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Let Bangladesh have a People’s Biodiversity Register

This is for the first time in the history of Bangladesh that a political government has pledged to protect country's natural heritage including biodiversity. The government has initiated the revision of Wildlife Act, 1974. Let there be a space for People's Biodiversity Register (PBR)intheAct.

Enayetullah Khan
KEITH a Wheeler, Chair of the Commission on Education and Communication of IUCN highlights: “Today's challenges are moving towards more sustainable financial and energy systems, food security and international security — all these challenges ultimately depend on the services nature offers". These services are mainly offered by biodiversity, although this is a critical period for it in this year (2010) of biodiversity.
Biodiversity is considered as the most important wealth for mankind. Countries like Bangladesh should derive economic benefits from their rich biodiversity resource base. Unfortunately there is no proper inventory and monitoring of the country's biodiversity. Documentation, monitoring and conservation of local biodiversity and indigenous knowledge should be considered as the thrust area of activities since the said tasks remain significantly incomplete in the country. This needs extensive countrywide activities. Bangladesh is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which is in force since 1993 and is the most significant of the pertinent international agreements. However,
there is hardly any action-oriented follow up since Bangladesh has become a party to CBD. We are yet to register country's biological diversity which India has already started in the name of People's Biodiversity Register.
A biodiversity register is a document that
- could be claimed as the proof of existence of naturally occurring flora and fauna, variety of crops, breeds of domesticated animals, and traditional knowledge within the limit of the village;
- could be the information base to design and implement any conservation or sustainable management action plan for the local environment and society;
- could be the source of information for scientific, socioeconomic research and centralised planning and even for entrepreneurships based on the exploitation of locally available species, varieties, cultivars, breeds and/or traditional knowledge.
India is also one of the 180 nations that are parties to the CBD. As a follow-up to this Convention, India has enacted the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which received the assent of the President in 2003. The rules promulgated under this Act, in 2004, include the following provisions:
2 2. Constitution of Biodiversity
Management Committees
(1) Every local body (i.e. panchayat, municipality etc.) shall constitute a Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) within its area of jurisdiction.
(6) The main function of the BMC is to prepare People's Biodiversity Register in consultation with local people. The Register shall contain comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use or any other traditional knowledge associated with them.
(7) The other functions of the BMC are to advise on any matter referred to it by the State Biodiversity Board or Authority for approval.
(8) The National Biodiversity Authority shall take steps to specify the form of the People's Biodiversity Register, and the particulars it shall contain and the format for electronic database.
(9) The Authority and the State Biodiversity Boards shall provide guidance and technical support to the Biodiversity Management Committees for preparing People's Biodiversity Registers.
(10) The People's Biodiversity Registers shall be maintained and validated by the Biodiversity Management Committees. The Committee shall also maintain a Register giving information about the details of the access to biological resources and traditional knowledge granted, details of the collection fee imposed and details of the benefits derived and the mode of their sharing.
Thus, all local bodies in the country, Gram, Taluk, and Zila Panchayats, Municipalities and Municipal Corporations would have the responsibility of documenting:
• Comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use or any other traditional knowledge associated with them;
• Data about the local vaids and practitioners using the biological resources;
• Details of the access to biological resources and traditional knowledge granted, details of the collection fee
imposed and details of the benefits derived and the mode of their sharing.
Under the leadership of Professor Madhav Gadgil, the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES) at the Indian Institute of Science, a Centre of Excellence of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, got involved in the formulation of this programme. CES has attempted to formulate an appropriate methodology and design a database, and produced a manual. It provides guidance and techni-cal support to the Biodiversity Management Committees for preparing People's Biodiversity Registers.
Professor Gadgil opines that preparation of People's Biodiversity Registers (PBR) throughout the country would be an unusual scientific pursuit, an activity that calls for vigorous involvement, along with local community members, of the entire student/teacher/scout/girlsguide bodies in the country, supported by the government functionaries as well as technical experts concerned.
Without a doubt such an activity is also entirely appropriate to our biodiversity rich country, and very much timely in the current era of rapid technological developments.
Biodiversity registration is a doable thing. In 2003 a group of Wildlife Trust of Bangladesh (WTB) researchers visited Professor Madhav Gadgil who sent them to the field to understand how to register biodiversity. They then registered the biodiversity of Charkishoreganj of Munshiganj district, which was the first and only such pilot study in the country. The activities were guided by Dr Md. Anwarul Islam, professor. Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, who is also the chief executive of WTB. During the study 160 species of flora, and 158 species of fauna were recorded. Domestic fauna and cultivated crops were also recorded. Records were also kept of medicinal plants, and crafts and gears used for fishing. An inventory of knowledgeable persons was also prepared.
Madhav Gadgil's academic, conservation and charity works are an inspiration to many of us who care for this earth and each of the foot steps. Therefore I would like to introduce this great man to our countrymen. Professor Gadgil was a close associate of India's another great man, Dr Salim Ali.
Madhav Gadgil, a zoologist, a Padma Shri as well as a Padma Bhushan, is the first biology student at Harvard University to receive a Ph.D. degree for a thesis based on mathematical modeling
which won him an IBM Fellowship of the Harvard Computing Center and became a Citation Classic. Madhav Gadgil has been a Lecturer on Biology at Harvard, a Distinguished Indo-American Lecturer at UC Berkeley and a Visiting Professor at Stanford. From 1973 to 2004 he was on the Faculty of Indian Institute of Science, where he founded the Centre for Ecological Sciences.
Madhav Gadgil's research interests include population biology, conservation biology, human ecology and ecological history and he has published over 215 research papers and six books.
He is a recipient of Shantiswarup Bhatnagar and Vikram Sarabhai and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar Awards, Volvo Environment Prize and Harvard University's GSAS Centennial Medal, Karnataka's Rajyotsava Award and Padma Shri as well as Padma Buhushan, India's highest civilian awards.
In 2003 Volvo Environment Prize was awarded to two pioneers. Professor Madhav Gadgil from India and Professor Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank from Bangladesh each in his respective field created new models for understanding and transforming the relationships between poverty, development and the environment.
The Volvo Environment Prize cites: Professor Madhav Gadgil is one of the world's leading ecologists and conservationists, a scientist who has done pioneering work in integrating research on biodiversity with the needs of communities and poor people. He has worked to break down the separation between the interests of human communities and the requirements of conservation, and he was the main contributor to the establishment of India's first biosphere reserve in the Western Ghats. He is guided by firm belief that traditional knowledge of communities is of central importance to scientific research as well as ecological and land use planning.
I hope the present government will honour its election pledge by conserving the biodiversity of the country. This is for the first time in the history of Bangladesh that a political government has pledged to protect country's natural heritage including biodiversity. The government has initiated the revision of Wildlife Act, 1974. Let there be a space for People's Biodiversity Registers (PBR) in the Act I believe preparation of the PBR would be a novel activity that will involve people at the grassroots in a scientific enterprise.
Enayetullah Khan, Chairman, Wildlife Trust ot Bangladesh, is Chief Editor, United News of Bangladesh.