| Cyclones are known for their destructive power and negative effects on livelihoods. What is often forgotten is that they can also bring benefits to livelihoods, and in some areas people even depend on cyclones to survive. The potential benefits of cyclones are underreported and are often neglected when considering disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation measures, or ecosystem based disaster risk reduction measures. Currently only a few publications on the benefits of cyclones exist, and most follow the beneficial effects of a single country or cyclone. This study combines the existing knowledge and adds a regional perspective by comparing accounts from Bangladesh, the Philippines and Japan. It expands the available options for ecosystem based adaptation by highlighting the potential benefits of cyclones, how they might be valued as ecosystem services, and how people’s resilience, social protection and livelihood security may be increased by anticipating the effects of cyclones. Experts working in international cyclone related organizations were questioned about their experiences with the beneficial effects of cyclones in their respective countries. Responses suggested that although cyclones are commonly thought to lead to detrimental effects; various cases pointed to possible practical benefits that might be taken advantage of. Examples include an increase of soil organic matter content, eliminating the need for fertilizers; storing the excess of precipitation to fill retention basins and use this during dry seasons; and selling collected debris as a form of livelihood or source of additional income. From these tentative results we propose several options to further investigate how the benefits of cyclones may be incorporated into local approaches when applying ecosystem based adaptation, and how the formulated benefits may be valued as ecosystem services and may be focused on in other areas that currently only prepare for the negative impacts of cyclones. While we cannot fully anticipate cyclones and their impacts, we can initiate collaborative schemes that allow using the benefits to offset the devastation. |
