Nature-based solutions can fight two key battles together
In the last two months of 2022, two large global events took place on two continents flanking the Atlantic Ocean. In November, around 35,000 people met at the Egyptian tourist city of Sharm El-Sheikh for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27).
What awaits Bangladesh’s climate change adaptation in 2023?
Capacity development is an important part of mainstreaming NbS and LLA.
How does our new National Adaptation Plan consider nature?
On November 2, the government made the long-awaited National Adaptation Plan of Bangladesh (2023-2050) public.
Tackling climate change: NbS can enhance Locally-Led Adaptation
Two concepts related to climate change – Locally-Led Adaptation (LLA) and Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) – have gained significant momentum over the last couple of years.
Have we already started seeing the Rohingya refugee crisis differently?
The 2022 JRP has five strategic objectives to support the affected Bangladeshi and Rohingya populations.
Let’s not pay lip service to climate change
In the last couple of months, we have been listening to discussions on how to build on the outcomes of the COP26—the 26th Conference of the Parties for climate change held in Glasgow, UK last year.
Nature-based solutions to our societal challenges
As we enter the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the societal challenges we were fighting in the pre-Covid times all got worse over the past two years—be it extreme poverty, food and water crises, biodiversity loss, ecological degradation, or climatic change and associated disasters. But, can nature still be a part of tackling these challenges?
Let nature inspire our development drive
If we want to address our development and societal challenges with the help of nature, we have three options. While nature-based solutions (NbS) have been discussed in this column extensively, let’s talk about two other options: nature-driven solutions and nature-inspired solutions.
How crucial is nature for our prosperity?
The Government of Bangladesh has recently drafted the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan Decade 2030.
Mainstreaming nature-based solutions into development in Bangladesh
On November 13, 2021, the two-week 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, ended in Scotland with the participating nations agreeing upon the Glasgow Climate Pact.
Using our climate funds right
When I talk about Bangladesh’s climate change response, I get excited by the thought of three milestones.
Five changes we need in the fifth year of the Rohingya crisis
Over the last four years, the Rohingya refugee crisis has changed the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Peninsula on many levels.
Can we be bold enough and integrate Nature-based Solutions into Blue Economy?
Before answering the question in the title, let’s look into Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Blue Economy.
What will the next phase of floating agriculture look like?
If we track the history of floating agriculture in Bangladesh, we may find six major phases. It is difficult to pinpoint when floating cultivation began in Bangladesh—the current reckoning goes up to 400 years ago.
Is a new vision possible for Tanguar Haor?
Over the last 50 years, Bangladesh’s journey towards community development has essentially been a result of government, donors, and NGOs coming together to work for the vulnerable people.
Nature-based solutions for our towns and cities
When we talk about nature-based solutions (NbS)—that is protecting, managing, restoring or creating ecosystems for the benefit of the people and biodiversity—we almost always think of wilderness or rural areas.
Is floating agriculture a nature-based solution?
Farmers of the south-central districts of Bangladesh, namely Barishal, Gopalganj, Madaripur, and Pirojpur, have been practicing floating agriculture for decades, if not centuries.
Can we look at Bhashan Char through a research lens?
The third batch of Rohingya refugees entered Bhashan Char on January 29 and January 30, 2021. Out of Cox’s Bazar’s 867,000 refugees, about 6,700 have now been voluntarily relocated since December 2020 to this island on the Bay of Bengal.
2020 has been a year of nature-based solutions.
In 2020, Nature-based Solutions, or NbS, has emerged as a much-talked-about environmental concept in Bangladesh.
The waters we share with our neighbours
Twenty-Four years ago, when the prime ministers of Bangladesh and India signed the Ganges Water Sharing Treaty on December 12, 1996, it was quite a different world to mark such a milestone.
We’ve talked enough about biodiversity. Let’s try to save it now
We may blame Covid-19 for drawing our attention away from biodiversity conservation. But the truth is, for a long time, we have been talking about biodiversity a lot, rather than saving it.
World Food Day: Our Food System in a New Normal
It is an irony that while between 2000 and 2019, the world GDP grew by 260 percent, two billion people still do not have regular access to safe, healthy, and sufficient food—they still do not have food security.
What role do nature-based solutions play in the Rohingya refugee crisis?
Over the last three years, the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf have been telling us many stories of failures, successes and uncertainties.
Providing permanent support to the people of Tanguar Haor
I always wanted to take two photographs of the same spot of Tanguar Haor—one in the driest month of the year and one in the wettest.
Desertification And Drought Day: The threat of parched land
Barsha-Kaal, or the rainy season, has officially arrived this week. If we were not shackled by Covid-19, we would have been welcoming monsoon with singing and dancing at public gatherings, arranging tree fairs, and planting hundreds and thousands of saplings all over the country. A perfect time to make our country greener!
It’s time for the Sundarbans
Well, the Sundar-bans has done it again! As it has been doing for hundreds of years. This time, it took the blow of super-cyclone Amphan and saved us from severe devastation.
Can climate action become the new normal?
Due to the pandemic, we are doing a lot of otherwise-unusual things—be it maintaining physical distance in public places,
Will nature conservation remain a priority in post-corona Bangladesh?
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed three alarming connections between us and nature.
Have faith in our researchers
Our current under-standing and response to the ongoing “corona crisis” are results of extensive, fast-track research. The possible transfer of the
Conservation delayed is conservation missed
In the middle of the devastating coronavirus crisis, we have come across some good news about the environment.
Can we overcome our academic inertia?
The first academic journal, Le Journal des Sçavans, was published on January 5, 1665 from Paris. Over the past three centuries—according to the latest STM Report 2018 by the International Association of Scientific,
Our missed opportunities
According to the Global Risks Report 2020 from the World Economic Forum (WEF), biodiversity loss is now the third most serious risk our world is facing in terms of impact.
Lots of research, not much communication
On May 29, 2014, soon after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published the second volume of its massive Fifth Assessment Report, an interesting article was written in The Daily Star.
Is it a new concept for Bangladesh?
Bangladesh’s forests tell us many stories. Let me share three of them.
Why the Red List is crucial
The IUCN Red List turns 53 this year. Officially known as The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, it is basically a scientific tool that helps to check, if a species - plant or animal, big or small, fast or slow - is at risk of becoming extinct from the face of the earth, forever.
Protecting our biodiversity
As we start 2017 we have many encouraging numbers to be proud of. The country has been sustaining GDP growth at 6.3 percent for the last five years. Per capita income (USD 1,314) is more than twice of that of 2008. Less than 13 percent of us are now extreme poor,
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