Legal response to loss and damage
January 15, 2012
Climate Change
Legal response to loss and damage
Hafijul Islam Khan
The adverse impacts of climate change have continued to devastate the lives and livelihoods of millions of people and inflict large economic losses. According to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there has been a global increase in weather related disasters between 1980 and 2003. The report estimated that during that period the economic loss due to damage caused by natural disasters is one trillion USD in total. Moreover, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has estimated that in 2008 over Read more
Corals of St.Martin’s at stake
January 15, 2012
Global Warming and Over-Exploitation
Corals of St.Martin’s at stake
Dr. Anisuzzaman Khan
Honey comb corals around Saint Martin’s island are under stress due to coral bleaching. While the COP 17 — UN climate convention — was being held in Durban of South Africa, a Nature Watch Team (NWT) of Ekattor Television watched that a noticeable coral bleaching was defacing the corals of Saint Martin’s island of Bangladesh due to global warming. A four-member Scuba diving team moved under water around Saint Martin’s during the last week of December, 2011. They observed that the honey comb corals on the east coast of the island are severely affected by Read more
Environment: Future farmers hold key
December 1, 2011
GLOBAL food demand will double by 2050, according to a new projection, and the farming techniques used to meet that unprecedented demand will significantly determine how severe the impact is on the environment, researchers say.
The study researchers warn that meeting the demand for food will clear more land, increase nitrogen use and significantly add to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. These actions could harm the atmosphere and cause the extinction of numerous species, Read more
Getting a consensus in COP 17
October 15, 2011
How close the world is?
Shammunul Islam
The 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 17) will be held in the city of Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 9. The world is waiting with hope that this time a fruitful and effective guideline will be made towards mitigating and adapting with climate change impacts. Much hype and expectation grew vis-a-vis this convention mainly hangs around the moods and stances of developed and Read more
Pollution of rivers around Dhaka
September 11, 2011
Increasing threats to life
Mohammad Tareq Hasan
With a population of over 15 million Dhaka is one of the most congested cities of the world. This rapidly growing city is located on the northern bank of the river Buriganga and surrounded by other rivers, namely, the Turag to the west, the Tongi Khal to the north and the Balu to the east. The rivers surrounding Dhaka are an advantage to it and essential for the survival of the mega city as these provide drainage system, drinking water, different kinds of fishes and also waterways for traveling. However, being the capital of Bangladesh Read more
Tiger Conservation: Reality, recognition and rights
September 11, 2011
Dr. Mohammad Ali
Tigers are maverick animals. They are supposed to live long in this world. Instead, they are disappearing rapidly. No doubt celebrating ‘tiger day’ will raise awareness to safeguard this majestic animal; however, we hope the affiliated institutions will continue creating a congenial environment for safety and sustainability of tiger population.
Commonly such safety and protection are provided through declaring protected areas (PAs) like game reserves, wildlife sanctuary, and even national parks. There are overlapping forest reserves and tiger reserves in the Sunderbans Read more
Flood: Some positive effects
August 13, 2011
Mohiuddin Zakaria
Flood is overflow of huge amount of water on the normally dry land. The EU flood directive defines flood as ‘a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water’. In broader sense, flood can be classified in two types as: natural flood and catastrophic flood. Natural flood is the flood that is caused naturally by the overflow of huge volume of water from rivers, lakes, oceans, or by heavy rains, etc. On the other hand catastrophic flood is the flood that is caused by some significant and unexpected events, for example dam breaching, Read more
Birdwings enriching forest ecosystem
August 13, 2011
Dr. M A Bashar
Ecosystem itself is the phenomenon of interaction between biotic and abiotic factors in an area. This interaction means both of the factors in an area of the biosphere are equally “interacted” to form and run the system. But apparently plants are the primary phase as producers and successive phases are completed by animals as the consumers. So, plants in the system are treated collectively as the first trophic level and the animals as the successive trophic levels. These animals again provide some backward support to the plants for their multiplication and sustenance to form the final shape Read more
Salvaging Dhaka
July 24, 2011
Md. Mahbubul Huq for The Daily Star
The engine behind a city is, apparently, its mayor. He is the chief of local government administration. Local government administration is responsible for providing services such as: fire safety, police protection, any emergency services, public school, water and sewerage, city planning, maintaining local environmental health, garbage collection, public transportation. Other services provided include: recording births, deaths and marriages; managing public burial sites, public parks, open spaces and other public land.
Local government functions Read more
Evaluating services of Sundarbans
July 4, 2011
Muhammad Selim Hossain and Mohammed Abdul Baten for The Daily Star
Forest is a bounteous gift of nature that provides the basis of life and livelihood for humans. According to human history, hunting and gathering, the first and foremost livelihood of homo sapiens, was forest based. Interestingly, mangrove is the most diverse forest and is maximum service provider of all the forest types. Today, it is man whose relentless activities are, however, at the root of eroding this invaluable biological capital of nature.
Forest management has also seen a long chronological development Read more
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