Mangrove-dike hybrid systems reveal systemic resilience gaps in coastal adaptation: Indigenous and ecological knowledge integration critical for equitable shoreline protection
Original framing: “Green and gray: Mangroves and dikes show potential in protecting shorelines together” — bing news
Women fishers in Bangladesh’s delta are 3x more likely to lose livelihoods to failed dikes because they are excluded from decision-making and forced into informal labor when mangroves are degraded. In West Africa, artisanal fishers are displaced by hybrid projects marketed as 'climate solutions' but designed for tourism or carbon offsets, eroding food sovereignty. Dalit and Indigenous communities in India’s Sundarbans face double displacement—first by shrimp farms, then by 'eco-tourism' zones that bar access to sacred mangrove groves. Marginalized voices are often tokenized in 'participatory' projects, with their knowledge co-opted but not compensated or protected.
The mangrove-dike hybrid narrative reflects a broader pattern of 'greenwashing' technocratic solutions to mask structural violence: colonial land dispossession, industrial aquaculture, and climate gentrification are the root causes of coastal vulnerability, not just engineering gaps.
Indigenous systems like the Sundarbans’ *bon bibi* or Fiji’s *vanua* offer proven alternatives, yet mainstream adaptation projects strip them of their cultural and spiritual dimensions, reducing them to carbon sinks or tourist attractions. The Dutch polder model, exported globally, exemplifies this failure—static dikes built on drained peatlands now sink 2cm/year, while Indigenous *subak* systems in Bali have sustained rice terraces for 1,200 years through adaptive water temples. True resilience requires reversing these extractive legacies: restituting land to Indigenous stewards, banning industrial shrimp farming, and designing hybrid systems as reciprocal relationships rather than barriers. Without this, hybrid projects will repeat the mistakes of the past—displacing the vulnerable while enriching elites under the guise of 'climate adaptation.