Topic: bangladesh

Inside Stories on Climate Compatible Development: Bangladesh

Kevin Lustig — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 08:49:28 -0500

Key messages

Bangladesh’s Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) is one of the most ambitious of its kind in a developing country.
Collaborative networks have enabled the CDMP to expand its operations.
Support from government leaders ensured that challenges to implementing the CDMP were overcome.
The institutionalisation of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation beyond the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management has proved slow and challenging.
Challenges to CDMP implementation included natural disasters, political unrest and turnover of high-level officials.

Report from Bangladesh: Turning Local Adaptation Lessons into National Policy

Heather McGray — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:29:13 -0400

How can national policies support communities to adapt to climate change?

Across the globe, citizens are working together to safeguard their communities from troubling trends associated with climate change. On the islands of Papua New Guinea, coastal villagers have planted mangroves to stabilize eroding beaches. Along the rivers of Bangladesh, farmers cultivate floating gardens that can withstand the region’s frequent floods. In the semi-arid zones of Rajasthan in India, farmers keep track of the changes in their local weather, and work together to decide how best to manage the shifting risks to their crops. These locally driven innovations – and many, many more – are part of an emerging movement known as “community-based adaptation.”

Recently in Dhaka, Bangladesh, WRI – together with over thirty other organizations – co-sponsored the Fifth International Conference on Community-based Adaptation. Nearly three hundred people attended from around the world, bringing with them stories, strategies, and challenges to inform the theme of the conference: how can we “scale up” community-based adaptation efforts?

WRI hosted a panel session on a central question for scaling up local initiatives: how can national policies best support community-based adaptation efforts? While local people must play the leading role in community-based adaptation, national level law, policy, investment and institutional arrangements can play an important facilitating or enabling role.

For example, national policies can create incentives for communities to undertake adaptation, or they may provide resources for community use in adaptation initiatives. National government programs may gather ideas from community-led pilot projects and replicate them through larger initiatives. On the other hand, outdated or maladaptive national initiatives can stifle adaptation or lead to perverse outcomes.

Over 100 people attended WRI’s panel to hear stories and recommendations from five speakers. Two panelists provided government perspectives. Mrs. Nahau Rooney, Climate Change Chair of the Manus Provincial Government in Papua New Guinea (PNG) described “PNG Vision 2050,” the nation’s over-arching development strategy, which includes adaptation to climate change as one of its seven “pillars.” Under this pillar, provinces like Manus have developed provincial adaptation strategies that include community projects like the mangrove planting mentioned above.

Mr. Legesse Gebremeskel, of Ethiopia’s Federal Environmental Protection Authority, shared a similar story: as part of its national adaptation planning process, Ethiopia piloted a participatory regional planning process in the Afar region that included local-level planning for adaptation to climate change. Lessons from Afar have provided a model for other regions within the country.

From Plan International, panelist Dr. Nick Hall presented on the importance of children’s participation in adaptation initiatives. Children face unique threats from climate change; studies have shown that they bear 88 percent of the disease burden of climate change. They also can play important roles as agents of change, sometimes taking the lead, ahead of their parents, in actions to reduce disaster risk. Dr. Hall called on climate change policymakers to scale up community-based adaptation by investing in education and by utilizing school systems as a channel for adaptation action.

Mr. Jeremiah Mushosho from ZERO Regional Environmental Organization described a set of linked research, advocacy and training activities that his organization has led in Zimbabwe. He stressed the importance of civil society as an agent for bringing adaptation ideas and lessons from the community level up to national decision-makers and to the public at large. He emphasized ZERO’s experience working through NGO networks and through training initiatives for members of the media.

The final panelist, Dr. Arivudai Nambi, shared lessons from the capacity-building work of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), which helped establish community-based weather centers in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh states in India. Farmers have used the weather data gathered to develop “rules of thumb” for when to plant, irrigate, and apply fertilizer, based on local climatic conditions. They are well-placed to adjust these rules as the climate changes, based on their own direct engagement in the local weather centers and in management of the information the centers produce.

Moreover, MSSRF’s advocacy work at the national level has led India’s Ministry of Agriculture to agree, in principle, to support the development of similar local weather centers in villages across the country. MSSRF has also hosted national policy dialogues to share their findings with ministry officials, and have worked actively on the development of official state adaptation action plans.

During the Q&A phase of the WRI panel, much discussion focused on the advocacy process, including methods and strategies for getting lessons on adaptation from the community level to influence national policy. Panelists highlighted the importance of the media in this process, as well as the need for advocacy to be built into a community-based project from the very start. Several panelists suggested taking the view that community-based adaptation is always an experiment, with the aim of drawing lessons that provide a basis for advocacy, which should lead to scaling up through the policy context.

When asked what one action national governments should prioritize in order to scale up community-based adaptation, panelists gave a diverse set of recommendations, including:

Nick Hall: Listen to children.
Jeremiah Mushosho: Enact a national adaptation policy.
Arivudai Nambi: Implement extension programs that spread community lessons on adaptation.
Legasse Gebremeskel: Build awareness and commitment on climate change among national officials.
Nahau Rooney: Include province and local adaptation activities in national budgets.

The panel session ended with many audience hands in the air and many remaining issues to discuss. To further explore the many issues raised, WRI will follow up on the panel by working with others from the conference to develop a book chapter addressing national action to support community-based adaptation.

Heather McGray is Senior Associate for Vulnerability and Adaptation in WRI’s Climate and Energy Program, and served as facilitator for the session in Dhaka. Together with Research Analyst Aarjan Dixit, whose also blogged from Bangladesh, she designed the session and recruited speakers. Funding from the Dutch and Swedish governments enabled WRI to serve as a co-sponsor of the CBA5 Conference and to support attendance by several developing country participants.

Adapting to Climate Change In Bangladesh

Aarjan Dixit — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:04:41 -0400

Floating gardens, raised homes, and reflections from the field.

WRI’s Aarjan Dixit recently attended the 5th Annual Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change Conference in Bangladesh. As part of the conference, participants visited local communities to see how adaptation projects were working.

A road led from the river toward the entrance of Goalbari, a mainly Hindu village surrounded by lush green agriculture fields in the Gopalgunj district of central Bangladesh. To get to Goalbari, we had taken a short boat ride across the canal of the Madhumati River, dug by the British about 100 years ago to transport jute (a vegetable fiber used for fabric) from the area to the port city of Kolkata. A gang of children, on holiday celebrating the country’s 40th Independence Day, watched as we made our way to the village. The mostly low-lying landscape was dotted with raised areas of inhabited land connected by roads built on embankments.

When the annual monsoon rains come here, the river floods and submerges most the area. Floods have always been a source of renewal in this part of the world, depositing a layer of rich alluvial soil and helping increase agricultural productivity. However, several past development activities (especially the construction of embankments), and now climate change, have created new and significant challenges to the people living in the area.

The village of Goalbari. Photo: Aarjan Dixit

Villagers told us that the frequency and intensity of the floods have increased over the years. And perhaps more importantly, when the floods come, the flood water stays for months. With natural drainage channels blocked by earth embankments, this effectively means that the area is water-logged for almost half of the year, disrupting agriculture, mobility, and making basic services like drinking water and healthcare very hard to access.

Yet, the first people who welcomed us into the village were a group of women that had formed a successful cooperative to address the challenges the floods have brought. Their model is dispersing loans to other women in the village from their collective savings and charging interest on them. Loans in turn are used to buy livestock and other assets that could improve income over the longer term.

Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies (BCAS) and the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), two organizations active in the area, use this women’s collective to begin helping villages respond to the challenges associated with floods. With financial support from Norwegian Church Aid, these two organizations had identified 17 of the village’s poorest households and decided to raise the foundational platform, or plinth, of their houses by four feet to protect them from the flood waters. A few other households, after seeing the benefits of such raised plinths, in turn made their own investments to raise the plinths of their houses.

Floating beds known as baira allow villagers to continue growing vegetables when flood waters are high. Photo: Aarjan Dixit

With their agricultural lands inundated for months, many households in the area also use a floating bed of compacted water hyacinths to grow vegetables, locally known as baira. These floating gardens fall and rise with the water level and can allow households to grow vegetables for consumption when the flood waters are high. Researchers from BCAS have devised ways to improve the design of such bairas to make them lighter and stay afloat for longer periods of time.

The significant challenges that the people of the area face became clearer when we visited Dasarathbala, a villager in Goalbari. His family’s house plinth had been raised and they had a floating garden. However, he and his family are agriculture laborers, without money to rent land. Recently the family had to sell their boat – indispensible when the area is flooded – in order to raise money. The men with Dasarathbala told us that the children could not go to school during the floods and that the lack of electricity made their lives difficult. The women told us of other worries: they lacked private space for personal sanitation when land was flooded; providing food for the children and caring for pregnant women became really difficult; the floods made travel from home nearly impossible; and of course, when the area was under water, there was no agriculture and their livelihood suffered.

Raising the plinths of the houses and developing floating beds were helping the poorest households of the community to cope with some of the challenges associated with higher and more intense levels of flooding and water logging. But these kinds of technical interventions can only go so far in helping poor families address the serious climatic challenges they face.

It was clear from our visit to Goalbari that diversifying the ways people could make a living when the area is under water was fundamental to their long-term adaptation. Developing ways for students to go to school and to keep schools open even during floods seemed equally important. Improving access to services for these communities, like drinking water, health facilities and other types of income generating activities were critical to improving people’s resilience to these weather related challenges.

Many of the activities people say would help them adapt to weather challenges are often the same development-focused activities that would help increase resilience to a host of other economic and natural shocks. The lack of land for Dasarathbala’s family, for example, makes them poor and vulnerable with or without the worsening climate change impacts.

Secure tenure rights, and access and ownership over resources are often fundamental to improving resilience to weather extremes and vulnerabilities over the long term. As the global community struggles to tease out the nuances that separate adaptation from general development strategy, practitioners will need to be careful that the more immediate short-term needs of the poor and vulnerable are met while attempting to plan for the longer-term impacts of climate change.

Climate change and other weather related events do, however, present unique challenges that will require us to think in innovative ways. Often project and community-driven approaches like the interventions I mention above are critical to understanding local needs, keeping communities central to decision and planning processes. Yet, they alone are not able to address the greater landscape of environmental services that might be needed to contend with such challenges. For example, drainage issues, often one of the major causes of water logging in delta regions like Gopalgunj, can’t be solved by a narrow focus on communities and may need us to look at regional scales and subnational, national or sometimes even international processes. Similarly, local community-based approaches will also need to address other system-wide activities like access to markets, seasonal migration as an income diversifying source, and trade that could be important resilience-building activities for people like Dasarathbala and his family in Goalbari.

The Access Initiative: a Network in Action

Monika Kerdeman — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:07:44 -0400

Here is a quick summary of recent progress by Access Initiative partners working to strengthen civil society, increase participation, and improve environmental policy choices.

Over the past 10 years Access Initiative (TAI) partners from 50 different countries have played important roles in strengthening civil society and government capacity in order to build the foundations needed to move access rights forward. 2009 is proving to be no different. Partners from around the world are helping to open up the decision-making the processes for environmental issues, by widening the range of voices heard and improving the quality of policy choices available.

In the past year and a half, TAI partners have taken part in activities to reform transparency laws, train government officers to involve people in development planning, help build awareness among judges and media about the public’s ability to influence decisions that affect the environment. This work has lead to changes at the national and regional levels.

Some specific changes resulting from the work of TAI partners include:

Access to participation in decision-making enhances the ability of a government to be responsive to public concern and demands, to build consensus, and to improve acceptance of and compliance with environmental decisions.

Access to justice allows people to hold government agencies, companies and individuals accountable.

Meaningful participation requires access to information that forms the basis for decisions, the opportunity to voice opinions and the ability to influence choice among possible outcomes.

Voice and Choice: Opening the Door To Environmental Democracy

Indonesia enacted a new Freedom of Information Act, with the help from our TAI Indonesia partners.
The new constitution in Thailand ensures that the public has the right to receive information and participate in the decisions concerning new development projects that affect the environment.
The TAI network has expanded its work in Argentina, Benin, China, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, India, Republic of Macedonia and Zambia by undertaking regional or national assessments of environmental laws in regards to access to information, access to justice, public participation and capacity building.
TAI had its second annual Global Gathering of partners, hosted by our Irish partners at the Sligo Institute of Technology.
In Cameroon, TAI partner Foundation for Environment and Development (FEDEV) litigated and won, as the main plaintiff, three high court cases. The implications of these cases have significant impacts on fundamental human rights, access to environmental justice and law enforcement in Cameroon allowing the public to sue to protect human life and environment.
In Bolivia, partners helped advance access right (access to information, public participation access to justice and capacity building) to shape constitutional reform. The new Bolivian Constitution was approved by a referendum this year and now includes access to information, participation and tribunal for environmental issues, as well as other environmental provisions.
Ireland established the Fifth Pillar of Social Partnership, the Environmental Pillar. This ensures Environmental NGOs are treated as equal partners with the Trade Unions, Employers, Farmers and the (wider) Community and Voluntary Pillars in researching, developing and monitoring the implementation of national policies on all aspects of society. As a consequence of the new status, NGO’s now have the right to regular constructive contact with all government departments at the highest level; seats on the National Economic and Social Council; and established our right to nominate people to seats on the advisory bodies at all levels of governance, local, regional and national.
TAI Sri Lanka partner Public Interest Law Foundation has been working with Minister of Urban Development and Sacred Area Development to draft ministerial guidelines on information disclosure in the urban sector, as part of the recommendations from the TAI national assessment.

Here is a quick summary of the work already underway in 2009 for 22 TAI partner countries, as part of the work funded by the World Bank, Development Governance Grant:

Argentina: Center For Human Rights And Environment (CEDHA)

The Center for Human Rights and Environment is prioritizing reforms by conducting Argentina’s first national TAI assessment.

Bangladesh: Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA)

The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association is managing a regional exchange program for community leaders intended to develop a network of forest dwellers in South Asia and advance their capacity towards participatory governance. This includes a regional training workshop on access issues relating to the forest.

Benin: Eco-Ecolo

Eco Ecolo is prioritizing reforms by conducting Benin’s first national TAI assessment.

Bolivia: PRODENA - Bolivian Wildlife Society

PRODENA is developing the main indicators for the National System of Environmental Information (NSEI) recommended by the TAI assessment and advocating for its implementation. PRODENA is also advising the government environmental authority on how to organize the NSEI.

Cameroon: Bioresources Development And Conservation Programme (BPDC)

The Bioresources Development and Conservation Programme is working to create a task force to supervise public participation in the development of access and benefit sharing (ABS) policies. BPDC is also integrating civil society recommendations into a draft of the ABS policy framework.

Cameroon: Foundation For Environment And Development (FEDEV)

The Foundation for Environment and Development is organizing and conducting workshops to train judges, magistrates, and lawyers on environmental law and access rights.

Chile: Participa

Participa is developing indicators to evaluate regional advocacy success. Participa is also prioritizing reforms by conducting Chile’s second national TAI assessment.

China (Guizhou): Center For Moutainous Resource Conservation And Development Study (CMCRDS)

The Center for Mountainous Resource Conservation and Development Study is prioritizing reforms by conducting the first regional Guizhou TAI assessment.

China (Yunnan): Centre For Montain Ecosytstem Studies (ICRAF-China)

TAI Yunnan partners are translating TAI indicator toolkit and concepts into Mandarin and conducting workshops to train Guizhou TAI coalition. TAI Yunnan is also advocating for public access to environmental information on water quality and pollution.

Ecuador: Coalicion Acesso And Centro Ecuatoriano De Derecho Ambiental (CEDA)

TAI Ecuador partners Coalicion Acesso and CEDA are conducting dialogues with government, civil society and the public to gather input on environmental concerns and access rights that can be used to draft a national strategy proposal for access to environmental information.

Gabon: Croissance Saine Environnement (CSE)

Croissance Saine Environnement is prioritizing reforms by leading Gabon’s first national TAI assessment.

India: Environics Trust

Environics Trust is prioritizing reforms by conducting India’s first national TAI assessment.

Macedonia: Florozon – Association For Protection Of Natural Environment And Sustainable Economic Development

TAI partner Florozon is organizing and conducting training workshops with government officials and civil society members as recommended by the 2008 TAI national assessment to increase attentiveness to access rights. Florozon is also launching a large media campaign to increase public awareness and demand for access rights.

Malawi: Centre For Environmental Policy And Advocacy (CEPA)

The Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy is working to strengthen and implement proposed environmental and access bills that would provide improvements in access rights. CEPA is also publicizing proposed legislation and holding workshops to advance public participation and capacity building.

Nepal: Pro Public

Pro Public is advocating for the inclusion of access rights and good environmental governance in the proposed Constitution of Nepal through capacity building measures including the training of the writers of the constitution, government officials, civil society members, and the public.

Paraguay: Instituto De Derecho Y Economia Ambiental (IDEA)

The Environmental Law and Economics Institute is working to revise access to information legislation and will present a final draft to government officials, civil society members, and the public through a series of workshops intended to integrate their comments on the legislation before formally submitting them to Congress.

Peru: Sociedad Peruana De Derecho Ambiental (SPDA)

The Peruvian Society for Environmental Law is working with Latin American partners to organize a regional meeting and conduct workshops intended to compile a set of practical advocacy tools, strengthen advocacy capacity, and train civil society members on access issues.

Philippines: Ateneo School Of Government

TAI member ATENEO is developing a single-volume reference ‘bench book’ intended to provide judges on the recently established environmental courts with complete answers to frequently raised questions. ATENEO is also advocating for the passage of the freedom of information bill via media briefings, videos, workshops, and a website.

Sri Lanka: Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF)

Lawyers from the Public Interest Law Foundation are working closely with government officials to draft and implement guidelines for information disclosure PILF is also conducting training workshops on the new guidelines for relevant officials.

Thailand: Thailand Environment Institute (TEI)

The Thailand Environment Institute is advocating for the amendment and implementation of Thailand’s Official Information Act of 1997 through a multi-stakeholder dialogue that will publish recommendations.

Turkey: Environmental Management And Law Association (EMLA)

The Environmental Management and Law Association is determining the capacities and receptiveness for a TAI assessment in Turkey. EMLA is conducting a workshop on TAI methodology for interested parties.

Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA)

Lawyers from Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association are working closely with the Ministry of Environment to develop and implement guidelines for how information is released to the public.

Commission Proposes Plan to Battle Climate Change on the Ground

Paul Mackie — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:07:31 -0400

A path for financing smart economic development through strong institutions was announced today by a 14-person commission appointed to advise political leaders on climate change.

The Commission on Climate Change and Development reported on its progress today at the United Nations in New York and will also present its findings tomorrow at the Swedish Embassy in Washington D.C.

“The way that nations respond to the global recession can provide the basis for a path of sustainable development that eases the planet’s interlocked emergencies, where ecosystems are valued as much as other forms of capital,” said Gunilla Carlsson, chair of the commission and the Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation.

The Commission is addressing climate change adaptation and its links with disaster risk reduction. Since its launch by the Swedish government in late 2007, the group has met with governments and citizens struggling with the effects of climate change in Cambodia, Mali, and Bolivia. It will issue policy recommendations on how to strengthen resilience of vulnerable communities and countries, establish appropriate institutional and financial architecture for adaptation, and mobilize new financial resources.

Developing countries are particularly exposed to the impacts of droughts, floods and wind storms as well as longer term changes in ecosystems. International negotiations have focused on reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere - with little success. Although all efforts must continue to reach agreement on implementing GHG limits, this work cannot blind governments to the need to begin to adapt to changing climate systems right now.

“Adaptation is more than ‘climate proofing,’” said Jonathan Lash, a member of the commission and president of the World Resources Institute. “It will require resources far beyond existing official development assistance, but it is a moral and strategic necessity.”

One of the many recommendations within the Commission’s Progress Report is that funding for adaptation must go far beyond current official development assistance and that all donors honor their commitments of 0.7 percent of gross domestic product. The recent Bangladesh Adaptation Strategy for responding to natural disasters sets an interesting example.

“People at risk need democratic and political institutions to listen to their needs and concerns,” Carlsson added. “In the age of climate change, the institutions of accountable and responsible government are more important than ever.”

The Commission determined that knowledge of local impacts is still largely in the form of hypotheses and scenarios. While greenhouse gas reductions are measurable, it is more difficult to determine the success of adaptation and requires much more cooperation between institutions in different fields. These institutions can no longer be reactionary, as was the case after the food and financial crises of 2008. Also, existing institutions must be made as effective as possible rather than adding to the already proliferating array of institutions.

The full findings are available in a report called Closing the Gaps: Exploring the Links Between Adaptation to Climate Change and Development.

The members of the Commission represent international and regional organizations as well as research, civil society and the private sector. Members participate in their personal capacities and include: Carlsson (Sweden); Angela Cropper (Trinidad and Tobago), deputy executive director for the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); Mohamed El-Ashry (Egypt), senior fellow, UN Foundation; Sun Honglie (China), professor and head of the China Climate Change Expert Committee at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Nanna Hvidt (Denmark), director of the Danish Institute for International Studies; Ian Johnson (UK), chairman of IDEAcarbon; Lash (USA); Wangari Maathai (Kenya), professor and founder of the Green Belt Movement; Ivo Menzinger (Switzerland), Managing Director at Swiss Re; Sunita Narain (India), director of the Centre for Science and Environment; Youba Sokona (Mali), executive secretary of the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS); Bernard Petit (France), deputy director-general, Directorate-General for Development, European Commission; Margareta Wahlström (Sweden); UN assistant secretary-general for Disaster Risk Reduction and the secretary general’s special representative.

Growing the Wealth of the World's Poor

Jonathan Lash — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:33:38 -0400

The food crises of the present will seem as nothing to those of the future unless the world brings some urgency and intelligence to managing the planet’s nature-based assets.

When world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York two weeks ago to review the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, one conclusion was crystal clear: the development models of the last century will not serve us well in this one.

Today, as many people—two billion—live on $2 a day or less as did two decades ago. Yet by 2050, not only will the world’s population grow by half again to nine billion people, but climate change will intensify the challenges pervading daily life for the rural poor—accessing adequate food, water and productive farmland, and surviving natural disasters.

Three quarters of the world’s poorest citizens live in rural areas and rely on nature’s productivity to an extent perhaps forgotten by many urban dwellers, especially in the developed economies. Their future will be inextricably linked to the way national and international policies manage or mismanage the environment and the nature-based services it provides.

These services are under assault as never before. From forests and wetlands to soil fertility and fishing grounds, ecosystems are degrading at an unprecedented rate—a reality brought into stark focus by the 2006 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

The world’s cities can’t be expected to—nor can they—absorb the sheer numbers of environmental refugees fleeing increasing resource scarcity. Yet unless aid donors and development policymakers shift course, this is exactly the kind of scenario that may unfold.

We are however not without choices or promising options, according to the new World Resources Report 2008: The Roots of Resilience. If world leaders were to visit Nigerien villagers tending vibrant bands of trees along the borders of the Sahara Desert or fishermen drawing full nets from restored wetlands in Bangladesh, they might feel renewed hope and inspiration.

Two decades of experience—in the field, at institutions including the United Nations and the World Bank and within the international NGO community—have incubated new ways for poor people to make a sustainable living.

Part of that experience demonstrates that community-based, natural resource management enterprises can, to a significant extent, meet the twin goals of overcoming poverty and countering ecosystem degradation.

Given adequate decentralization of resource rights, and financial and management support, such initiatives can generate the kind of community-led economic, social and environmental resilience that will be central to meeting the challenges of an over-consumptive and climate-constrained world.

World Resources Report 2008 highlights some inspirational examples. The greening of the Sahel in Niger through a people-led tree planting movement; watershed restoration in India’s Maharashtra State; the establishment of wildlife conservancies in Namibia and of sustainably managed, community-owned forest concessions in Guatemala.

Incomes for local people are rising as a result of all these enterprises. The nature-based assets which underpin these financial flows are also being improved, reversing decades of degradation and holding out the promise of a renewable source of wealth.

Even more significant, these are not one-off achievements. The watershed example in India may have started in one village. But some 500 are now following the same sustainable path. In Namibia, in just 11 years, nearly 15 percent of land cover has come under sustainable conservancy-based management.

What can be learned from all this? One abiding lesson is the need for supportive government policies to foster local initiatives. Another is the need for engaged and sometimes patient donor-country backing. A third is the opportunities provided by scaling up sustainable development solutions which are clearly working—both within countries and across regions.

Community-driven, nature-based enterprises will not overturn poverty everywhere. But if the world is to build the resilience of vulnerable communities to cope with climatic and other shocks, then income-generating projects that balance the needs of people with the conservation of nature-based assets will be paramount.

It is high time that the international community fast-tracked these into the center stage of development policy. By doing so, countries can bring a new level of seriousness, commitment and creativity to the poverty-related MDGs while also addressing the oft-neglected MDG 7—ensuring environmental sustainability across the globe.

Potential For Scaling Up Community-Based Fishery Management

Tim Herzog — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:42:29 -0400

To better understand the need and potential for scaling up environmental income and resilience through good ecosystem stewardship, consider the plight of inland fisheries in Bangladesh.

The country’s many rivers, wetlands, and shallow lakes make it the world’s third largest producer of freshwater fish (not including aquaculture).

Even so, productivity could be much higher if the nation’s freshwater fisheries were not so degraded.

As with many of the world’s inland fisheries, pollution, development, dams, and unsustainable fishing practices have greatly diminished the annual catch.

The consequences for the poor have been grim.

Between 1995 and 2000, fish consumption among poor families in Bangladesh’s extensive floodplains dropped almost 40 percent.

Conscious of the need to try a new approach to managing the nation’s inland fisheries, the government of Bangladesh has assented to community control of local fishing waters in 110 villages in three wetland watersheds in the country’s northern region.

Between 1999 and 2006, fish catches rose 140 percent in these villages as local fishers adopted better fishing practices and restored fish habitat to help fish stocks recover.
Fish consumption rose 52 percent, and average daily household income rose more than 30 percent in the affected villages.
So far, the new approach has directly benefited 184,000 Bangladeshis – most of them poor – in 110 villages.

But the successes there are directly applicable to another 340 neighboring villages in the same watersheds.

Beyond these watersheds, many more fish-dependent families could benefit if the government applies the lessons of these communities in the thousands of villages in which freshwater fish make up an important part of the local economy.

An estimated 9.5 million Bangladeshis are involved in subsistence fishing on the nation’s floodplains, swelling to some 11 million during the monsoon season.

Looking farther afield, the number of potential beneficiaries increases even more, since freshwater fisheries are a prime source of income for poor people throughout the developing world.

In China, more than 9 million people are involved with inland fisheries and aquaculture.
In the Mekong River basin, where fish is a critical part of the diet, as many as 40 million people – from full-time fishers to rice farmers – depend on freshwater fish for at least a portion of their livelihood.

Lessons from Bangladesh’s success are likely quite relevant in these and other regions where the decline of fisheries still confronts the poor.

What Does Environmental Democracy Look Like?

Monika Kerdeman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:45:44 -0400

Environmental democracy is about government being transparent, accountable, and involving people in decisions that affect their environment. 20 countries in The Access Initiative (TAI) network are expanding their work to promote environmental democracy. Here is a summary of what’s ahead in 2008 and beyond.<!–break–>

Local TAI partners work with their governments to reform transparency laws and train government officers to involve people in development planning. They also build the awareness among judges and in the media about the public’s ability to influence decisions that affect the environment. TAI Partners are already having crucial impacts in key countries:

In Chile, the National Commission of the Environment committed to creating a participatory process in the design of the country’s first Toxic Release Inventory. TAI partner groups helped influence the design of the system to guarantee full citizen participation.
In Uganda, the TAI coalition used the findings of a TAI assessment to convince representatives to draft a Freedom of Information Act establishing citizens’ right to government information.
TAI Ecuador partner ECOLEX and the Ministry of Environment drafted a regulation requiring public consultation in the process of decision-making on environmental matters. The president approved the regulation in October 2006.
In Indonesia, TAI assessments identified the need for and recommended the basic requirements of a Freedom of Information Act. TAI partners worfked with the Government and other civil society groups to draft such an act which was adopted in 2008.
In Mexico, a TAI assessment revealed gaps in public access to information. Together they published a series of citizen action guides which led to a measurable increase in the number of citizens requesting information and more efficient delivery of information on the part of the government.

Here is a quick summary of the work that is already underway—or planned for 2008—in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Cameroon, Chile, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Hungary, Latvia, Nepal, India, Macedonia, Malawi, Mexico, Paraguay, The Philippines, Tanzania, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Ukraine and Zambia.

BANGLADESH: BANGLADESH ENVIRONMENTAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.
More about BELA

BOLIVIA: PRODENA, BOLIVIAN WILDLIFE SOCIETY
Advocacy activities that engage public officials and parliament representatives to include access rights in the environmental and natural resource legislation.
More about PRODENA

CHILE: CORPORACIÓN PARTICIPA
This organization will work with local CSOs to analyze access rights and public participation mechanisms in current Chilean environmental legislation and develop proposals to strengthen the legal norms that impact local poor communities. In addition, they will evaluate tools available in the System of Evaluation of Environmental Impacts in Chile (SEIA) with a special focus on the impact on local poor communities.
More about Participa

CAMEROON: BIORESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND CONSERVATION PROGRAMME AND FOUNDATION FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
Training and assistance to TAI DRC teams for a national TAI assessment. Raise awareness on access to participation; develop information materials on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) legal process; initiate teams to work with government officials on EIAs; develop a simplified version of EIA guidelines. Create a link between government and local communities to enable communities to benefit though poverty alleviation strategies. Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO: CONSEIL POUR LA DEFENSE ENVIRONNEMENTALE PAR LA LEGALITE ET LA TRACABILITE (CODELT)
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.

ECUADOR: COALICIÓN ACCESO
Investigate 30 petitions for access to information; file and follow-up on 6 litigation cases where access to information has been denied. Conduct 3 training workshops for 30 public officials and 20 NGO leaders on implementing Ecuador’s Transparency and Access to Information Law.
More about Coalicion Acceso

ECUADOR: ECOLEX
Work with government officials to implement regulations related to civil participation in environmental management and build capacities for the social controllership in environmental issues through training.
More about Ecolex

HUNGARY: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND LAW ASSOCIATION
Training and assistance to TAI-Macedonia team for national TAI assessment. Provide assistance to TAI-Ukraine to implement activities in the Ukraine.
More about EMLA

INDIA: ENVIRONICS TRUST
Prioritize reforms by conducting regional TAI assessment.
More about Environics

LATVIA: REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER – LATVIA
Conduct access to justice seminar for 35 judges who will be trained on practical implementation of access to justice principles in Latvian law and how it relates to obligations under the Aarhus Convention.
More about REC - Latvia

MACEDONIA: FLOROZON-ASSOCIATION FOR PROTECTION OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.

MALAWI: CENTRE FOR POLICY AND ADVOCACY
Activities aimed to use the media as a tool to reach out to new stakeholders. CEPA will also develop a series of training workshops that will include government officials and civil society members to raise the profile of—and generate public demand for—access in Malawi.
More about CEPA

MEXICO: CENTRO MEXICANO DE DERECHO AMBIENTAL
On behalf of The Access Initiative-Mexico. Training and assistance to TAI-Panama*. Work with members of the Government to implement recommendations from two TAI state assessments. Develop and begin to implement an Action Plan for the Federal District in Mexico. Translation of Code Green program into indigenous languages.
More about CEMDA

NEPAL: PRO PUBLIC
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.
More about Pro Public.

PARAGUAY: INSTITUTO DE DERECHO Y ECONOMÍA AMBIENTAL
Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.
More about IDEA

THE PHILIPPINES: ATENEO DE MANILA
Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.
More about Ateneo

SRI LANKA: PUBLIC INTEREST LAW FOUNDATION
Establish agenda for joint activities with government through PP10 commitments. Draft recommendations to National Environmental Act to include access to information and access to public participation. Conduct TAI pilot poverty assessment.
More about PILF

TANZANIA: TANZANIA LAWYERS ENVIRONMENT ACTION TEAM (TANZANIA) Implementation of TAI report recommendations including conducing community training on access rights; establishing a media campaign on access rights.
More about LEAT

THAILAND: THAILAND ENVIRONMENT INSTITUTE
Conduct regional workshop that will include training on poverty guidelines. Produce 2000 copies of the Asia regional report. Investigate options for developing a rapid assessment toolkit that could be used by local communities, with a focus on the poor and/or disadvantaged groups, to address access issues at the local level.
More about TEI

UKRAINE: ECOPRAVO
Form a national coalition of CSOs and other stakeholders active in environmental rights and access issues and develop a national advocacy strategy for decision makers. Present international complaint mechanisms to Ukraine government officials and establish a program to monitor the implementation of joint activities stemming from the national TAI report.
More about EcoPravo

ZAMBIA: INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RIGHTS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DEVELOPMENT TRUST (HURID)
Prioritize reforms by conducting national TAI assessment.

Support

This expansion of TAI is made possible through a generous grant from the Development Grants Facility of the World Bank.

Brief History of TAI

Since TAI began in 1999, more than 150 civil society organizations around the world have become TAI Partners. Assessments and advocacy have engaged governments in 45 countries to improve access to information, public participation and access to justice in decisions affecting the environment.

TAI bases its advocacy on original and independent research at the national level using an internationally recognized assessment tool.

TAI Partners use national assessments to examine the ability of the public to access information about government decisions, participate in those decisions, and seek justice when their rights are violated.

TAI Partners use assessment results to raise public awareness, set priorities for improvements in policy and practice, and work with governments to create change.

Global Civil Society Network to Examine Access to Information, Justice, Participation in Bangladesh

Fri, 04 May 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The Access Initiative (TAI) is set to begin an assessment of environmental decisionmaking in Bangladesh. Funded by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, based in Japan, and the United Nations Environment Programme, TAI partner Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association is currently recruiting civil society partners and a multi-sectoral advisory board. With any luck, a report on the nation’s laws and practice as they pertain to access to justice, access to information, access to participation, and capacity-building in environmental decisionmaking will be completed by spring of 2008.

While TAI assessments have been completed in forty countries, Bangladesh will mark the first time that poverty and water are examined as distinct issues. Bangladesh also marks the first time that a funder of an assessment has been so focused on creating change by leveraging the information and credibility that a TAI assessment yields.

In the audio clips below, Lalanath DeSilva of WRI’s TAI Secretariat describes why the assessment in Bangladesh is important to the entire region of South Asia; how TAI brought a results-oriented funder and a respected nonprofit together; and the key issues likely to be highlighted in the assessment.

The big issues in Bangladesh (2:14)