“We collect different foods and livelihood materials from our surrounding biodeversity to uphold our existence. There is an intricate relationship among the ecosystem, processes in environment, wild animals, plants and other living organisms. Bangladesh is a rich country in term of the availability of biodiversity. However, after the independence, Bangladesh could not protect and conserve the abaundance biodiversity due to the country mistakenly choose economic system that was not supportive to ensure justice to living organisms and nature. But the biodiversity needs to be protected and conserved for our survival and sustainable developmentâ€.
The above statement was given by the speakers in a national dialogue organized by POBA (Bangladesh Paribesh Bachaw Andolon) and BARCIK to mark the international biodiversity day held on 21 May, 2015 in Dhaka.
The speakers further said, “The theme of international biodiversity day in 2015 is ‘Biodiversity and sustainable development’. It was found that in the previous 5 years, the theme of this international biodiversity day had focused on ‘development†as well. They went on saying, “But what did we see in reality? The government never focused on ensuring aboundance and wellbeing of biodiversity when it initiated development activities.†“Rather the development initiatives implemented by the government, in most cases, destroyed biodiversity to some extent.†They said, “In recent years it has been seen that the trend in development was to make profit from killing biodiversity. In other word, everybody is busy make profit by distracting the natural growth of the biodiversity.†However, accoring to them, sustainable development could be achieved if the biodiversity is seen as the means for rural livelihood and the relationship between the life and livelihood of people and that of biodiversity is considered.â€
The speakers in the national dialogue further said, “Ecosystem is a complicated process where each of the elemement of the system shares an intricate relationship with each other and builds a sustainable dependency on each other. But the development initiatives that Bangladesh so far has taken, never considered this relationship as well as the initiatives never emphasized on the wellbeing of this natural elements.†“The unplanned activities such as constructions of dams, bridges, roads, industrials, commercial agriculture, contract farming, eco-parks, social forestation, corporate mining and other infrastructures construction have never supportive to ensure the wellbeing of the biodiversity. These initiatives rather killed and destroyed the sources and habitats of many biodiversity in Bangladesh.†They opined. They went on saying, “The green revolution which was introduced to double crop production has been silently killing many benevolent pests and herbs in the nature. Herbicides have killed thousands of uncultivated plants endangering the food security situation of humans and animals.†The speakers said, “In Bangladesh, about 120 species of local fishes have been disappeared and other 45 species are under threat of getting extinction. This has happened due to killing and destroying the natural habitats of fishes in Bangladesh through the commerical agriculture that accommodates chemicals and pesticides in agriculture.†Researcher Pavel Partha said, “Politcal will and agitation is needed in order to protect and ensure the survival of the living organisms, nature and ecosystems. We should make a habit to see the development as means of the survival and natural growth of biodiversity. People of all stakes should come forward to make a contribution for protecting and conserving our existing biodiversityâ€.
However, presided over the by the president of POBA Mr. Abu Naser Khan, keynote paper in the dialogue was presented by Pavel Partha, coordinator of BARCIK. The discussants in the dialouge include: Executive Secretary of POBA Engineer Md. Abdus Subhan, Ruhin Hossein Prince, Joint secretary of POBA Dr. Lelin Chowdhury, agriculturist Dr. Niaz Pasa.
