Anjan Kumer Dev Roy

Attitudes towards current and alternative management of the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest, Bangladesh to achieve sustainability

This paper examines the challenges of achieving sustainable management of the worlds largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans (SMF) in Bangladesh. During the past two decades, conflicts between mangrove maintenance and the pressure to provide economic livelihoods to forest-dependent communities (FDCs) have emerged and persisted. The SMF is currently managed by the Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) under a state property rights regime. This study explores an alternative property rights regime which includes participatory approaches and co-management with FDCs to achieve sustainability, both economically and environmentally. Focus group discussions and a survey were the methods used to assess the prospects. The study finds that the absence of a management partnership between the BFD and FDCs is mainly responsible for the policy failures to achieve sustainable management of the SMF. However, evidence is presented that a ‘co-management’ property rights regime cannot be established until FDC capacity is enhanced through the formation of community level institutions.

An investigation into the major environment and climate change policy issues in southwest coastal Bangladesh

Purpose This paper aims to examine the issues of environment and climate change policy gaps and their impacts on the natural resources and ecosystems in southwest coastal Bangladesh. The effects of the increasing human activities as well as natural disasters due to the environment and climate change are analysed. The policy options as a response to mitigation, adaptation and possible human suffering as consequences are explored through discourse analysis. Design/methodology/approach This study applied focus group discussions, workshop and field visits to collect the data and information to explore environment and climate change policy-related problems. Findings It was found that there is a need for major policy reform to guide development interventions to reverse salinity, waterlogging, migration and groundwater recharging problems for sustainable environmental and ecosystem management in the region. Originality/value The paper then underscores the need for governments at all levels to adequately fund geo-information-based development interventions as adequate and proactive responses to environmental management and development to combat future environmental and climate change problems in the region.

Sustainability Through an Alternative Property-Rights Regime for Bangladesh's Mangrove Forest†

This study examines the challenges of achieving sustainable management of the worlds largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, in Bangladesh. The Sundarbans is currently managed by the Bangladesh Department of Forest, under a state property‐rights regime, while our study explores an alternative property‐rights regime. We employed a mixed‐method approach to examine the prospects of alternative management and livelihood strategies to achieve sustainability. Both focus groups and household surveying were used to assess the opportunities for, and barriers to, achieving sustainability. It was found that two conflicting groups—forest‐dependent communities and foresters—are responsible for policy failures due to the absence of power‐sharing arrangements, nor is it likely a common property‐rights regime will be enough to cap degradation and achieve sustainability, while supply‐and‐demand policy interventions may well could help achieve sustainable management of the Sundarbans.

A critical assessment of employing democratic and deliberative ideals in the environmental planning process in Bangladesh

In the 6th (2011–15) and 7th (2016–20) Five Year Plans (FYP), Bangladeshs policy makers have set ambitious national environmental targets and goals to move the country towards more a sustainable economy and society. The goals were dictated by the economic, social and political interests of the political elites. This has resulted in limited stakeholder participation in environmental policy formulation. The 6th FYP aimed at achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 7: ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’. It failed due to shortcomings in local implementation and due to a lack of community participation. The 7th FYP is based on the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 13, 14, 15. The obvious paradox within Bangladeshs environmental planning is the big gap between central governments policy making and community participation and local government involvement. This paper examines environmental policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in the last two FYPs in Bangladesh. Contemporary deliberative democratic theory provides important theoretical and applied insights that are often unexamined in the environmental planning literature. A theoretical framework is developed to analyse to what degree environmental planning arrangements incorporated deliberative elements and how they contribute to decision-making. A case study of the environmental planning process tests its effectiveness in explaining observed outcomes. Elsewhere, deliberative democratic approaches have been central to the success of the environmental planning process. The central governments failure to apply this approach produced a policy gap. Plan targets cannot be met unless local participation is ensured through the deliberative framework.