Bangladesh Environment: Moving the Movement

Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN) occasionally organizes events to inform, educate, and seek support from non-resident Bangladeshis living abroad to preserve the environment of Bangladesh. On Sunday, March 22nd, BEN organized a special event to welcome Mr. Abdul Matin, General Secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) – (Bangladesh Environmental Movement), who has been visiting the USA. BEN works closely with BAPA on environmental issues in Bangladesh. So close is the relationship that they are sometimes called BAPA-BEN. The event took place in Jackson Heights, New York. More or less 30 people attended the event.

The General Secretary briefly discussed BAPA and the different aspects of Bangladesh’s environmental problems and prospects.

• Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) was launched in 2000 to create a nationwide movement to protect Bangladesh’s environment. Since then, it has been working with reputation, so much so that some people use the good name of BAPA to support their local environmental activities.
• BAPA has to fend off requests for membership from corrupt government officials who want to use BAPA’s name and activity for their personal benefit. Due to resource constraints, BAPA has been expanding slowly at local levels. Some associates work independently with BAPA, following their model of community activism.
• BAPA has about 500 members after cutting down almost 350 inactive members over the years. It has a central committee, an executive committee, 18 program committees based on various environmental issues, and 14 sub-committees to help those program committees. BAPA leadership is elected via a ‘controlled democracy’ for the organization’s smooth operation.
• Many reputable personalities in Bangladesh, like lawyers, environmental experts, and teachers, provide their services for BAPA as a labor of love, and they are an essential lifeline for BAPA. Volunteers help them to carry out many of their field-level activities.
• BAPA tries to maintain transparency by allowing anyone to see their financial statements by visiting their Dhaka Office.
• When asked about BAPA’s organizational challenges, Mr. Matin said none! The main difficulties are convincing and motivating people and the government to care for the environment.
• Even after many efforts and some improvements, the environment is an ever-neglected area for the Bangladesh government. As an example, he cited that Bangladesh has no national river policy. Therefore, rivers are facing ‘extinction.’ Many rivers are dying out, getting polluted, becoming narrower, and illegally used for personal and commercial benefits. It is a constant battle to save them.
• As an anecdote, he told the audience how local officials in Sundarbans – a world heritage site, killed two deers to pleasingly feed the Prime Minister of Bangladesh when she was visiting the area! The PM was not happy, and the officials were suspended! The anecdote depicts the level of awareness among the local level Bangladeshi government/political authorities about environmental issues!

Many thanks to BAPA-BEN for organizing an informal and informative event. It is very commendable that BAPA is actively working to protect Bangladesh’s environment by providing information, generating public opinion, formulating policies, and persuading public officials. Without the presence of the General Secretary, basic information about BAPA was hard to find. BAPA’s website does not provide almost any information the GS supplied at the event. For example, what are the 18 program committees, what are their activities, what are the achievements of BAPA so far, what are their future plans, how are volunteers involved in the process, how can non-resident Bangladeshis and others help or raise concern or provide support? Can anyone see BAPA’s annual reports online? Etc.

BAPA’s website provides some minimal, formal, static information. The blog contains no entry! The list of activities is from March 14, 2012, although the organization was founded in 2000. The last activity was posted on May 22, 2013! Research papers/publications are not available either for free or for sale. There is nothing on the ‘Associates’ link! The General Secretary mentioned that volunteers help BAPA, but the website is empty! There are no social links of any kind.

Disseminating information, keeping it online, and regular updates are fundamental aspects of today’s environmental movement. BAPA can easily connect with outside communities and organizations through its online campaign.

Even though Bangladesh is nowhere close to being responsible for climate change due to carbon emissions compared to developed countries, Bangladesh will be one of the most affected countries. Many experts rightly and reasonably have mentioned that very little Bangladesh can do to ‘stop’ global warming. Whatever little Bangladesh can do, are they doing it to the furthest extent? While Bangladesh’s industrial contribution to global warming has been small, its contribution through deforestation has been significant. Between 1986-7 and 1996-7, the number of cars, trucks, and jeeps doubled in Bangladesh, etc. Bangladesh has to address these kinds of issues.

Although Bangladeshis living abroad can advocate, lobby, organize, and actively participate in civic forums to get attention about the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, most non-resident Bangladeshis seem to be least concerned about it now. Only a handful of Bangladeshis joined last year’s climate march in New York. BAPA-BEN can think of some innovative initiatives to motivate/engage them.

Before ending, two points to make in a positive spirit:

The speaker was forced to stop in the middle of his talk because the organizer forgot to welcome him with flowers! Therefore, he was interrupted, the flower was given, photos were taken, the audience waited, and then he went back to talking again. Flowers could have been given before or after the talk – not in the middle by interrupting the most essential part of the event. The incident was somehow connected with the Bangladesh environment movement – culturally. Bangladeshis need to rethink their cultural practices if they want to save the environment. Changing culture is hard, but it is sometimes essential and possible.

The projector at the event ran for more than two hours with just one slide! It’s caused some light pollution and made it difficult to take pictures of whoever wanted! Here is a different kind of example of how every small act counts!

Thanks again, Bangladesh Environment Network and Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, for the event.