TRACKS is a climate research project in Bangladesh with the full title: ‘Transforming Climate Knowledge with and for Society: Mobilising high quality knowledge on climate variability with communities in northeast Bangladesh.’ The project is coordinated at the University of Bergen in Norway, and funded by the Norwegian Research Council, but assembles researchers from across eight institutions in Norway, Bangladesh and Hawaii.
There are three broad aspirations for TRACKS:
- A robust scientific understanding of climate variability in northeast Bangladesh and its impacts on communities, built on high quality climate and local knowledge;
- An innovative ‘post-normal science’ approach to mobilising climate knowledge for supporting ‘community-based adaptation’,
- Increased capacity within the communities of northeast Bangladesh to engage with different forms of knowledge in support of their adaptive action.
The project is focusing particularly in four local communities in the northeast; Jamalganj, Sunamganj Sadar, Barlekha hill country and Barlekha around Hakaluki Haor. Importantly, the aim of TRACKS is that the learning and experiences in these communities can contribute to the wider practice and scholarship of community-based adaptation, both in Bangladesh nationally, and internationally.