A zoology professor warns that habitat loss, forest fragmentation, unchecked pesticide use and weak law enforcement are accelerating environmental degradation and biodiversity decline across Bangladesh despite existing legal protections.
Bangladesh should strictly enforce its existing environmental laws to protect the country’s environment and biodiversity, as legal implementation rather than a lack of legislation remains the biggest challenge, according to an expert.
“We have a lot of laws. The implementation of these laws is a big issue. Another issue is the public awareness,” Professor Mohammed Mostafa Feeroz, a zoology professor at Jahangirnagar University, a public university in Bangladesh, said in a recent interview.
He said protecting the environment and biodiversity requires more than raising public awareness and that enforcing existing laws is essential.
“We have almost all kinds of laws. We have a law regarding forest conservation. We also have a law regarding protection of habitats. We also have laws about what we can and cannot do with pesticide use. But we do not see the implementation of these laws.
“If we cannot strictly implement the laws, then we will be able to effectively conserve environment and biodiversity,” he said.
Prof Feeroz said local communities and the Bangladesh Forest Department must all comply with the laws.
Highlighting the importance of protecting the environment and biodiversity, he said Bangladesh, despite being a small country, is in a favourable position because of its geographical and geopolitical characteristics.
“Our biodiversity is very rich. About 2.4 percent of the world’s mammals are found in our country. About seven percent of birds are found in our country. Now the problem is that our human population has increased tremendously,” he said.
As a result, he said, the country’s environment and biodiversity face threats that are largely anthropogenic.
Prof Feeroz said wildlife habitats are being severely damaged because of encroachment.
“Our forests are being cut down and human settlements are taking place there. The waterbodies are being damaged by constructing markets and settlements there,” he said.
He said such encroachment is continuously shrinking the country’s natural habitats.
“The natural environment in which our animals live is also being destroyed. Because we often do not understand that the trees we have, the natural layers of our bushes, are also slowly being destroyed by humans.”
He said the expansion of cultivable land has become a major factor contributing to biodiversity loss.
Prof Feeroz also identified unplanned industrialisation as another cause of environmental degradation.
In addition, he said roads and human settlements are being built through forests, leaving them fragmented.
“As a result, continuous forest or continuous natural habitat is no longer there. Sundarbans is a continuous forest as we don’t have any roads inside it. That’s why, when we see the Sundarbans forest from above, it is continuous. But when we go to Chittagong Hill Tracts, it is fragmented because of the roads,” he said.
Whenever forests become fragmented, wild animals become isolated, he added.
Prof Feeroz also said the unchecked use of pesticides in agriculture is significantly contributing to environmental destruction.
Pesticides create breeding problems for many wild animals and destroy fish breeding grounds, he said.
“Some medicines we use in various ways for our livestock seriously damage our vulture population,” he said.
