An Integrated Approach to Environmental Management in Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is subject to a variety of environmental stressors and is characterized by large imbalances in the distribution of natural resources due to poor environmental management or a lack thereof. In addition, current and future climate change impacts are likely to yield even more significant consequences. The effort to minimize the gap between policy and implementation is targeted at grass-root level and encompasses physical conservation aspects, increasing the optimum use of resources, and socio-cultural awareness building programs. Government plans and policies provide legal coverage to strengthen management and occasionally ratify international protocols for global linkages. Scientists and the government identify the environmental sectors, providing an extensive list of generalized issues. Between 1995 and 2010, a large number of local and international nongovernmental organizations worked with government agencies on the integration of government policies that directly addressed environmental management mainly. Although the overall intellectual infrastructure at the local level is reasonably good, the significant, but weak coordination between various government agencies has been identified as a priority. Nevertheless, local poverty, a lack of alternative development methods, the slow growth of quality education, and poor international/cross-cultural partnerships are major weak points. The case study focuses specifically on the availability of international funds and the weak role that developing nations play in the North-South dialogue forum.