Limits and barriers to adaptation to climate variability and change in Bangladeshi coastal fishing communities

Limits and barriers to adaptation restrict people’s ability to address the negative impacts of climate change or manage risks in a way that maximises their wellbeing. There is a lack of evidence of this on small-scale fishing communities in developing countries. This study identifies and characterises limits and barriers to adaptation of fishing activities to cyclones and examines interactions between them in two fishing communities in Bangladesh, using household questionnaires, oral history interviews, vulnerability matrices and focus group discussions. The limits include physical characteristics of climate and sea like higher frequency and duration of cyclones, and hidden sandbars. Barriers include technologically poor boats, inaccurate weather forecast, poor radio signal, lack of access to credit, low incomes, underestimation of cyclone occurrence, coercion of fishermen by the boat owners and captains, lack of education, skills and livelihood alternatives, unfavourable credit schemes, lack of enforcement of fishing regulations and maritime laws, and lack of access to fish markets. These local and wider scale factors interact in complex ways and constrain completion of fishing trips, coping with cyclones at sea, safe return of boats from sea, timely responses to cyclones and livelihood diversification. The findings indicate a need for further detailed research into the determinants and implications of such limits and barriers, in order to move towards an improved characterisation of adaptation and to identify most suitable means to overcome the limits and barriers. •Limits and barriers to adaptation of fishing activities to cyclones were examined in two fishing communities in Bangladesh.•Physical characteristics of climate and sea pose limits to adaptation of fishing activities.•Technological, economic, social and formal institutional barriers also constrain adaptation of fishing activities.•Limits and barriers interact in complex ways to constrain adaptation of fishing activities.•Both short- (e.g., coping with cyclones at sea) and long-term (e.g., livelihood diversification) adaptation is affected.