Vulnerable communities of Bangladesh are already adapting with the changing climate and the world can learn to acclimatise to the impacts of climate change from them and disseminate the knowledge.

Speakers said this during a presentation at a session on "Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change: Approaches, Practices and Early Learnings" arranged by

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Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS).

The speakers also said every country should make a national board to coordinate with local knowledge, international experiences and assistance.

Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS, was present there as a facilitator while Rachel Berger, climate' change policy adviser of Practical Action UK, Youba Sokona, executive secretary of Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) and co-chair IPCC WGI11, senior economist Shadrul Agarwal, Ian Burton, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Youssef Nassef, head of adaptation of UNFCC secretariat spoke at the session.

The speakers said the world has not seen much progress in mitigation action to prevent the climate change, but people from developing countries of Asia and Africa are trying to adapt with the climate changes with their experiential knowledge and limited resources to reduce risks and vulnerability.

Atiq Rahman said the whole world is trying to cope with the climate change in various ways.

Placing examples of the US, the Netherlands and the UK he

said they have been fencing their borders and raising embankments as strategies for combating climate change.

Shadrul Agarwal said micro financing could be a useful tool for adaptation as Bangladesh has achieved major success in this sector. He proposed using a portion of adaptation fund as micro-credit

However, lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury, who was also present in the session, said the victims should be offered compensation, not loans. "Those who have been displaced due to river erosion should be rehabilitated not asked to adapt themselves to disasters," he added.

Rachel Berger said Bangladesh's concept of floating gardens and seed preservation has been popular to the countries, which have similar problems like Bangladesh.

Mahfuz An am, editor ofThe Daily Star, said it is not fair that only the people from victim nations would adapt to the adverse impacts of the climate change. Apart from mitigation in broader sense, the people from developed nations who are the polluters and responsible for climate change should bring a change in their lifestyle, which should also be termed adaptation, he added.