Wildlife bill to be reviewed

In the wake of widespread concern over the contents and implication of the proposed Wildlife (Conservation) Bill 2011, a parliamentary sub-committee yesterday decided to find out its loopholes discussing with experts.
At a meeting held at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban yesterday, the sub-committee came up with the decision to submit its recommendations to the standing committee on the Ministry of Environment and Forests for bringing changes into it.
Leading wildlife experts and environmentalists find the bill ill-conceived and fear once passed in parliament it would rather lead to degradation of forests and wildlife.
After the bill was tabled in parliament, the watchdog formed the three-member sub-committee led by ruling Awami League MP Sohrab Ali Sana to review it.
“We will sit with the representatives of different organisations concerned and individual wildlife experts in our next meeting to seek recommendations over the bill," said Sohrab Ali.
The committee would soon send invitation to wildlife and ecology experts for the meeting likely to be held this month, he said.
Experts find the bill sloppy for not having anything on rescuing wildlife from the verge of extinction.
The draft law allows the forest department to use the reserved forestland for plantation and gardening under a classification of buffer zone. This means forests would actually lose significant part of their areas to commercial plantation, as degraded areas within those reserved forests have been defined as buffer zones.
The trees in the buffer zones would be commercially extracted under social forestry programme, and so would not serve the purpose of protecting wildlife.
Experts say, the decisive bill does not give any guideline on what is to be done to conserve the endangered wildlife, identified by the proposed law. The relevant laws of South Africa, Kenya and India contain such guidelines.
Internationally reputed wildlife expert Dr Reza Khan thinks there is no reason to have a new law if no organisational structure exists to implement it. He also questions capacity of the forest department in protecting wildlife as it has already failed to do so.
Criticisms are also there as the bill does not propose any institutional mechanism to oversee hunting.
The sub-committee chief later told this correspondent at his NAM flat residence that they were intending to have talks with experts and different organisations to fine-tune the bill before submitting its findings to the main committee. .
"Different individuals and organisations including Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association (Bela) and Bangladesh Shooting Federation have already expressed their willingness to sit with the sub-committee," Sohrab Ali added.
State Minister for Land Mostafizur Rahman, who was a former state minister for environment and forests, placed the bill in parliament on August 23 this year. The bill aims to protect endangered animals and plants of Bangladesh. On the same day, the bill had been sent to the respective watchdog for scrutiny.
Placing the bill, Mostafizur had said the government in 1972 framed a law for the conservation of forests but no effective measure was taken for the wildlife.