The haors, baors, beels or the wetlands in general, occupy a significant place in the culture, tradition, lifestyle, livelihood and economy of our people and the country.
The initiative by 'Paribesh Bachao Andolon' undoubtedly carries an important message for all of us to revisit our traditional and cultural practices, which we tend to forget amidst the hustle and bustle of the city life.
Wetlands provide many important services to human society, but are at the same time ecologically sensitive systems. This explains why in recent years much attention has been directed towards the formulation and operation of sustainable management strategies for wetlands.
Both natural and social sciences can contribute to an increased understanding of relevant processes and problems associated with such strategies. Observing a Haor festival is one such social strategy.
Wetlands possess significant economic value and that nationally they are under heavy pressure. The immediate causes of wetland loss and degradation include over-use, land conversion and degradation, pollution, species introduction and recently included climate change.
Underlying causes for less valuation of wetlands are, among other things, price distortions, income distribution inequalities, absence of full cost accounting, policy failures, market failures (missing prices), lack of property rights and population/ urbanization growth and consequent encroachment.
Despite the increasing recognition of the need to conserve wetlands, losses have continued. The main reason is that wetlands have traditionally been considered by many to be of little or no value, or even at times to be of negative value.
This lack of awareness of the value of conserved wetlands and their subsequent low prioritisation by the decision-making process has resulted in the destruction or substantial modification of wetlands at an unrecognised social cost.
The crux of the wetland conservation issue is non-sustainable exploitation or complete conversion fuelled by this under valuation of wetland resource benefits. A strategy based solely on formal conservation designation will not be sufficient to reverse this trend. Sustainable utilization of wetland resources must be reinforced by an efficient policy, enforcement of legal instruments and braced by adequate knowledge.
I hope that this festival does not turn into an annual 'show-off' but will encourage people from different strata of the society to revisit their childhood memories - glimpses of the past, and to assess the functions performed by wetlands and make a pressure group to illustrate the economic value of the functions performed by the wetlands and help the policymakers i) to eliminate the word 'wasteland' (used to denote the wetlands) from legal documents, ii) to constitute an institution for research and management of the nation's wetlands (unlike the present shabby Haor Development Board), and iii) to form a National Wetland Policy.