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International Development and Studies

Food Security, Land Conflict, and Ethnicity in Coastal Bangladesh: Empirical Insights Christian Scott*, Christian Scott, Saleh Ahmed,

Coastal communities in face unique challenges to achieving food security with their geographic characteristics offering several potential factors that may inhibit or assist household resilience. The coastal communities of Bangladesh face acute environmental challenges due to their vulnerability to natural disasters like cyclones and coastal flooding and chronic threats from climate change through sea-level rise and salinity incursion. Vulnerability to natural disasters, a heavy reliance on agricultural livelihood strategies, and a high population density leads to intense competition for land access and often results in prolonged land conflicts. This paper seeks to examine how land conflict influences household food security status of households in the southcentral coastal region of Bangladesh; and calls specific attention to potential impacts for the Rakhine ethnic minority of the region. Multivariate statistical analysis draws on household survey data (n = 200) to examine self-identified subjective household food security status among Muslim and Rakhine respondents. A tertiary examination shows a limited relationship between land conflict and food security but, upon closer examination, more nuanced analysis demonstrates a relationship between a household being engaged in a land conflict and worsened household food status, controlling for other economic, environmental, and social factors. This study provides insights include how physical land tenure and social vulnerability relate to inclusive climatic adaptation and equitable resilience through the measurement of household food security status.