Resources in Sundarbans decrease, possible to increase in 3 ways
Professor Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir has said an interconnection between man and nature has to be built to meet the goal of forest conservation.
"As part of the strategy, bio-diversity can be conserved by utilising traditional knowledge. Mangrove forest has to be utilised to tackle the crisis of living cost of people, gradual decrease in bio-diversity and climate change," he added.
Titumur made the remarks at a workshop 'The Implementation of Monitoring of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: Community based Solution and Contribution to the Global Biodiversity' at a city hotel on Saturday.
International organisation SwedBio, Forest Department, Forest People Programme (FPP) and Unnayan Onneshan jointly organised it.
Titumir said the global target of 30 per cent forest conservation in Bangladesh can be achieved quickly through an interconnection between man and nature. Science and human knowledge have to be utilised for this, he added.
FPP senior policy advisor Maurizio Farhan Ferrari presented the keynote paper at the workshop.
Chief forest conservator of Sundarbans, Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury, highlighted various initiatives of forest conservation.
A photo exhibition on Sundarbans was held after the discussion.
Speaking as the chief guest environment, forest and climate change ministry additional secretary Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik said, "We have adopted a biodiversity adaptation plan. All people are worried over this. Especially ethnic minorities want nature-based solution."
United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP15) was held in Montreal of Canada last year. A final decision was taken that 30 per cent of land and water bodies across the world has to be conserved by 2030. Currently there is 17 per cent land and 10 per cent of region of sea as conserved.
The area of water bodies in the Sundarbans has been on decline. The water bodies spanned an area of 448 hectares in 2010, but it reduced to just 322 hectares in 2020. Similarly, the habitat for crabs saw a reduction from 3,115 hectares to 1,634 hectares during the timeframe.
Around 10 per cent of the Sundarbans has been completely destroyed in the super cyclone Sidr.
The speakers noted that it is imperative to seek natural solutions to protect the Sundarbans. It requires sowing Nipa Palm trees in the Sundarbans and growing them in a planned way. Also, it is crucial to ensure that the local fishermen abide by fishing rules.