The unresolved question of 'non-economic’ loss and damage
Can prehistoric sites like the Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve in Baku, Azerbaijan survive climate change? PHOTO: PAVEL PARTHA
Some 64 kilometres southwest of Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, is the Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve. After the first week of the Baku Climate Conference, the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP), we had the opportunity to visit these relics of our ancestors.
As I observed the stone-carved cavities in Gobustan, I wondered what Stone Age humans might have stored in them—perhaps meat, fruits, herbs, or seeds.
Cooking rice was not yet part of civilisation, as rice had not been discovered; only later domesticated by Homo sapiens. Over time, wild rice was tamed, but the "Green Revolution project" transformed agriculture into a profit-driven industry, eradicating the diversity of traditional rice and other crop genetic resources.
In parallel, the discourse on climate change adaptation and payment for loss and damage is growing, with the Global South advocating for an Adaptation Fund and a Loss and Damage (L&D) Fund. Yet, L&D negotiations largely focus on economic losses, leaving non-economic loss and damage underrepresented in the global climate negotiations.
On our way back from Gobustan, I wondered: could we ever put a price tag on these priceless remnants? If these artefacts were to be lost to a volcanic eruption or another climate-induced disaster, the losses would fall under what we describe as the category of non-economic loss and damage in climate discourse.
The Baku Climate Conference, dubbed the "Finance COP," focused more on promoting carbon credits and false solutions than addressing people-led adaptation and loss and damage. The unresolved, irreversible impacts of climate change continue to grow. Disasters like cyclones, droughts, floods, and heatwaves not only cause economic losses but also destroy traditional knowledge, rituals and even rare species. Can humanity survive without these non-economic, intangible cultural heritages? Acknowledging and incorporating these losses into global climate action is not just necessary—it's urgent for conserving the essence of human existence.
The issue of "Loss and Damage" due to climate change gained prominence through small island nations (Small Island Developing States/SIDS and Alliance of Small Island States/AOSIS) initially focusing on economic impacts. However, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLC) shifted the discussion towards non-economic loss and damage (NELD), a concept often overlooked. Based on the UNFCCC's report (2013) on Non-economic losses in the context of the work programme on loss and damage' refers to losses not traded in markets—loss of life, health, human mobility, loss of territory, cultural heritage, Indigenous local knowledge and social capital, biodiversity and ecosystem service. Measuring these losses is challenging as they lack a market value, yet they are integral to human civilisation.
Following the Paris Agreement, a 2019 report identified key sectors for assessing NELD, and the "Santiago Network" was established to support developing nations. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report included NELD examples, such as loss of life and ecosystems. NELD's scope varies across different cultures, ecosystems, and communities, shaped by diverse social, cultural, and historical contexts. This article presents examples of NELD caused by climatic stress from various eco-regions of global countries including Bangladesh to illustrate the broader concept.
Lost rain, lost rituals
The Huni Kui people, who reside in the Brazilian and Peruvian parts of the Amazon, believe that after death, humans are reborn as trees in the forest, according to Ninawa Inu Huni Kui, leader of the Huni Kui. To them, every plant and tree is sacred. The Mukaya (shamans or healers) venture deep into the forest to collect flowers, leaves, and roots used in herbal medicine and various rituals.
Due to irregular rainfall and rising temperatures, many plants are going to be extinct in the Amazon. Ninawa's account parallels the experiences of the Indigenous Tripura community in Bangladesh's Rema-Kalenga forest. The Tripura believe the KuthuiRuganiKhlum plant guides dead's souls to heaven, but prolonged droughts have made this sacred plant harder to find.
In the Bengali Hindu tradition, 108 lotus flowers are essential for Sharadiya Durga Puja. From 2022 to 2024, excessive rainfall during the flowering season destroyed many blooms in wetlands. While some devotees managed to acquire lotus flowers at high prices, a very few could gather the full 108 required for rituals.
New diseases, new concerns
Climate change is also linked to diseases like dengue, chikungunya, cholera, and malaria, which bring new challenges and fears. Caroline Naeku Lemachakoti, an Indigenous activist from the Samburu community in Nigari village of Kenya, reported that prolonged droughts are increasing the spread of a camel disease called Nadopapita.
Meanwhile, Shahin Alam, a youth climate activist from Bangladesh's Sundarbans, highlighted that intrusion of salinity is causing complex reproductive health issues among women in coastal villages. Irregular rainfall and rising temperatures are also damaging betel leaf plantations in the Khasi Indigenous community of Sylhet in Bangladesh, leading to a rise in the Uttram disease of betel leaf garden.
Erosion of genetic resources and biodiversity
In Sherpur of Bangladesh, the floods during August-September this year, submerged rice fields, including those growing the indigenous Tulshimala variety, a crop with Geographical Indication (GI) status. Rukasen Beypi, a climate activist from India's Assam, highlighted a similar plight among the Karbi Indigenous people, whose traditional crops are rapidly vanishing. Droughts have made finding two wild banana varieties, Lorup and Lochin, increasingly difficult.
Bolivian food rights activist Aira Roja Condori, who also participated in last year's climate summit in Dubai, recalled the loss of wild potato varieties due to droughts and water scarcity—a grim story she reiterated this year. Meanwhile, U Khing Nu Chak, a youth climate activist from the Indigenous Chak community of Naikhongchhari in Bangladesh's Bandarban, shared her Grandmother Janingme Chak's memories of colourful maize varieties that once flourished in their mountain villages. These varieties are now disappearing, driven by drought, water shortages, and rising temperatures. Leodegario Velayo and Rowena Buena the farmer-scientists from Philippines told that, they are trying to conserve the traditional climate resilient varieties.
Alien territories, new conflicts
Cyclones, floods, droughts, and rising temperatures are increasingly displacing both humans and wildlife, forcing migration in Bangladesh's Satkhira and Netrokona regions. Young people, particularly women, are seeking jobs outside their villages due to the loss of agricultural land and employment opportunities. Unlike cultural migration, this displacement forces people to leave behind everything they've known: villages, ancestral graves, temples, and communities.
Makereta Waqavonovono from Fiji shared how frequent tidal surges displace her community, a situation mirrored by those affected by riverbank erosion in Bangladesh's Meghna, Jamuna, and Brahmaputra basins. Women and children, as highlighted by Chathurika Sewwandi of Sri Lanka's Vikalpani National Women's Federation, face increased violence and insecurity in these situations. The emotional toll of leaving one's birthplace is immense, and adapting to new settlements often leads to social, cultural, and environmental conflicts.
Indigenous knowledge, beliefs and new doubts
The devastating floods in Sunamganj and Sylhet in Bangladesh in 2022 not only led to loss of life and property but also wiped out many Dhamail songs, a cultural heritage of the Haor region. Women in these areas have their Dhamail songs written in songbooks, which were submerged and lost in the floods. Thus, climate change is causing the daily disappearance of numerous songs, languages, Indigenous knowledge, and cultural expressions around the world. Traditional practices related to weaving, agriculture, local adaptations, rural architecture, culinary arts, herbal medicine, and disaster management are all critically endangered due to climate change.
In the hills of Bandarban, only six speakers of the Rengmitcha language remain. The scarcity of water and land crisis is exacerbating the survival challenge of Indigenous communities. When the last speaker of the Sare language from India's Andaman-Nicobar Islands passed away during the first wave of the Covid pandemic, the language went extinct.
Stephanie Stephens, a representative from Vanuatu's Ministry of Climate Change, explained that as coastal villages are submerged by tidal surges, people are being forced to move to mountain areas. In these new regions, the medicinal plants they once relied on are no longer available, leading to the erosion of indigenous knowledge about herbs and healing.
Non-economic loss and damage, human rights, and political commitments
While Bangladesh has made strides in disaster management and adaptation, it has yet to fully address NELD. There is an urgent need for policies and management frameworks in this area. Although Bangladesh presented a national L&D assessment framework at the Baku Conference, NELD must be explicitly integrated. This requires the consent of all regions and communities, along with coordinated research on the impacts of NELD on ecosystems and people.
In climate finance negotiations, countries must include NELD in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC), National Adaptation Plan (NAP), and National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan (NBSAP) to ensure that NELD are addressed in both national and international climate policies. After undue delays and false oaths, the global leaders at the Baku conference agreed to climate finance $300 billion per year. Strong commitment and concrete climate actions are now needed to address the global NELD.
Pavel Partha, an ecology and biodiversity conservation researcher, is director at Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK).
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