e_Paper_Wednesday_December 12, 2016

32
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2016
DT
UN RESOLUTION: ISRAEL ACCUSES
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PAGE 8
Back Page
36 BANKS HAVE NO GOOD
BORROWERS! PAGE 12
TIGERS LOOK TO STAY
ALIVE IN ODI SERIES PAGE 24
Fund crunch couldn’t dent planning
2016
YEAR IN REVIEW
• Abu Siddique
2016 has been a frustrating year
for Bangladesh in terms of gathering
funds to tackle climate change,
however the country has decided
to proceed with planning to develop
relevant initiatives.
Rather than make progress in
the pursuit of funds, Bangladesh
lost $50m from development partners
in the Bangladesh Climate
Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF)
due to unwillingness and mistrust
among fund managers, providers
and the government.
Regardless of this lack of funds,
Bangladesh made progress in terms
of the climate vulnerability assessment
and reviewed the Bangladesh
Climate Change Strategy and Action
Plan (BCCSAP).
In addition to the loss at BCCRF,
the state sourced Bangladesh Climate
Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) has seen
a limited allocation of Tk100crore in
each of the last three fiscal years.
Furthermore, the international
Green Climate Fund (GCF) began
releasing finances from 2015, but
Deal in offing to prevent deaths like Banga Bahadur’s
2016
YEAR IN REVIEW
• Abu Siddique
The miserable death of a strayed elephant
in the Brahmaputra Char in full
monsoon amid Forest Department’s
desparate rescue measures was one
of the major incidents in the country’s
wildlife protection efforts this year.
Following a saga that stretched over
two countries, hundreds of kilometres
and almost two months, the elephant
that was lovingly given the name Banga
Bahadur died on August 16.
In June, the four-tonne elephant was
swept down the Brahmaputra by flood
waters from Assam. He entered Bangladesh
through Roumari and travelled
through Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra
and Sirajganj before reaching Jamalpur.
Banga Bahadur was presumably
trying to get back to his herd and swam
across the Brahmaputra twice. But
Devastation at Dublar Char in 2007 following cyclone Sidr
Bangladesh is yet to receive any
money this year despite having
submitted a number of projects
through development partners.
This lack of funding is underpinned
by a reluctance from the
strong currents kept taking him further
downstream. Repeated efforts, from
both Bangladesh and India, to facilitate
his return home, ended in failure.
Several other elephants have died
in the country in elephant-human conflicts
along Bangladesh-India border.
However, the good news is a proposed
agreement to keep the border
between Bangladesh and India open to
let elephants move freely may soon see
the light of day.
Forest Department Deputy Conservator
Md Shahab Uddin said they had
already gotten approval from Home
Ministry to sit with their Indian counterparts
to make the deal.
“Now we are waiting for approval
from Foreign Ministry. Then we will have
a final meeting on how the agreement
will be signed,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
In January this year, the Indian home
ministry agreed to sign a deal with
Bangladesh to allow a cross-border
natural elephant corridor so that wild
elephant movement is easier and safer.
The natural routes for elephants
developed countries most responsible
for greenhouse gas emissions,
demonstrated by the failure to establish
a clear road map for funding
at this years climate conference, in
Marrakech.
SYED ZAKIR HOSSAIN
Banga Bahadur lies dead in a shoal in Sharishabari in Jamalpur on August 16
DHAKA TRIBUNE
across the Bangladesh-India border are
currently all blocked by a fence put up
by India, causing wild elephants to stray
from the track and end up in human
habitats, often resulting in confrontations.
According to the Forest Department,
at least 226 people and 62 elephants
have been killed in such conflicts
in the last 13 years.
In addition, elephant attacks destroy
homes and crop fields in areas near the
border. Being a flagship or umbrella
species, elephants are considered the
M Zakir Hossain Khan, a climate
finance analyst, said: “The indecisive
attitude of the global leaders
has made the vulnerable nations
like Bangladesh more vulnerable.”
The climate vulnerability assessment
across Bangladesh will
be conducted in coordination with
German development agency GIZ,
to provide a baseline for adaptation
measures instituted in the future.
On the other hand, the changes
made to the BCCSAP were primarily
to update the plans to bring them
in line with revised priorities in
2016. The creation of the BCCSAP
in 2009 marked Bangladesh as the
first country in the world to adopt
a self-designed scheme for tackling
climate change. It has also been included
in the 7th 5-year-plan.
Meanwhile, the government has
also taken measures to ensure direct
access to the GCP by nominating six
organisations as part of the National
Implementing Entity (NIE).
Of the six, the Palli Karma-Sahayak
Foundation (PKSF) and the
Infrastructure Development Company
Ltd (IDCOL) have successfully
submitted applications to the GCP
for accreditation as NIE.
The Bangladesh Climate Change
Trust is in the final stage of submitting
the application.
If the accreditations of the NIEs
are approved, Bangladesh will not
have to rely on multilateral implementing
entities like UNDP for access
to funds, said M Zakir Hossain
Khan. •
symbol of a healthy ecosystem, but
they are currently critically endangered
in Bangladesh.
21 new species found
Twenty-one new wildlife mammal
species have been found in Bangladesh
in the last 15 years, according to new
Red List done by International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Bangladesh.
But the study also found that three
mammals no longer exist in Bangladesh:
grey wolf, striped hyena and the sloth
bear.
The Forest Department in collaboration
with USAID-funded Bengal Tiger
Conservation Activity Project will take a
density census of the Royal Bengal Tiger
through camera trapping at the end of
this year in Sundarbans.
According to the latest study titled
“Tiger Abundance in Bangladesh Sundarbans”
that was held between 2013 and
2014, the current number of Bengal Tigers
in Bangladesh has dropped to 106
from 440 in 2008. •
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