Members’ Publication

Amidst the expanding number of studies advocating for community involvement in tourism governance, limited emphasis has been rendered to comprehending the implications of residents' attachment with nature on their understandings and response towards tourism. This study addresses this gap by assessing the level of nature connectedness among residents and its impact on residents’ views of empowerment from tourism at Cox’s Bazar, a nature-based coastal destination in Bangladesh. Recognizing the significance of this relationship for effective destination management, the research blends the Contributions of Nature to People framework with Weber’s Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality. Although the study shows a partial statistically significant connection between nature connectedness and support for tourism, as well as between economic empowerment and support for tourism in the study area, other areas of empowerment show an insignificant connection to nature, raising concerns about support for tourism and indicating an overall weak connection to nature. While residents are eager to portray Cox's Bazar to tourists, concerns about over-tourism persist, and variations across different parts of the study area reflect distinct characteristics influenced by locational and socioeconomic factors. These findings underscore the necessity of integrating residents' connection to nature into tourism development strategies, prioritizing initiatives that cultivate this bond to foster positive attitudes toward tourism and mitigate conflicts.

Amidst the expanding number of studies advocating for community involvement in tourism governance, limited emphasis has been rendered to comprehending the implications of residents' attachment with nature on their understandings and response towards tourism. This study addresses this gap by assessing the level of nature connectedness among residents and its impact on residents’ views of empowerment from tourism at Cox’s Bazar, a nature-based coastal destination in Bangladesh. Recognizing the significance of this relationship for effective destination management, the research blends the Contributions of Nature to People framework with Weber’s Theory of Formal and Substantive Rationality. Although the study shows a partial statistically significant connection between nature connectedness and support for tourism, as well as between economic empowerment and support for tourism in the study area, other areas of empowerment show an insignificant connection to nature, raising concerns about support for tourism and indicating an overall weak connection to nature. While residents are eager to portray Cox's Bazar to tourists, concerns about over-tourism persist, and variations across different parts of the study area reflect distinct characteristics influenced by locational and socioeconomic factors. These findings underscore the necessity of integrating residents' connection to nature into tourism development strategies, prioritizing initiatives that cultivate this bond to foster positive attitudes toward tourism and mitigate conflicts.

The escalating frequency of riverbank erosion in Bangladesh has led to a marked increase in the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are deprived of essential services such as adequate housing, employment, healthcare, and security. In response, various interventions have been implemented by government bodies, private sectors, and non - governmental organizations to mitigate the impacts of displacement. A notable recent initiative is the countrywide Ashrayan-2 project, targeting the rehabilitation of the landless- homeless people with a vision to uplift their livelihoods. As a representative sample of those eligible for resettlement, the IDPs' challenges are examined in this study, followed by an assessment of interventions in the Ashrayan Project in a riverbank erosion context. Employing Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques and the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF), this qualitative research shows the issues that the Ashrayan-2 project addressed and those that were not. The findings of this study offer insights and recommendations for future interventions and resettlement project design , considering the needs and challenges of IDPs and current project beneficiaries.

Microfinance offers a powerful tool for poverty reduction, providing disadvantaged individuals with access to credit, fostering micro-entrepreneurship, and improving their livelihoods. However, the urban poor encounter challenges inflicted by climate change. The community, largely facing financial hardships and poor living conditions, can contribute to mitigation and adaptation to climate change. However, the community often lacks mitigation and adaptation knowledge which affect them most. While microfinance institutions (MFIs) have empowered them through offering credit for micro-enterprises, they have failed to harness the “social capital” of the MF borrowers in mitigation and adaptation to climate change.