Bangladesh is nestled in the crook of the Bay of Bengal, sharing borders with India and Myanmar. It is a country of about 144,000 km2, including rivers and inland water bodies occupying 6.7% of the country’s landmass. Except for the hill tract regions, the country is largely flat and dominated by the braided strands of the three mighty Himalayan rivers, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. Bangladesh is deltaic in origin with a flat terrain and low relief and nearly 50% of the country lies below the mean sea level. There are predominantly three types of landscapes in the country: floodplains spread over 80% of the land area, terraces covering 8% and hills dispersed over 12% of remaining land area.
The country is divided into six administrative divisions namely, Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal and Sylhet. The divisions are further sub - divided into 64 districts constituting 460 thanas and 85, 650 villages. Bangladesh is primarily an agro - based economy with the primary sector accounting for 33% of the GDP and employing 65% of the labour force. People’s lives and livelihoods are thus intricately linked with nature and its bounties and they harness biodiversity products such as agriculture and fisheries.
The climate of Bangladesh is subtropical and tropical with temperatures ranging from an average of 21°C in winter and 35°C in summer. There are six main identifiable seasons, namely Grishma or summer, Barsha or Monsoon, Sharat or fall, Hemanta or fall, Sheit or winter and Bashanta or spring. The tropical climate has made the country luxuriant in vegetation andthe country takes pride in hosting the Sundarbans, the largest littoral mangrove forest in the world and abode the important flagship species, the Royal Bengal Tiger. Tropical evergreen forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and sal or deciduous forests also harbour rich pools of genetic reserves. The unique wetland ecosystem (haor, baor, beel and jheel) is also endemic to Bangladesh, with a total area of about 8 million hectares.
The country supports a wealth of biodiversity, including 113 species of mammals, 628 species of birds, 126 species of reptiles, 22 species of amphibians, 708 species of freshwater and marine fish, 400 species of mollusks and over 5, 000 species of vascular plants. Many of these species are of international significance, such as the Asian Elephant, Royal Bengal Tiger, Gharial, Gangetic Dolphin and Hoolock Gibbon.
The total population of Bangladesh is 130 million, with a density of 834 people per square km and a growth rate of 1.48%. The sheer size of the booming population and consequent demands for goods and services has subjected the country’s natural resources to overexploitation. Recurrent natural disasters such as floods, erosion and surges have increased the vulnerabilities of the poor and rural people, further exacerbating the poverty situation. The country is doubly burdened with the perils of nature and persistent poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy. However, there are innumerable opportunities in the country that are being explored by the government, civil society and development partners in the pursuit of poverty reduction, ensuring equity and gender balance and sustainable development. The success stories of innovative approaches such as ‘microcredit’ reverberate in the country’s improving socio – economic scenario. |
IUCN Bangladesh Country Office, working in association with its members, partners, commission members and volunteer scientists home and abroad aims to have an environmentally sensitized, educated, conscious and willing society capable of conserving and managing its natural resources judiciously and sustainably. Through its muti-layered focus and areas of intervention, IUCN Bangladesh strives for a just society where natural resources and nature-based social issues including livelihoods are sustainable.
To achieve its goals and objectives, IUCN Bangladesh parallels the vision and mission of IUCN globally, with well set strategic directions. Currently, the Bangladesh Country Office rivets its activities in the four priority areas, namely: haor and beel, mangrove ecosystem, Chittagong Hill Tracts and coastal and marine, in line with the Inter Sessional Programme 2005 – 2008.
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