The impact of the climate crisis is undeniably severe as the world witnesses its consequences on the communities, especially the rural communities in the Global South. Recently, Pakistan and Bangladesh saw record rainfall and flooding, destroying homes and livelihoods, leaving many people dead and millions displaced.

Pakistan authorities had reported more than 1,000 deaths since mid-June when the strong monsoon started, while in Bangladesh, millions need relief. Apart from the lives lost and the displacement of communities, the climate disasters in South Asia destroyed billions of dollars worth of infrastructures, farmlands, and livestock. Those who were impacted by the heavy rains and flooding were those already food insecure and are expected to suffer more as the climate crisis worsens. “The impacts have been widespread. The ready-to-harvest crops, including rice, cotton, vegetables, and dates, were destroyed. This is where farmers in Pakistan get their economic earnings. Fodder, that is essential for our livestock, was also lost. Our wheat stock that we would have used for the next six months was also washed away, threatening the already poor food security of farmers and their families.” said Dr. Azra Sayeed of Roots for Equity.

This disaster highly impacts rural women and agriculture workers since their livelihood depends on harvesting standing crops. Aside from the crops they have lost, most of the farmlands are still submerged or swampy, which will prevent them from planting again. “There is a high probability that at least 50% of the land will not be cultivated in the coming season, affecting the income and food security of the rural people and their families”. Said Sayeed.

Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, rural communities are becoming more vulnerable due to the climate crisis. The Global Climate Risk Index – an annual report that measures the extent of impacts of weather-related loss to countries –  ranked the country seventh in both 2020 and 2021. 

“Bangladesh is already a vulnerable country in South Asia due to its geographical location – we have more wetland areas and coastal zones. Our nation relies on its agricultural sector, which depends on the weather conditions,” said Pavel Partha of the Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK).

In Indonesia, big landlords’ expansion of palm oil, rubber, and wood plantations for pulp and paper destroys vast agricultural lands, contributing to the climate crisis. “Swamps and deep peats that could store carbon are being dried and being converted into plantations, thus releasing carbon,” said Triana Wardani of SERUNI, a women’s organization based in Indonesia.

The expansion of plantations in the name of profit not only undermines the food sovereignty of the rural communities but also contributes to the acceleration of the climate crisis by deforestation and drying wetlands that are supposed to help store carbon emissions.

Rural communities respond to the crisis

BARCIK’s Partha shared that rural communities in Bangladesh have started their adaptation and resilient practices in response to climate-related disasters.  “Through farmer-led action research, the communities are developing their climate-resilient varieties and researching for crops that need less water which they could plant during the drought,” he said.

“For an example of resilient practices, some farmers use floating gardens and raised beds, where they grow agroecological crops that could withstand heavy rains and that floods could not easily wash away,” he added.

Partha stressed that they rely on the communities’ strength and strategies to combat the disasters brought by the crisis and future climate-related disasters. Still, at the same time, they demand climate justice because the rural communities are not responsible for the climate crisis when Bangladesh only accounts for 0.5% of the global carbon emission compared to the massive emissions by big capitalist countries.

Moreover, according to Sayeed, for Pakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT),  a mass-based alliance of small and landless farmers, the main focus right now in response to the recent disaster is relief and campaigning. “There were different aspects of relief. PKMT members started to search for their affected members so they could start giving help. PKMT also started assessing the needs of the communities – food, water, health,” Sayeed shared. 

“We are also preparing on how we could look after our communities now that the winter season is upon us. The other critical part now is survival,” she continued.

Following their relief operations to the affected communities, the farmers’ organization in Pakistan immediately started their campaign efforts. They already held press conferences to call for help and had the government accountable for its failed handling of the flooding. “The government knew that a very bad monsoon was coming, but they were still lacking in their response, which resulted in deaths, displacement, and destruction of livelihoods,” said Sayeed.

Sayeed shared that they already have seven agroecological farms, and they plan to increase them as part of their efforts to champion agroecology as a tool to resist climate imperialism and ensure the food security of their farmer members. Although their seed banks were also casualties of the recent floods, they have learned that it is important to place the seed banks in areas where water would not reach them easily.

In the Philippines, non-profit organisation Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura/Farmer-Scientist Partnership for Development (MASIPAG) has been conducting relief and recovery efforts in several farming communities devastated by the recent super typhoon Noru (known in the Philippines as Karding).

“Since its founding more than three decades ago, MASIPAG has been upholding the very spirit that gave birth to it: the spirit of bayanihan or collective action, when thousands of farmers pooled what little resources they had and pushed the revival of our traditional and indigenous rice seeds that the Green Revolution almost erased,” said Alfie Pulumbarit, MASIPAG national coordinator.  MASIPAG farmers from provinces least affected by the super typhoon are pooling rice and vegetable seeds to aid their fellow affected farmers in recovering and rehabilitating their farms devastated by Noru.

“In times of natural and structural crises, MASIPAG farmers are always leading our network in ensuring that help and peasant solidarity are given to those in need and affected. Indeed, in times of climate uncertainty and political turmoil, solidarity will navigate us towards a just and humane society that is sustainable and where there is holistic development for all,” Pulumbarit ended. 

People rising for climate justice

Climate disasters’ devastation of the lives and livelihoods of the people highlights the importance of a mass campaign to demand accountability from the actors highly responsible for the climate crisis.

“Hearing the stories from Pakistan, Indonesia, and Bangladesh has underscored the need to organize ourselves to come together because the issue of the climate catastrophe is a life and death issue for many of us,” said Ana Celestial of People Rising for Climate Justice.

“As early as the late eighties, scientists have been trying to study the phenomenon of global warming. It was only around 1992 when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was established. There was a consensus that the climate is changing because of human activities. Eventually, we saw that it was not just human activities, but a particular section of humanity destroying the planet,” she added.

The newly formed People Rising for Climate Justice is a cross-movement campaign network that values the voices, the experiences, and the real solutions, such as agroecology, being forwarded and practiced by rural communities. 

“We recognize that only through collective, cross-movement solidarity and action we can overcome the massive challenges wrought by climate and social injustice,” Celestial emphasized.

During the APEX regional conference last year, partners identified climate change as a vital issue for advocacy. They considered it urgent, especially since vulnerable nations, particularly the Global South, are experiencing the onslaught of the rising global temperature and the intensified food crisis.

“Campaigning for climate justice is important for APEX because our platform promotes food sovereignty and agroecology. The climate crisis undermines in many ways the people’s food sovereignty. At the same time, people-led agroecology is a viable response to the climate crisis through its sustainable and community-empowering approach to food production,” said Arnold Padilla of PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP).

Padilla noted that PANAP’s annual 16 Days of Global Action on Agroecology highlighted how rural communities practice agroecology as a form of resistance against big monopolies that plunder food and agriculture for profit and destroy the planet.

“By using agroecology over chemical-intensive and fossil fuel-heavy farming that TNCs promote, rural peoples consciously and collectively decide to transform our food systems. Resistance against transnational corporations to transform our food systems, to become just, equitable, healthy, and sustainable through that assertion of food sovereignty and promotion of agroecology is a crucial component of genuinely addressing the climate crisis,” he added.

“The people must rise to demand climate justice, assert food sovereignty, and advance agroecology as a people-led solution to the climate and food crisis,” Padilla ended.

As part of the 16 Days of Global Action on Agroecology 2022, with the theme “Communities Overcoming Crisis,” APEX held the Zoom Space “Rural Communities and the Climate: Campaigning amid the crisis” last Oct 13 to discuss the situation and initiatives of APEX partners from countries most recently affected by climate disasters.