Volunteering and the climate emergency: civil society organising for climate adaptation in the Indian Sundarbans

• In Event: Community Prevention and Response to Crises

Abstract

This paper conceptualises the roles of voluntary and unpaid labour in individual, community and institutional responses to the impacts of climate change in the Indian Sundarbans, a part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta. Civil society activism in relation to the climate emergency is receiving significant attention (e.g. Beckwith et al., 2022; Fisher & Nasrin, 2021), while volunteers are increasingly seen by policy-makers as providing critical important capacity to respond to climate induced disasters (Bodrud-Doza, 2022). But to date, relatively limited research has investigated the relationships between climate adaptation strategies and voluntary labour amongst marginalised communities, despite calls for its scholarly importance (Johnson et al., 2022; Kleinheisterkamp-González, 2023). This paper analyses data collected in collaboration with civil society organisations in the Indian Sundarbans to develop new dialogues between themes in civil society research and critical debates in environmental literatures.

The Sundarbans region is threatened by growing numbers of cyclones, sea-level rise and saline water intrusion impacting the lives of often already economically poor communities (Ghosh et al., 2018). This paper draws on data collected as part of the Voluntary Labour, Climate Adaptation and Disasters (VOCAD) initiative, adopting volunteer diaries and photovoice to generate new understandings of the roles of voluntary work in individual, community and organisational strategies for climate adaptation.

The paper uses this data to bring civil society and climate adaptation research into dialogue through three critical themes. Firstly, we conceptualise the kinds of voluntary labour being undertaken in the region and their relationship to different ideas of locally-led climate adaptation (Rahman et al., 2023). Through this, we critically challenge established attributions of voluntary work to particular causes, considering how communities work between multiple crises and challenges. Secondly, we focus on the relationships between voluntary action and climate infrastructures, examining the roles of volunteers in developing and maintaining climate resistant infrastructures, such as embankments. Here we explore how state and civil society organisations understand and resource voluntary work leading to adaptation efforts. Finally, we examine the relationships between voluntary labour and debates around loss and damage, which point to the need for climate reparations. While conceptualisations of the latter have tended to focus on financial reparations (Ranon, 2023), we argue that the changing types and scale of voluntary labour undertaken for climate adaptation can also be understood as a form of loss and damage. We particularly highlight the gendered dimensions of voluntary labour and climate adaptation, building on wider scholarship that has explored unequal participation in, and reward for, voluntary labour (e.g. Cadesky et al., 2019; Jenkins, 2009).

By analysing new evidence on voluntary work among marginalised communities severely impacted by the climate emergency, this paper contributes to the establishment of a conceptual understanding that connects debates on civil society, volunteering and climate change, recognising that voluntary labour is ubiquitous in climate adaptation policies and approaches. This effort helps lay the foundations for a critically important research agenda that addresses the challenges already facing individuals, communities, and organisations on the frontline of the climate emergency around the globe.

References

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Cadesky, J., Baillie Smith, M., & Thomas, N. (2019). The gendered experiences of local volunteers in conflicts and emergencies. Gender and Development, 27(2), 371–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2019.1615286

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Authors

• Matt Baillie Smith, Centre for Global Development, Northumbria University

• Melisa Maida, Northumbria University

• Sumana Banerjee, Jadavpur University

• Janet Clark, Northumbria University

• Bianca Fadel, Northumbria University