The Strategies
and Priorities Within Sustainable
Development
Policy Framework
The people of Bangladesh
has the tradition of living in harmony
with the environment while utilizing
natural resources to meet their requirements.
This harmony is upset due to the expanding
population, the growing demand for
resources and the increase in rural
poverty. The Government is concerned
about environmental issues in general
and land degradation in particular
over the past two decades. This concern
is reflected in the different policy
initiatives that have been taken by
the government. The major policy initiatives,
strategies and plans emphasized environment
and natural resource management, land
management, and forest development
with a view to achieve sustainability
in resource conservation and utilization.
These policies and
strategies have relevance to measures
to be taken to combat land degradation.
National
Plans and Strategies in Other Social
and Economic Areas
The national plans and strategies,
which cover the general social and
economic areas, are also relevant
in the context of community development,
uplift and rehabilitation in the dry
region of the country.
The Fifth Five Year
Plan placed emphasis on poverty alleviation,
increased self-reliance and meeting
the basic needs of the people with
particular focus on human resources
development, women in development
and environmental sustainability.
The policy thrust and key elements
of growth and conservation strategy
in development process to prevent
land degradation and improve the capacity
for sustainable development in the
vulnerable areas are:
(i) Conservation of land, water and
biological resources;
(ii) Assessment of drought condition;
(iii) Arsenic mitigation
and water supply;
(iv) Development of rainfed agriculture;
(v) Appropriate agricultural/
farming systems which economize on
water-use; and
(v) Rural infrastructure development.
Moreover, Bangladesh
is planning to undertake various community-based
programs under MoWR and MoEF, focusing
on effective implementation and delivery
of programs to mitigate the effects
of land degradation and desertification.
The Master
Plan for Forestry
The Master Plan for Forestry Sector
(ADB-UNDP-GOB, 1996) aims to protect
land against degradation by soil erosion,
floods, landslides, desertification
and other effects of ecological imbalance,
conserve ecosystems and genetic.15
resources, promote sustainable use
of non-timber forest products, and
contribute to the growth of local
and national economies by managing
forest, developing forest-based industries
and creating opportunities for income
generation and employment. Soil conservation
and watershed management is one of
the major components of the Plan.
The Plan also emphasizes to halt further
degradation of the land system and
desertification process. The National
Conservation Strategy lays down the
guidelines for integrating environmental
concerns with development imperatives.
Bangladesh Wildlife Preservation Act,
1983 incorporates provisions of buffer
zone management, and allocates some
revenue, which is generated in the
protected areas for community evelopment
Formulation
of National Environment Action Plan
(NEMAP)
The formulation of the National Environment
Management Action Plan (NEMAP) in
1995 is the major policy document
used by the Government for environmental
activities in the country. With the
formulation of the NEMAP, the government's
strategy now recognized the inseparable
links between environmental degradation,
poverty, and population growth and
the implications or natural resource
management. Longer-term Measures under
this plan include (NEMAP, 1995):
a) Design and implement a comprehensive
program on environmental research,
data collection, analysis and dissemination;
b) Review selected policies and regulations
to favor private sector involvement
in environmental management;
c) Provide proper incentives for private
afforestation activities by enhancing
wood prices progressively to world
market prices;
d) Strengthen Environmental Forest
Divisions to demarcate and protect
reserved forests.
Presently, the implementation
of NEMAP is ongoing under the UNDP-funded
project, SEMP.
Agenda 21
Implementation Plan
The Agenda 21 recognizes the problems
of droughts and desert-like conditions,
particularly due to land degradation
process, and calls for adopting and/or
strengthening information sharing,
launching afforestation and soil conservation
activities, and expanding conservation
areas (protected areas) in the representative
ecological zones. It also calls for
implementing integrated resource management
programs in the ecologically sensitive
areas, integrating desertification
combating policies in the national
development plans, developing an early
warning system, expanding watershed
conservation activities with people's
participation and continuing forest
management through users’ participation.
Bangladesh formulated its National
Agenda–21 program in line with
UNCED Agenda-21 where provisions had
been kept for action plans related
to land degradation and desertification”
In pursuance of this, country-specific
programs of action have been proposed
for channeling investment resources
(both internal and external) into
ecologically compatible projects.
The MoEF is the nodal agency for coordinating
the environment related action programs
under the purview of NEMAP, Environmental
Conservation Act 1995 and Environmental
Conservation Rules 1997.
National
Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
The National Biodiversity Strategy
and Action Plan (NBSAP) has been drafted
in the year 2004. NBSAP put due priority
on the conservation of biological
resources of Bangladesh. Among the
several conservation measures, afforestation
in the degraded forest areas and restoration
of the degraded ecosystems have been
identified as the priority actions
that need to be implemented soon.
The NBSAP also discussed a bit about
the desertification and ecosystem
degradation scenario in the Northern
part of the country and put emphasis
on the massive afforestation programme
involving the local community.
National
Strategies Developed Prior to UNCCD
The National Environment Policy sets
the policy framework for environmental
action in combination with a set of
broad sectoral guidelines. NEMAP calls
for improving forest management by
continuing community forestry schemes,
improving rangelands, and implementing
efficient and cost-effective structural
techniques for watershed protection
with a view to reduce soil erosion
and downstream sedimentation.
The plan also provided
a basis for expanding alternative
energy use to reduce dependence on
biomass sources. NEMAP further proposes
programs to address cross-sectoral
issues on biodiversity. It is hoped
that the implementation of the proposed
programs through stakeholder participation
will ensure the conservation and sustainable
use of biodiversity, and have positive
impacts on soil and water conservation
and poverty alleviation. Bangladesh
is presently under the process of
preparing national biodiversity strategies
and action plans funded by GEF. Provision
has been kept there to address the
land degradation through restoration
of habitat for biodiversity conservation.
The government has adopted the policy
of social forestry and agro-forestry
as a part of poverty alleviation and
environment protection. Increasing
social forestry, in addition to increasing
the availability of biomass and other
forest products, would also provide
employment for the rural poor, particularly
women, in planting, nursery development
and husbanding trees.
An entire process of risk minimization
acitivities has been identified to
address crucial elements of disaster
management including its prevention
or mitigation, preparedness, response,
recovery, and development. Based on
this identification, and to design
the institutional and functional arrangements
for disaster management, the GoB has
taken the initiative to frame a disaster
management policy. This policy would
encompass all aspects, such as accurate
definition of disaster threats, organizational
arrangements required to prepare response
to and recover from disaster events,
assessment of resources available
to deal with threats, and recognition
of ways for the national disaster
management policy to interlink with
other national devlelopment policies.
There are various
governmental and community-based organizations
working in the field of disaster management
and mitigation. The focal point of
the government of Bangladesh for disaster
management is the Disaster Management
Bureau (DMB), a specialized organization
under the Ministry of Disaster Management.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department
(BMD) is responsible for forecasting
natural disasters, particularly cyclones,
droughts storms.
The Bangladesh Space and Remote Sensing
Organization (SPARRSO) is responsible
for providing satellite images to
BMD, particularly as an aid to make
the daily weather forecast. The Flood
Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC)
of the Bangladesh Water Development
Board (BWDB) forecasts flood with
help from the Surface Water Modeling
Center (SWMC) and EGIS. DAE provides
different services to mitigate agricultural
losses after disasters.
Strategies
and Priorities Developed After UNCCD
Bangladesh recognized the problems
of soil erosion and fertility decline
in many vulnerable areas. The policy
focus is on proper land use, rehabilitation
of degraded areas. Policies are also
formulated to maintain a link and
network related sectors such as forestry,
agriculture, fisheries, water and
land resources to combat the problems
of land degradation and increase agricultural
production. Recently, policy directives
have also been issued to enact legislation,
and develop procedures for the implementation
of the Conventions to which Bangladesh
is a Party, including the UNCCD.
Although Bangladesh has yet to develop
a separate policy and program for
the implementation of the UN Convention
to Combat Desertification in a comprehensive
manner, some policies which relate
to soil and water conservation and
forest emphasize public awareness
and facilitate people's participation,
including that of women and youth
to minimize the land degradation process
in order to halt further degradation
of the land and water system.
A strategy for sustainable development
of land resources require a comprehensive
National Land Use Policy. This needs
introduction of multi-disciplinary
and inter-sectoral approaches to ensure
optimum use of land, protect land
from degradation, reclaim unutilized
or degraded land for sustainable use
and improve land resources for future
generations. MoL has taken the initiative
to prepare a Land Use Policy for Bangladesh.
There are other national policies
and measures that have indirect positive
impacts on combating land degradation.
The noteworthy policies are the National
Environemnt Policy, National Environment
Conservation Act and Rules, National
Forest Policy, National Conservation
Strategies, and the Strategic Plan
for National Agricultural Research.
A comprehensive study
at the country level on land degradation,
covering all physical to economic
aspects is absent. However, it is
clear that the quality of land has
deteriorated with its impacts visible.
Over the last decade, crop yield has
declined due to deterioration of physical
and chemical properties of land and
soil. It would be useful to establish
a baseline survey on which future
monitoring and assessment of further
deterioration or improvement could
be based.
The country has a number of policies
to deal with land degradation, but
with limited success. The existing
policies must be implemented, and
a number of new activities should
be undertaken in the immediate future
to address land degradation. Research
and its extesnion to practice are
the most important steps that should
start without delay. A strategy is
also required to obtain support from
international agencies. There are
various options and measures that
can be useful to arrest further land
degradation and improve the existing
situation, such as:
1. adjustment of cropping patterns
on a large scale incorporating legume/green
manure crops and crop diversification,
to have a balanced cropping pattern
and improvement of organic content
of soil and sustainable agricultural
production;
2. survey of the present of state
of land degradation and impacts, cropping
and land capability to identify future
course of actions required for addressing
land degradation;
3. introduction of appropriate cropping
patterns, introduction of salt tolerant
varieties, soil conservation, and
watershed management for the improvement
of soil quality, crop prodcution in
saline soil and restrict land degradation;
4. catchment based watershed management
to arrest erosion in the hill slopes
and improve gradual situation in the
floodplain (UNEP 2001).
GOB is preparing
NWMP extending to the year 2025 on
the basis of National Water Policy
(1999). The primary issues are how
best to manage the annual floods during
the monsoon and how to allocate scarce
water resources in the dry season,
with or without augmentation. The
planning has been undertaken through
a participatory process to identify
key water resources issues and policy
recommendations, along with strategies
to improve water resources management
and identification of the institutional
requirements for their initiation.
The preparation of a National Water
Management Plan has contributed to
the rational economic development
of the country's water resources,
while protecting the natural environment
and improving the quality of life
of the people of Bangladesh. The plan
has addressed the following problems
(WARPO, 2000):
i) Flooding and drainage congestion;
ii) Drought;
iii) Siltation;
iv) River bank erosion;
v) Salinization;
vi) Pollution of surface and groundwater.
The NWMP study will
build on the findings of studies under
the Flood Action Plan (FAP) and National
Water Plan (NWP) and will aim at further
developing and strengthening the change
of focus that dates to the government's
"Bangladesh Water and Flood Management
Strategy" (BWFMS) of November
1995. FAP includes drought mitigation
and water quality regulations as an
important aspect of the plan.
Afforestation
Programs
The Government of Bangladesh has approved
the Forestry Sector Master Plan (1995-2015)
and promulgated the National Forest
Policy 1994. Both the documents have
emphasized the afforestation program
in the country with a 20% coverage
of Bangladesh targeted in the Master
Plan by 2015. To achieve this target,
the FD is undertaking a plantation
program under the ADP. With regards
to the number of FD projects to be
implemented, the MoEF approves the
afforestation and social forestry
programs proposed by the FD. The GoB
has imposed a moratorium on tree felling
in 1989 to encourage forest conservation.
This moratorium is extended to 2005.
Further activities include attempts
by the GoB to increase by 10% the
amount of protected areas in reserved
forest lands by 2015
National
Adaptation Programme of Actions (NAPAs)
National
Adaptation Programme of Actions (NAPAs)
are documents specifying a list of
priority activities that will communicate
immediate and urgent needs of LDCs,
considering their high vulnerability
and low adaptive capacity to climate
change. The development of a NAPA
document is not only intended to identify
and prioritise urgent adaptation needs
of LDCs but also help build capacity
for the development of NatComs and
to meet their obligations to the UNFCCC.
An overview of climate variability,
and observed and projected climate
change and associated actual and potential
adverse effects of climate change
should be documented. This overview
should be based on existing and ongoing
studies and research, and/or empirical
and historical information as well
as traditional knowledge.
The main characteristics of a NAPA
is that, it should be easy to understand,
action oriented, country driven, and
set clear priorities for urgent and
immediate adaptation activities identified
by each individual country. These
adaptation activities and measures
will also take into account the national
planning processes, development goals
and other multilateral environmental
agreements and also identify potential
barriers to implementation. The objective
of a NAPA is to “serve as a
simplified and direct channel of communication
for information relating to urgent
and immediate adaptation needs of
LDCs”. The key outcome of the
NAPA process is the identification
of activities that should be pursued
immediately, because further delay
in implementing the activities could
lead to increased vulnerability, or
higher costs for delayed implementation.
It has been highlighted by the UNFCCC
that NAPAs should have a bottom-up
action plan, not be just another lengthy
document that joins the ranks of other
action plans. The ending product should
be a concise and well justified list
of actions and projects to address
priority vulnerabilities for the country
or to build capacity to address those
vulnerabilities.
