World Environment Day Special
Greening Bangladesh
Celebrating the World Environment Day
This year's World Environment Day titled "Forests: Nature at Your Service" is not just a call for one day of awareness, but can usher the beginning of an determined move towards the conservation of Bangladesh's remaining forest cover. It underscores the intrinsic link between quality of life and the health of forests and forest ecosystems, and supports this year's UN International Year of Forests. This is therefore a call to strengthen our resolve towards afforestation and other necessary measures for a truly “green” Bangladesh. The World Environment Day is especially significant when considered from the perspective of present day climate and environment realities. Forests cover a third of our globe's land mass, performing vital functions and services around the world which allow our planet to be teeming with life and its endless possibilities. In fact, 1.6 billion people worldwide depend on forests for their livelihoods. Forests are home to 80% of the terrestrial biodiversity. They play a key role in our battle against climate change, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere while storing carbon dioxide. Yet, forests worldwide are suffering. Each year 36 million acres of natural forests are lost due to human activities. Deforestation and degradation of forests are key reasons behind climate change, accounting for about 20% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Protection of forests has now become essential for the future of human beings on this planet. Deforestation and degradation of forest land is a matter of serious concern in Bangladesh. From about 20 percent of coverage in pre-independence years, the country's forest cover has now dwindled to an alarmingly low level. Nationally, the MDG Country Analysis revealed that Bangladesh has made good achievements in terms of social forestry. However, natural forest ecosystems are struggling for survival as these have been subject to continuous deforestation and encroachments. Forests of the entire Bhawal-Modhupur tracts, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and Sylhet and the Sundarbans have shrunk considerably. The remaining forestlands face degradation, and this also includes the reserve forests of Bangladesh. With cultivation of cash crops, hills are systematically denuded of forest cover. Deforestation in hilly areas and conversion of forests into farmland have led to soil erosion, landslides, and congestion of rivers. Loss of forests has also caused loss of biodiversity and contributed to deterioration of air quality. Degradation of the Sunderbans is increasing the vulnerability of the coastal areas to tropical storms, cyclones, and tidal surges. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bangladesh has worked with the government over the last 40 years as a trusted partner in its development endeavours. Environmental protection is core to UNDP's development mandate. As an organisation, UNDP views the protection of the natural environment as fundamental to human development. Indeed, UNDP Bangladesh played an important role in the policy and programmes that are securing improved environmental and natural resource management, protection of biodiversity, energy conservation and promotion of inclusive approaches that link poverty alleviation with environmental conservation. UNDP's various successful past projects have demonstrated powerfully that improved environments have a great beneficial effect on other development dimensions. The very real challenge of climate change is affecting various areas of development in Bangladesh. At the same time, it is well known that Bangladesh has shown strong leadership on the international stage in calling for a global response to climate change that is just and fair. Bangladesh's pioneering and comprehensive disaster risk reduction and management system stands ready to deal with the threat of climate change. UNDP is also working with the Ministry of Environment and Forest to support communities' plant mangrove forests along exposed coastal areas which create a protective buffer to coastal erosion and storms and can even help to reverse the effect of sea level rise by trapping high rates of sediment in their root structure. As part of this initiative, fruit and timber trees are being planted alongside the mangrove plantations, which can be harvested by the participating community members. Still, this is only part of the response. To adequately deal with the climate change challenge, we also need to seek ways that capture and promote the best in ideas, technologies and opportunities to put Bangladesh on a development path that is clean, green and sustainable. Bangladesh can and should, take advantage of such opportunities. UNDP, together with other partners in the development community, is well equipped and committed to support such new initiatives. It is important that the government plays a lead role in coordinating partners and integrating the process of climate change mitigation and adaptation into its effort for sustainable development, thus guarding the country against the very real danger of major climate change setbacks. UNDP's present portfolio also seeks to push the climate change mitigation and low emission green development agenda forward. For example, UNDP is supporting the Government of Bangladesh in Improving the Kiln Efficiency in the Brick Making Industry (IKEBMI project) by demonstrating the environmental and dollar value in energy efficiency and forestry and natural resource conservation. Although fuel wood use at brick kilns is prohibited in Bangladesh, fuelwood constitutes one-third of the total fuel consumed in the brick making industry, significantly causing deforestation and land degradation. There are about 8,000 traditional brick kilns in Bangladesh that use fuel wood, which are causing significant deforestation and CO2 emissions. Through this five-year UNDP-supported project, the government is introducing a new technology to the country's brick making industry to reduce environmental pollution and to make energy consumption more efficient. The project's overall aim is to replace the 150-year-old energy-intensive conventional brick making technology with an energy-efficient and smokeless technology named Hybrid-Hoffman Kiln. Successful implementation of this project is estimated to result in substantive reduction of annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to emissions of more than 230,000 passenger vehicles or carbon sequestered by more than 250,000 acres of pine or fir forests. With the successful up-scaling of the project and hopefully the conversion of 8,000 traditional brick fields into energy efficiency kilns in the near future, the opportunity of CO2mitigation is multiple times larger. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen (COP15) in December 2009, the massive travel and accommodation arrangement of the dignitaries of the conference caused estimated emissions of around 40,000 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere. The Danish Government offset COP15's carbon footprint by investing in emissions reduction in Bangladesh's brick industry. Under the arrangement, Emission Reduction certificates worth USD 1 million were provided, which will reduce CO2 emission by 50,000 tons per year. Implementing this type of carbon trading mechanism is also a long-term goal of the UNDP supported brick kiln project in Bangladesh. Addressing the challenges of climate change requires significant efforts and there is no time to lose. The key is to turn around the climate change threat into an opportunity, and usher into a new era of "green" development in this country.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments