Dhaka, Bangladesh, 29 May, 2007 (IUCN) –A half-day long upazila level consultation meeting of National Capacity Self- Assessment (NCSA) for Global Environmental Management Project was held on 24 May 2007, Thursday at the Hotel Ne Taung of Parjaton Corporation in Teknaf Upazila, Cox’s Bazar District.

The NCSA Project is being implemented by Ministry of Environment and Forest with technical assistance from IUCN Bangladesh Country Office and funded by GEF/UNDP. The main objectives of the project is to identify the national capacity needs of Bangladesh to implement the three Rio Conventions related to biodiversity (Convention of Biological Diversity, CBD), climate change (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) and land degradation (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, UNCCD), and to develop a plan to meet the capacity needs for environmental management. Started in 2006, the project has carried out expert discussions, obtained public opinions, and also self-assessments by different ministries and line agencies of the Government of Bangladesh and has developed a draft Capacity Development Action Plan (CDAP).

The purpose of the consultation meeting in Teknaf was to share the draft CDAP with the people from Teknaf region and to seek their views and suggestions in undertaking effective environmental management through appropriate capacity development activities. The meeting also aimed at gathering the local knowledge that was available with the participants to address the pressing capacity needs to face future local and national environmental challenges.

The meeting was presided over by Mr. Md. Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Teknaf. A wide range of participants attended this meeting including upazila level government officials, law enforcement and defense officials, representatives from NGOs, teachers, local government representatives, civil society, and print and electronic media. The speakers of the meeting were Dr. Ainun Nishat, Country Representative of IUCN Bangladesh; Mr. Monowar Islam, Project Manager of the NCSA Project; Mr. Raquibul Amin, Programme Coordinator, IUCN Bangladesh; Dr. Haseeb Md. Irfanullah, Senior Programme Officer, IUCN Bangladesh; and Dr. Joy Das Gupta, ICIMOD, Nepal.

At the beginning of the meeting, a presentation was made on the overview of the NCSA Project, which included the priority environmental issues of Bangladesh, cross-cutting environmental concerns, important capacity needs at individual, institutional and systemic/policy levels and some examples on actions that could be taken to build the capacity at those levels in the public and private sectors.

While discussing on the capacity needs, Dr. Nishat emphasized on the importance of different natural resources of Bangladesh, such as medicinal plants and traditional medicines derived from them, and highlighted our lack of initiatives to document the associated traditional knowledge. He also mentioned the necessity for framing appropriate sustainable development plans for different ecological areas of Bangladesh given the micro-climatic variations prevailing in the country. Dr. Nishat highlighted the negative impacts of alien and invasive species on local biodiversity. Citing example of African Catfish, he requested the participants to be aware of perceived immediate benefits of introduced species compared to long-term irreparable damages they can bring to ecosystem. We, therefore, need to plan to deal with these important issues to safe-guard our environment by up taking effective strategies and action plans, he added.

In his presentation, Mr. Raquibul Amin shared some key questions with the audience regarding the three Rio Conventions and other related ICTPs to sensitize and provoke a thought process amongst them. Dr. Gupta focused his talk on Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) as underlined in the CBD. He explained to the participants the issues of ABS, the rights of the local communities on their natural resources and traditional knowledge, and how they can obtain the benefits arising from the use of those resources. He also cited some examples of ‘biopiracy’ from other countries where commercial companies utilized medicinal plants and local knowledge for commercial use without the consent of the local community who had the knowledge. Dr. Gupta asked the participants to be aware of biopiracy that can take place in a rich biodiversity area like Teknaf. Giving example from Nepal, he further explained the legal steps for granting access to commercial companies to local medicinal knowledge and plants and how to ensure benefit to the local community from that use. He also mentioned that Bangladesh has a draft law “Biodiversity Conservation and Traditional Knowledge Protection Act 2004”, which needs to be enacted to stop biopiracy and establish an ABS regime in Bangladesh. Dr. Gupta suggested that one way of conserving the traditional knowledge available with the community is by documenting the knowledge, for example, as a ‘biodiversity register’. However, he cautioned that the register can become a source of piracy if it is not legally protected.

In his speech, Mr. Md. Altaf Hossain Chowdhury emphasized that Government alone cannot handle all environmental problems and concerns. People’s involvement with government initiatives is necessary for successful environmental management. He also highlighted the needs for capacity development at local level for effective natural resource management for safeguarding local livelihoods.

In the open discussion session, participants expressed their concerns on environmental issues from their local point of view as well as in national context. The participants cited various local environmental problems such as destruction of natural forests, establishment of brick-fields (kilns) in the reserve forest, salt panning, building of dams, refugee issues, decline in fisheries resources, limitations of implementing existing national policies and inadequate inter-agency coordination to tackle environmental degradation. They urged to the government to face these environmental challenges by capacity building at personal, organizational and policy levels.

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Notes to editors 

For more information or to set up interviews, please contact:

• Mahbubur Rahman Masum , IUCN Bangladesh Comminication Officer, Tel: +880 2 989 0395; Fax: +880 2 989 2854;
  masumiucnbd.org; Web: http://www.iucnbd.org/

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