A long way to home “Biological diversity” means the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems — Convention on Biological Diversity.
by JULHAS RIPON (NOTE: I used to write as Julhas Ripon when I was in newspaper: Julhas)
The bad news first— around one hundred of 6,000 species of plants known from the country are listed as threatened. Many others, especially medicinal plants, are under severe threats due to loss of habitat and over harvest. Around 220 species of vertebrate animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals have been listed in the Red Data Books of Bangladesh as they are faced with the threat of extinction. An analysis of the past and present trends in animal extinctions and population decline has suggested that species that are dependent on the aquatic ecosystem are more vulnerable. On the contrary, amongst plants, the most threatened, rare and endemic species are those that are found in the terrestrial forest ecosystem.
But all hope is not lost. There is good news yet. The country is going to get a national document for the first time with some proposed strategies and action plans to protect the country’s bio-diversity. The draft of the plan is already in place, and hopefully it will be finalised by June.
IUCN Bangladesh has prepared the draft, titled “National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan” with the financial assistance of the Global Environment Facility and in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme.
The environment and forest ministry initiated formulation of the action plan in lieu of the fast shrinking biodiversity in
But why does the country’s biodiversity need protection?
This is a vital question and some examples can be put forth for the draft action plan for better understanding of the issue. The draft says that major ecosystem of the country includes the beach and open sea, coral reefs, offshore islands, mangrove, estuarine and fresh water flood plains, haor and bil, natural lakes and forests. And the agro-ecosystems are vital to human livelihoods and economy as they contribute 17 per cent of the GDP.
Forests including the mangrove provide 90 million man-days of job opportunities annually and contribute 7 per cent to the GDP. The different aquatic ecosystems together provide for 11 per cent of the country’s export revenue through fisheries, offer jobs to 5 per cent of the work force and contribute 3.3 per cent to the GDP.
It is very clear that there exists a number of issues related to bio-diversity and its conservation and management. It says over-exploitation of the natural resources, habitat degradation, aggression of invasive and alien species, environmental pollution, lack of awareness, lack of species inventory, inadequate knowledge on ecosystem structure and function, weak national information system, lack of biodiversity concepts in environmental education curricula, lack of institutional capacity, poor co-ordination in management and planning, absence of a national body or institution for bio-diversity conservation issues and lack of synergies are the major issues which must be understood and thus go for action.
“The need for a formal institutional set-up for conservation of the green sector has been strongly emphasised in the National Conservation Strategy and National Environment Management Action Plan document. This is also in response to the demand by environmental activists, conservationists, civil society, NGOs and others to have a permanent set-up to deal with the biodiversity conservation issues of the country in a coordinated and integrated manner” according to the draft.
The action plan of the draft will deal with such issues as biodiversity documentation and valuation, bio-safety procedures and standards to deal with genetically modified organisms, establishment of an implementing mechanism for the plan, review and completion of biodiversity-related legislation, and linking biodiversity conservation to climate change, livelihood and poverty. The plan envisages identification and mapping of biodiversity hot spots.
“Biodiversity hot spots are the localities that sustain high numbers of species with a significant proportion of rare, endemic and threatened species who are faced with enormous threats of habitat loss and degradation. Twenty-five hot spots have been identified in the world and
The draft action plan suggested development of a national system of protected areas. It advocates establishment of a bio-sphere reserve in the hilly parts of Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, declaration of Saint Martin’s Island as a national park, conservation of biodiversity of other islands such as Moheshkhali, Sonadia, Kutubdia and Nijhum Dweep, conservation of biodiversity in the newly accreted coastal zones, development of conservation plans for ecologically critical areas and declaration of more habitats such as oxbows namely Jhapar and Bukbhora baors, Kaptai lake (man-made) and natural lakes as ecologically critical areas.
For the promotion and monitoring of sustainable fisheries, the draft plan says for establishment and management of fish sanctuaries both in fresh water and marine ecosystem includes ‘brush piles’ in fresh water ecosystem, protection of
IUCN country representative Dr Ainun Nishat, at a workshop recently said that they had adopted both the ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ approaches to make the action plan participatory. “It will be an open-ended document that will be and should be reviewed and updated time to time in line with new international developments and emerging national priorities.”
Nishat said most countries in the region had already made certain progress to this end and a huge amount of foreign grants had been allocated for conservation of biodiversity.
Environment Secretary Syed Tanveer Hussain said
Minister for Environment and Forest Shajahan Siraj said the government is determined to institutionalise biodiversity conservation issues, and is also working for enactment of new regulations and review of existing laws in this regard.
Of course, the government and NGOs will be capable of attracting huge funds from the outside in the name of various projects for conservation, which is positive undoubtedly But will it help us check the degradation of the environment or extinction of our very own species in the future?
Source: Daily New Age,
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