'Migration studies in Indian, African delta key to global strategies'

Study findings on the "big scale" migration triggered by climate change in Indian and African deltas can be applied to form adaptation strategies for other "vulnerable, productive" regions of the world, a British expert said here Saturday.

"There are issues arising out of climate change (in deltas) and certainly there are similarities that all these deltas are important to their agriculture. Compared to their size they produce a lot of food," Craig Hutton, department of geography and engineering, University of Southampton, England, told IANS on the sidelines of a workshop here.

"They all fairly vulnerable and highly productive and need attention...to lose them would be deeply significant to their cultures," Hutton said.

Researchers from the university are leading an international project to understand the effect of climate change on people living in deltas in south Asia and Africa, and how they respond.

The project 'Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA)' launched this year will continue over a five-year period.

Experts from the UK, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ghana and India will investigate regions, including the delta of the Nile in Egypt and the Ganga-Brahmaputra in Bangladesh and India.

In addition, two smaller deltas, the Mahanadi in Odisha and the Volta in Ghana, are also under the ambit of the project that seeks to gain insights into the adaptive strategies of these communities in the last 50-100 years.

The School of Oceanographic Sciences and Jadavpur University here are leading the project in India.

"These are vulnerable productive sites are significant nationally and regionally and they are certainly under threat," said Hutton, an expert on intersection of environment and social implications of environmental/climate change and management for sustainable development.

Because of the similarities, management and adaptation strategies in these areas will be a key to evolving practices in landscapes like coastal zones and mountains in other parts of the world, according to Hutton, who has earlier worked on studies involving the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta.

"We are looking at migration triggers and what are the broad lessons. If we can start evolving lessons about the environmental policies and migration, these may apply to other deltas for sure and also to coastal zones and mountains.

"The key would be 'what can I learn about Africa in India and vice versa'," he said.