Ecosystem-based Approaches to Adaptation : Evidence from two sites in Bangladesh

The ARCAB programme has a well-developed theory of change (ARCAB 2012). This encompasses broader issues relating to the scaling up and out of CBA that are central to ARCAB as a whole and its goal of achieving ‘transformed resilience’ for the climate vulnerable poor at scale. The theory of change proposed here (Figure 1) for the EbA theme focuses more specifically on the roles that ecosystems and ecosystem service provision can play in increasing the capacity of the climate vulnerable poor to adapt to climate vulnerability and climate change in specific ARCAB sites rather than at scale. Although anecdotal evidence of the benefits of EbA is strong, there is little rigorous evidence relating to EbA available in the scientific literature (Reid 2011; Doswald et al. 2014), so this research seeks to assess evidence from specific ARCAB sites to test the hypothesis that resilient ecosystems and continued ecosystem service provision can contribute to community adaptive capacity and resilience.