Environment and BiodiversityResearch Ideas

Dhaka May 31, 2015

Bangladesh PrioritiesWORKING WITH 30-50 economists including Nobel Laureates, 100+ sector experts engaging major development organizations, NGOs, government, businesses, youths, rural and urban Bangladeshis to identify, analyze and prioritize interventions that will deliver greater benefit per taka spent, helping move Bangladesh towards Vision 2021 and a more prosperous long term future.

In cooperation with the Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC,

Copenhagen Consensus Center organized roundtable discussions with

an aim to figure out smarter solutions to the most problematic issues facing

Bangladesh.

These roundtables are one of several sources

for research ideas.

Sourcing ideas and solutions

Smarter solutions for Bangladesh

Complete set of papers on 30-50 solutions

PRIORITIZATION

Government NGOs

Academia Pvt sector

Think tanks Developmentorganizations

Eminent Panel Assessment

Government and donor seminars

Rural polls Newspaper pollsamong readers

Youth forums across the

countryPrivate sector

meetings

Social, economic and environmental benefit-cost

research by top Bangladeshi, and

international economistsExtensive peer review by

sector experts and academics

100+ ideas on policies & investments

2016

2015

Continuous engagement

with the public via electronic,

print and social media

Working with civil society, government and sector

experts

Widely advocating results of

prioritization exercises

OUTREACH

Research Ideas

Environment and Biodiversity;(1 of 8)

• Industrial symbiosis approach for a robust recycling strategy.

• Replace traditional cook stoves with improved cook stoves.

• Use of surface water through re-excavation of canals and khals.

• Use of ground water in areas where surface water is not suitable for drinking.

• Relocate tanneries away from rivers. • Make the use of ETPs mandatory in the leather sector.

Environment and Biodiversity;(2 of 8)

• Create pipes to channel rainwater (during monsoon) to storage tanks.

• Harvesting rainwater for domestic use (e.g. washing cars, clothes and flushing toilets).

• Clean Buriganga River. • Arresting the loss of soil fertility from tobacco cultivation in

Chittagong and Hill Tract areas.• Encouraging farmers to switch to alternative, non-tobacco

cash crops.• Adopt a migration policy for climate migrants dwelling in

slums in urban areas.• Engagement of local residents and communities in

protecting and managing natural resources.

Environment and Biodiversity; (3 of 8)

• Set up deep tube wells (below 135 feet) in arsenic prone areas.

• Initiate behavior change communication (BCC) activities for gas utilization in households.

• Waste management by electricity generated from waste.

• Increase wetlands as a source for heat sink. • Encourage rooftop gardens. • Assess the role and significance of ETPs. • Implementation of development projects to consider

probable species migration.

Environment and Biodiversity; (4 of 8)

• Encourage separation of plastic waste products from bio-degradable ones through use of multi-colored waste baskets.

• Recharge ground water.• Natural resource management through community led

initiatives. • Planting 50,000 ha land of hill forest and 5,000 ha. of

plain land forest. • Creation of 500 meter wide permanent Coastal Green

Belt. • 5,000 ha of reed lands to be planted in Sylhet. • 20,000 km of strip plantations for social forestry purposes.

Environment and Biodiversity; (5 of 8)• Plant fast growing tree species to meet demand for

social forestry fuel. • Develop 5,000 ha of bamboo, cane and murta

plantation.• Increase protected area (PA) coverage to 15 percent of

the total forest land. • Measure carbon stock in all potential PAs and programs

for forest conservation.• Protect coral reefs.• Restore 20,000 acres of the denuded Chokoria-

Sunderban Reserve Forest with time bound action and monitoring plan.

Environment and Biodiversity; (6 of 8)

• Continue moratorium on felling in natural forest. • Complete the forest land survey and update land

record. • Importing trees and fish resources bearing in mind

biodiversity consequences. • Initiate watershed management and wetland

conservation in the haor regions and Hill Tract areas. • Provide credit facilities to encourage private sector to

undertake high value crop (e.g. rubber and teak) plantation on a commercial basis.

• Mandatory installation of rooftop solar panels (to harness solar energy in summer).

Environment and Biodiversity; (7 of 8)• Update National Biodiversity Strategies and Action

Plans (NBSAP) to uphold commitments on biodiversity conservation.

• Integrate biodiversity into National Adaptation Plan (NAP) and nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA).

• Strengthening the capacity of Bangladesh National Herbarium (BNH), and enforcement & surveillance capacity of Forest Department (FD).

• Identification of all areas under encroachments and developing a time bound action plan for eviction.

• Protection and restoration of endangered and threatened species.

Environment and Biodiversity; (8 of 8)

• Establish a Biodiversity cell and Chemical Management cell at the Department of Environment.

• Reducing the impact of persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

• Protect non-Sundarban mangroves, especially in Teknaf.• Streamline mechanisms for certifying and approving

reforestation and forest protection under carbon credit and REDD mechanisms.

• Communities should own natural resources, not government departments.

Full List of Attendees and Interviewees Moyen Uddin Ahmed, Sr. Manager, BRAC DECC.Shrabana Datta, Sr. Researcher, Mesovision Consultancy Ltd.Dr. Md. Abdur Rashid, Chief Scientific Officer & Head, BRRI.Md. Quamrul Islam, Director, VERC.Md. Khalilur Rahman, Chief Engineer (MI), BADC.Dr. Nepal C. Dey, Sr. Research Fellow, BRAC RED.Md. Emdad Hossain, Project Leader, World Fish.Dr. Md. Khalequzzaman, Assistant Professor, BSMMU.Dr. M. Sujauddin, Assistant Professor, BUFT/NSU.A.S. Moniruzzaman Khan, Director, C3ER, BRAC University.Dr. Moktadir Kabir, Sr. Program Manager, BRAC.Tahera Akter, Research Fellow, BRAC RED.