Agroecological practices and Indigenous knowledge are being brought to the fore in a wetland stewardship programme that addresses biodiversity loss in the Gulshan-Baridhara Lake urban area in Bangladesh. The project aims to help achieve this locally-led stewardship through participatory wetland assessments, co-creation of restoration and management tools, and the development of green entrepreneurship.
Climate change and urban challenges in Dhaka’s wetlands
Dhaka, in Bangladesh, faces increasing threats of extreme heat and flooding due to climate change and urbanisation. Wetlands, such as those around Gulshan-Baridhara Lake, play a crucial role in cooling the city and acting as natural buffers against floods but, since the 1960s, Dhaka has lost more than 50% of its wetlands because of poor urban planning.
The lack of appropriate housing pushes migrants outside the city and closer to the lakes, where wetlands become informal settlements for those displaced by climate impacts. Gulshan-Baridhara Lake hosts 300,000 people - the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh, Korali.
Pollution, extractive practices, unplanned blockage, sedimentation and urban expansion are putting the ecosystems around Gulshan-Baridhara Lake and the wellbeing of its inhabitants at risk.
Settlement dwellers protecting the wetlands and enhancing urban life
This project aims to develop a socially just model of ecological restoration led by climate migrants and settlement dwellers, which challenges stigmatisation, enhances livelihoods, and increases their climate resilience.
We are trying to debunk this myth – that creating a livelihood and looking after the environment go against each other – that informal settlements are detrimental to the environment and nature. Many of these informal settlers were involved in agriculture before and have knowledge of nurturing nature. We realised they could contribute something and be environmental stewards – Tanzil Shafique, University of Sheffield
The plan includes training 100 climate migrants and dwellers as environmental stewards. The stewards will restore 16 hectares of wetland area, reversing environmental degradation and increasing biodiversity along specified locations of the lake edge within two years.
The restored wetland will improve water quality and soil health, and offer services such as water purification, groundwater recharge, flood regulation, and carbon sequestration. These will benefit nature in the wider urban areas and provide microclimatic cooling for at least 500,000 people along two kilometres close to the lake edge.