Well, the Sundar-bans has done it again! because it has been doing for many years. This time, it took the blow of super-cyclone Amphan and saved us from severe devastation.
image source: google
When it involves saving people from coastal flooding, Bangladesh is one among the highest three countries within the world getting the foremost enjoy its mangroves. A recent study estimated that a 20-km mangrove stretch, especially near cities, could give quite USD 250 million flood protection benefit a year. From these numbers, we will only partly imagine the importance of the Sundarbans to Bangladesh.
Of course, protection against natural calamities is merely one among the various benefits we get from this magnificent jungle: we've oxygen to inhale , honey to relish, fish to savour, fuelwood to burn, materials to thatch, waterways to navigate, festivals to celebrate, Bengal tiger to cherish, beauty to photograph—to name just a couple of . The Sundarbans may have officially become the world's heritage when the UNESCO declared it in 1997, but it's always been a heritage to the people of this delta.
Speaking of the UNESCO move, since 2014, the planet Heritage Centre (WHC) of this UN body has been expecting some specific actions from Bangladesh with reference to the Sundarbans. Bangladesh's relationship with the WHC took a pointy turn in 2016 when a WHC-IUCN mission made 10 recommendations after visiting the Sundarbans, including relocation of a coal-based power station in Rampal near the forest. Over subsequent three years, we saw numerous media reports on the choices made within the WHC's global meetings and Bangladesh's responses to them.
In the middle of last year, Bangladesh-WHC relations entered a replacement dimension when IUCN recommended the WHC to place the Sundarbans on the List of World Heritage in peril , thanks to insufficient compliance of the WHC's decisions, creating an uncomfortable situation for Bangladesh within the conservation world.
However, the ultimate decisions of the 43rd meeting of the WHC held in July 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan, didn't put the Sundarbans on the in-danger list thanks to interventions from a couple of member states. The WHC gave Bangladesh till February 1, 2020 to submit the newest report on the state of conservation of the Sundarbans also as implementation status of the choices of the 43rd meeting. supported that report, the WHC would decide whether to place the Sundarbans on the list or not.
We have not read much about WHC-Sundarbans since last July. Nevertheless, in January 2020, Bangladesh submitted a comprehensive report back to the WHC, which is essentially a response to all or any the 11 decisions taken on Bangladesh's side of the Sundarbans within the Baku meeting last year. In January, Bangladesh also started preparing a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the south-west region of the country, including the Sundarbans—another long-standing expectation of the UNESCO-WHC. Both these crucial developments have, however, gone largely unnoticed by the media.
The 44th meeting of the WHC was alleged to be held at the top of this month in Fuzhou, China, which has now been postponed thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. we've to attend to ascertain how UNESCO-WHC and its technical partner IUCN answer Bangladesh's recent submission.
But the Sundarbans isn't only a world heritage site or an ecosystem torn within the economic development vs nature conservation debates. it's also a restless, silent "trouble-shooter" addressing our societal challenges. Before the Covid-19 swamped the planet , we were overwhelmed by two of the most important crises of our time—climate change and biodiversity loss. While the worldwide efforts to halt these catastrophes are becoming delayed thanks to the pandemic, we cannot suspend our national and native endeavours. And, mangroves are amazing natural systems which will help us tackle both climate and biodiversity crises.
When we involve people and protect our natural mangroves just like the Sundarbans, restore the degraded ones like that in Nuniachhara, Cox's Bazar, or stretch the "green belt" along the coast through coastal afforestation—as we've been doing since 1965—we not only adapt to global climate change or take the additional CO2 out of the atmosphere to stay the planet cooler or create a refuge for biodiversity, we also ensure food security, disaster risk reduction, human development, and economic empowerment of the people hooked in to mangroves, thus contributing to our collective wellbeing.
Like Bangladesh, all countries of the planet with mangroves are enjoying tremendous benefits out of them. Globally, mangroves give us USD 65 billion worth of coastal flood protection per annum . They annually give us USD 50 billion non-market benefits from fisheries, forestry, and recreation. Putting an amount on the advantages we get from mangroves may justify investing in their protection, restoration, and expansion—after all, the return from preserving and restoring mangrove is 10 times the investment. But how would we value thousands of years of evolution of mangroves? What price can we placed on a mangrove when it's the house of hundreds and thousands of butterflies? what proportion is it worth once we call mangroves our heritage?
Since the onset of the coronavirus crisis, we've seen our priorities shift with the changing situations and demands. In March, as we imposed lockdown restrictions, stopping infection spread was our top priority, putting it even before our economy. a couple of weeks on, we had to reprioritise people's livelihoods and economy over the pandemic. As cyclone Amphan approached our coast in late May, saving human lives became an instantaneous priority over the danger of disease spread.
As we continue facing climate crisis and biodiversity loss in catastrophic proportions, can protecting the Sundarbans and therefore the nature as an entire be our priority now?
