Economic Reporter :
Speakers at a programme called for utilizing the environment in a positive way for improving the economic condition of our people.
The natural environment has become so degraded that it fails to provide some of the critical functions needed for human wellbeing. Rural livelihoods are inextricably linked with the natural ecosystems, particularly agriculture and fisheries, they said.
“However, these ecosystems are endangered by long term environmental change, including rising salinity, subsidence, rising sea-levels and storm surges”.
They made the remarks while addressing a press briefing on ‘Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)’ at BRAC Centre at Mohakhali in the capital on Tuesday evening.
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), BRAC University Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research, and ESPA, the global interdisciplinary research programme, jointly organized the programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS and co-chair of the international programme advisory committee of ESPA, said, judicious use of ecosystems can reduce poverty while ill-considered use such as deforestation, hindering river flows, and polluting the atmosphere undermine the efforts of the poor people to achieve human wellbeing.
ESPA’s Director Kate Schreckenberge said, “We need better social and ecological assessments of decision-making over natural resources, to paint a clear picture of who benefits and who bears the costs of environmental decisions. Trade-offs and any potential human costs must be understood and explicitly addressed through open, just and democratic processes”.
Drawing attention of the policymakers, they said, it is essential for the policymakers to identify, in specific localities, how services provided by the ecosystems sustain local people’s lives and wellbeing.
Prof. Dr. Munsur Rahman, Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET, Dr. Dwijen Mallick, Fellow of BCAS, also addressed on the occasion.
ESPA, a project taken up by UK government, aims to give decision makers and national resource users the evidence they need to address the challenges of sustainable ecosystem management and poverty reduction.
Speakers at a programme called for utilizing the environment in a positive way for improving the economic condition of our people.
The natural environment has become so degraded that it fails to provide some of the critical functions needed for human wellbeing. Rural livelihoods are inextricably linked with the natural ecosystems, particularly agriculture and fisheries, they said.
“However, these ecosystems are endangered by long term environmental change, including rising salinity, subsidence, rising sea-levels and storm surges”.
They made the remarks while addressing a press briefing on ‘Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA)’ at BRAC Centre at Mohakhali in the capital on Tuesday evening.
Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS), BRAC University Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Research, and ESPA, the global interdisciplinary research programme, jointly organized the programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Atiq Rahman, executive director of BCAS and co-chair of the international programme advisory committee of ESPA, said, judicious use of ecosystems can reduce poverty while ill-considered use such as deforestation, hindering river flows, and polluting the atmosphere undermine the efforts of the poor people to achieve human wellbeing.
ESPA’s Director Kate Schreckenberge said, “We need better social and ecological assessments of decision-making over natural resources, to paint a clear picture of who benefits and who bears the costs of environmental decisions. Trade-offs and any potential human costs must be understood and explicitly addressed through open, just and democratic processes”.
Drawing attention of the policymakers, they said, it is essential for the policymakers to identify, in specific localities, how services provided by the ecosystems sustain local people’s lives and wellbeing.
Prof. Dr. Munsur Rahman, Institute of Water and Flood Management of BUET, Dr. Dwijen Mallick, Fellow of BCAS, also addressed on the occasion.
ESPA, a project taken up by UK government, aims to give decision makers and national resource users the evidence they need to address the challenges of sustainable ecosystem management and poverty reduction.
