Agricultural Research Management Information System

Home
Research Summary
Search
About Us
- ARMIS
- Brochure
Contact Us
Report
User Request
Data Input
Help
- Operation Manual
  - PDF
  - Video
- Program Area & Commodity
We have reached 37600 number of research entries at this moment.

- Logout

Research Detail

Home
Research
Detail

A Critique on Sustainable Natural Resources of Bangladesh and Their Management: the Role of the Media

Sudhangshu Sekhar Roy
Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Humankind now experiences the both benefits and problems of rapid development throughout the world and Bangladesh is no different, but with limited natural resources and environment, facing a stiff challenge from continuous degradation and eradication of resources due to unplanned, uncaring, and unsustainable management. The media in this case should have an appropriate role of development agent, to focus the issue with an aim to reach it the people and policy makers. The media should also make people aware and motivate them to create that environment, which would help the policy makers, mainly the government and NGOs, to take appropriate policies and formulate rules and regulations. Despite some rules and regulations and some political pledge/rhetoric from the governments, however, it is apparent that the natural resources of the country are not being consumed in a very sustainable manner. Moreover the increased population is also responsible for excessive consumption of resources. On the other hand, a few journalists in Bangladesh are involved in writing and presenting news/findings regarding natural resources. Apart from focusing the issue to a significant extent, however the media is apparently not successful to educate and motivate the people to that level would enable them to perceive realistically the issue of sustainability of the resources and to use it in a very philosophical and patriotic manner. Thus, in this paper the nature, volume, and sustainability of the major natural resources of the country in one end are explored to understand how well we are managing our natural resources, and how appropriately the media is playing their role on the other

Keywords: Natural resources, Sustainability, Management, Media, Bangladesh.

Location:

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Resource inventory

Objectives:

First, we need to understand the meaning of natural resources. One definition says, Natural resources include the renewable elements of the ecospheres such as water and the terrestrial and aquatic biomass, the non-renewable elements, such as land in general, minerals, metals and fossil fuels, and the semi-renewable elements such as the soil quality and the assimilative capacity of the environment (Hottler & Schakau 1996).

Methodology:

Bangladesh is a land of plenty of natural resources; a land is so fertile that sometimes you do not need to sow any seeds for germination. The natural forests, Sundarban with typical natural beauty is full of thousands of species of flora and fauna. The area renowned for the Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer are good examples of animals, while sundari, bain, poshur, gewa, and keora are typical plants. The Sundarban, surrounded by many meandering rivers, is the hub of different species of fresh-water fish and sea fish in nearby bays. Sundarban is prominent for its timbers and the golpata (virtually, long leaves) plant, which is hugely used for the thatched rural housing. The rural people throughout adjacent areas always harness honey, golpata, and twigs. Very many people of the vast areas surrounding Sundarban are dependent on them. Sundarban has deposits of 56 million tons of carbon in trees, different plants and bio-ingredients. An assessment entitled Sundarban Forest Carbon Inventory 2009, carried out by the Forest Department of Bangladesh Government in collaboration with different agencies/organizations of US government, showed that huge carbons are accumulated in different species of trees like bain, poshur, and kankra. The Sundari, the most popular and important tree from which the name of Sundarban (world largest mangrove forest) has evolved, has comparatively less carbon-accumulating capacity, while two other species, gewa and keora, have very little carbon (Mahmud 2010c).The overall scenario, however, is not very impressive in terms of the volume of forests in Bangladesh. In 1947, 24 percent of Bangladesh was covered in forests, but this declined to only 8 percent in 1988. The Forest Department believes that systematic deforestation has now reduced the forest area to less than six percent. …massive deforestation for timber and fuel has become a major environmental issue in the country. Conversion of forest land for infrastructure development and agricultural expansion has also contributed to shrinking of the forest area (Rasheed & Sajjadur 2002). A few years back the American Centre (formerly United States Information Service) at Dhaka quoting a research report prepared by World Resources Institute, and sending a press statement to the media, said Bangladesh and other ten countries were on the verge of losing the remaining 5 % of their original (natural) forests. Given that logging and agricultural settlement, especially for meeting the demands of the escalating growth of population, are the main reasons for deforestation, the research institute warned the concerned countries to take immediate action. Of the total forest area of Bangladesh (about 2.44 million ha), 0.3 million ha are homestead groves and 1.46 million ha are state-owned reserved and protected forest (Akhter & Sarker 1998; cited in Barua & Wilson 2005). The average annual destruction of the forest in Bangladesh was 800 ha in 1980. This rate subsequently increased to 38,000 ha/year between 1981 and 1990 (Haque 2000; cited in Barua & Wilson 2005). Today, deforestation affects approximately one-eighth of the country (Barua & Wilson 2005). During Sidr, the cyclone that swept over the shore areas of south-western regions in 2007, Sundarban experienced huge damages. Experts then forecasted that the forest needed ten years to recover, but, astonishingly the forest has been recovering fast, although it has been enduring the pain of destruction. The volume of destruction could have been less, if there had not been so much human intervention over last few decades. The Sundari trees in south-western Sundarban are suffering from top-dying affliction, which kills off the mangrove tree from the top down (Gain 1998). This disease was seen in other areas also, where industrial smoke from chimneys contaminates the vegetation. It is virtually the result of climate change. Global warming due to unchecked emission of carbons by the West has a huge impact on Sundarban and its surrounds. It is not only trees; sea fishes are also going far away from the reach of the fishermen due to considerable change of climate, which is reducing their jobs.

Source of Information: Proceedings of the International Conference on Biodiversity – Present State, Problems and Prospects of its Conservation January 8-10, 2011 University of Chittgaong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Our focus was to explore the nature and volume of major natural resources and to identify their sustainability and their management and, at the same time, how well our media are playing their role. From our discussion it is clear that we are not using our natural resources in a sustainable manner. The prevailing management process and the policy are not satisfactory, The most important thing is that the media must be successful in raising issues but they are yet to reach the level from which they can make environmental issues core issues of journalism to be covered daily, as are political issues, and from which they can motivate the people and consumers to use resources in a restrained and patriotic manner. Hence, our suggestions are: • We need effective environmental planning, which will direct and control the acquisition, distribution and disposal of resources in such manner as to sustain human activities, but these activities will be restricted so that there is a minimum of disruption of physical, ecological and social processes; • We have to maintain monitoring of the environment and journalists group can play their role as development agent on environmental issues; • We need to enforce more public-private partnership of creation and consumption of resources and to maintain a strong international network to get more legal and financial support; • Enforcement, rather than mere existence of some laws and rule and regulations, should be made more effective, and in the process journalists should play their role as watchdog to monitor that enforcement; • Environmental issues are very technical and complex, sometimes boring, so the media should cover it in much more familiar manner with high readability, so that the people understand it as well as they understand news of politics or sport; • The media should shift their focus mainly from politics or crime/corruption issues to other areas such as the environment, shifting attention from the more sensational issues; • Media should connect the issue of population with the environment, as the degradation of environment is hugely linked with ever increasing population in Bangladesh, hitherto neglected; and • Media’s conventional tendency to cover environmental issues as isolated or single issues/events should be changed to more continuous progress reports.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings