to the edge of the Sundarbans to collect saplings of various mangrove species and plant them on the embankments. Later, with the help of local NGO Friendship, she formed a group of 15 women who carry out community-led mangrove planting. Having witnessed the erosion that happens when there are no mangroves, she believes this will help to protect people’s livelihoods and the Sundarbans.
Climate resilience
As climate change makes storms more powerful and pushes saltwater further inland, the role of the Sundarbans as a storm shield has become more crucial. Farming has become less and less productive as soil and water turn more saline, and farmers are being forced to seek other means of sustenance.
Communities that are less resilient to the impacts of climate change are more likely to be forced into precarious and dangerous livelihoods. In 2009, Basanta Mandal lost his farm in Padmapukur when saltwater turned the soil barren. He now depends entirely on the Sundarbans for his livelihood.
“Before Cyclone Aila, I used to grow rice on my land,” he said. “But I lost that land because of floodwater. Nothing grows in my land due to salinity. Now I have no other alternative than going to the forest to collect crabs and honey.” Like Mandal, many former farmers go deep inside the forest to collect honey or catch crabs and fish. It is a risky venture, with the forest’s large tiger, crocodile and snake populations. Meanwhile, fish catches are declining as greater numbers of people turn to the forests’ resources.
Sandhya Rani Mandal lives in Mirganj village, in the Shyamnagar region of Satkhira district. She used to catch fish and crabs from rivers near the village, but was always afraid of being attacked by tigers or snakes. She received training from Friendship and now plants mangroves and sells the saplings. In many households, mangroves are often the only safe and assured source of income.
Government’s support
The initiative has spread. Abu Naser, divisional forest officer of the Sundarbans West Division, told The Third Pole: “Through the women-led mangrove plantation initiative in the islands and embankments of Satkhira and Khulna districts, we have been able to have at least 100 acres [40 hectares] of new forest coverage. At least 1,500 marginalised women are involved in this initiative which is going on for the last few years…..