Social resilience in the Sundarbans

The inhabitants of the tidally active lower deltaic plain of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin are highly exposed to the cascading effects of climate change (including sea level rise, cyclones, salinisation and coastal erosion), while their social-economic conditions and the governance increase their vulnerability.

The seminar will present the project Social resilience in the Sundarbans, a Transdisciplinary research project supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the SNSF through the SOR4D programme. The seminar will be an occasion to reflect on the solutions co-developed by the communities of the River Delta with the support of our team. It will foster an exchange between the public and the research team on the experience and findings of the project and its Transdisciplinary research.

The project will be presented by Dr. Prof. Jenia Mukherjee, Souradip Pathak and Dr. Prof. Anuradha Choudry (IIT Kharagpur), Dr. Prof. Sam Selim and Faisal Rahman (ULAB), Tapas Mandal (SJSM), Md. Nurul Islam (SAJIDA Foundation), Dr. Emilie Crémin et Dr. Prof. René Véron (UNIL) and will be discussed by Dr. Prof. Shaila Seshia Galvin, associate professor at the IHEID, Geneva.

In a nutshell

The project aims to enhance the “social resilience” of subsistence farming communities living in rural areas of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, on the outskirts of the Sundarbans Forest. It examines how small-scale farmers in Kumirmari (India) and Pratapnagar (Bangladesh) perceive their social vulnerability and their exposure to multi-hazards such as floods, storm surges and salinisation, and builds a comparative synthesis of their challenges based on archival research, household surveys, and ethnographic fieldwork. 

To support rural communities in this socio-ecologically fragile region, the project implements “real-life labs” as experimental spaces to translate knowledge into actionable community-driven solutions. These labs explore sustainable fisheries and integrated agroecological market farming, guided by local ecological knowledge and community collaboration. Initial findings reveal that agroecological practices require collective action and institutional support for long-term sustainability and innovative strategies for resource management, while market access emerges as a significant obstacle for rural communities. The project proposes leveraging community-managed commons, such as canals and tidal plains, through collective use and governance. Ultimately, the creation and management of new commons aim to strengthen social cohesion, promote collective work, and enhance community resilience.

The SOR4D programme (2022-2030)

The Solution-oriented Research for Development (SOR4D) programme is a joint funding instrument between the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) implemented in the “Decade of Action”: that is accelerating efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda). The overarching goal of the SOR4D programme is to produce better knowledge, solutions and innovation by needs-driven, transdisciplinary research that opens up new ways for advancing sustainable development and reducing poverty in the least developed, low and lower-middle-income countries.

The conference is open to the public.
The event will be followed by a small “Apéro”.

Contact: Emilie Cremin emiliehelene.cremin@unil.ch