Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN), a global network of non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB) was launched in 1998 to mobilize NRB resources for protection of NRBs

Preamble

Bangladesh is likely to be one of the countries worst affected by climate change. Due to its low elevation, large parts of the country may get inundated as a result of sea level rise, forcing millions of people to exodus. Melting of the Himalayan glaciers may dry up the Himalayan Rivers completely during the winter months. At the same time, excessive precipitation during the summer may aggravate flooding. These radical changes in the weather pattern may disrupt the country’s agriculture, economy, ecology, and life in general. Further temperature rise may cause new problems of disease and epidemic in this tropical country. All in all, climate change poses for Bangladesh a serious danger.

Melting Himalayan glaciers

So far the climate change issue has elicited in government and non-government circles of Bangladesh mainly enthusiasm about seeking financial assistance from donor countries for various “adaptation” purposes. Thus Bangladesh has participated eagerly in various international and bilateral conferences and has pleaded for financial help and compensation.

What is however more important is to look inward and find out what the country itself can do to confront the climate change challenge. Unless a national vision is developed through domestic introspection, outside money may not be that effective. Bangladesh’s experience with water development efforts illustrates this lesson very clearly. After spending millions of dollars and about twenty percent of the national development budget each year on various water development projects for almost half a century, the country is witnessing aggravation of flooding and advent of waterlogging, while any beneficial impact on agricultural production remains limited and temporary. It is therefore important for Bangladesh to avoid a repetition of this sorry experience with regard to her efforts to confront the climate change challenge.

Aggravation of flooding and water-logging

Unfortunately, that is probably not what is happening. Bangladesh’s response is being shaped largely by foreign advice and funding, and incorrect ideas are often being promoted as adaptation strategy. For example, Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), the document that Bangladesh government prepared for participation in the “UK-Bangladesh Climate Change Conference: Bangladesh Facing the Challenge” held in London in September 2008, puts a lot of emphasis on embankments and polders as adaptation measures. Yet the geological history of the Bengal delta shows that sedimentation caused by the Himalayan rivers is the most important bulwark that this delta can have against the rising sea level caused by global warming. Unfortunately, embankments and polders obstruct and harm this sedimentation process.

Drying up of rivers in winter

Also the likelihood of the Himalayan Rivers having excessive flow in summer and becoming completely dry in winter makes even more imperative for Bangladesh to make it easier for the of rivers to spread across the floodplains in the summer and to be able to retain much of this overflow for use in the winter. BCCSAP’s emphasis on embankments is therefore erroneous, because embankments cordon off floodplains from river channels and thus obstruct and harm the sedimentation process. The climate change challenge thus show that Bangladesh should adopt the Open, ecological approach to rivers and abandon the current Cordon approach. The above is example shows that outside financial assistance will not be effective unless Bangladesh sets its domestic policies correct. There are other examples of such misdirected policies in the current Bangladesh response to climate change.

General goal

The general goal of the conference is to facilitate a domestic introspection in order to develop a national vision about how to confront the climate change challenge.

Concrete objectives

1) Discuss possible consequences of climate change for Bangladesh.

2) Examine Bangladesh’s development strategy in order to identify the flaws in view of climate change.

3) Develop ideas about how the development strategy can be modified in order to make it robust with respect to the dangers posed by climate change.

4) Formulate concrete recommendations for the policy makers of the country.

5) Document and disseminate information and analysis for further use by researchers.

6) Raise public awareness about the dangers posed by climate change and the domestic tasks for Bangladesh.

Participants of the conference

The conference will bring together climate change experts from both inside and outside Bangladesh, including a significant number of Non-resident Bangladeshis (NRB). Bangladesh has significant domestic expertise with regard to climate change issue, contributing to the IPCC and other international processes. The conference plans to combine this domestic expertise with the expertise offered by Diaspora Bangladesh to formulate a better national response to the climate change challenge.

Vanishing forests and endangered wildlife

However, BAPA and BEN believe that environmental problems, including that of climate change, cannot be solved through discussions of experts alone. It requires wide participation of the public, in particular those who will be directly affected. The conference will therefore also bring together representatives of different segments of the society including political leaders. It will also enlist participation of representatives of local communities of various parts of the country likely to me more affected by climate change so that they can from their first hand experience inform about various changes that are occurring in their respective areas, from the coastal region of the south to the haor areas of the north. It is expected that through a shared discussion of experts, public representatives from various cross-section of the society and various parts of the country, it will be possible to develop a national vision and a concrete strategy about how Bangladesh can confront the climate change challenge. It is hoped that the discussion and recommendations of the conference will prove helpful for the new government that the country is likely to have following the scheduled general elections of December 18.

Dual format

In order to provide forum for different types of participants, the conference will have two types of sessions, namely

(i) Expert Sessions for presentation and discussion of papers by experts.

(ii) General Sessions for participation and discussion by representatives of the people.

Topics for the conference

The conference will address the following topics.

A. Possible consequences of climate change for Bangladesh in the areas of

(a) Shoreline movements

(b) Precipitation changes

(d) Underground water table and subsidence

(e) Extreme weather events

(f) Agriculture and food production

(g) Disease and epidemics

(h) Forests, biodiversity, and wildlife

(i) Other

B. Re-examination in the light of climate change Bangladesh’s policies in the areas of

(a) Rivers and water development

(b) Energy

(d) Agriculture and food security

(e) Transportation and communication

(f) Hills, forests, and bio-diversity.

(g) Health and sanitation

(h) Education and culture

(i) Other

Huge potentiality of renewable energy in Bangladesh

Call for papers

Papers on any of the topics above are invited for presentation at the conference. Papers can be in both Bangla and English, and should include an abstract of 200 to 250 words, but not exceed 30 pages (double spaced) in length. Completed papers should be submitted to the addresses below in Word files attached to e-mails. The deadline for submission is December 10, 2008. A selection of papers will be published in the form of a conference volume.

Authors within Bangladesh should send their papers to

Dr. M. A. Matin

General Secretary, BAPA and

Coordinator, BAPA Program Committee on Climate Change, E-mail: memory14@agni.com

Authors abroad should send their papers to

Dr. Dipen Bhattacharya

Dept of Geology and Geophysics

University of California, Riverside, CA, USA

E-mail: tishan2@yahoo.com

For further information about the conference, please contact the conference secretariat.

BAPA

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