Call to increase Bangladesh's protected and conserved areas to 30%

Bangladesh should increase the amount of protected and conserved area from the current 12% to 30% to accomplish the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) vision of living in harmony with nature, said biodiversity experts.

At the opening day of the two-day Marine Protected Areas Training Programme, organised on Tuesday by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), they called upon the individuals, communities and industries to come forward in this regard.

The training programme, held at the capital's Sheraton Hotel, was preceded by a consultation on Target 3 of Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and roadmap for establishing Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) in Bangladesh.

Dr Vinod B Mathur, chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority of India, said that the Target 3 calls for 30% of the earth's land and sea to be conserved through the establishment of protected areas and OECMs.

"When we talk of conservation, Target 3 is important for not just Bangladesh but the entire world, if we take every kind of species and ecosystem into consideration," he said.

"Countries may vary from each other in terms of the size of the population or geography, but climate and biodiversity operate equally in all countries," Mathur added.

Maeve Nightingale, head of Coastal and Marine Programme at IUCN Asia, and Mohammad Khalid Sayeed Pasha, head of Protected and Conserved Areas at IUCN Asia, also addressed the audience during the consultation session chaired by Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury, chief conservator of the Forest Department.

Raquibul Amin, country representative at IUCN Bangladesh, said that the training programme on IUCN's Green List and Red List will continue on Wednesday.