Volume-1, Issue-1

CORE ARTICLE

Biodiversity for Life and Livelihood

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Human being is probably the most intelligent among the million species. He has tamed the nature by his knowledge and comparative physical advantages. However, in his reckless consumption spree for the sake of development and prosperity, humans have used different species in such a way that many of those have already become extinct and some others are under threat of extinction.

At present, humans have intensified use and production of some so-called economically valuable species ignoring others' contribution. Lately, humans have started to understand significance of ecosystem services generated by different species and estimated that 60% of the ecosystem services, accessed, are in decline due to unsustainable human actions (MA, 2005). Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned that the cost of failure to halt biodiversity loss on land alone in last 10 years is estimated to be $ 500 billion and if the current trend of biodiversity loss continues then in near future the humanity itself will face extinction. More..

RESEARCH WORLDWIDE

  • Conserving Biodiversity Coldspots

  • The rapid loss of tropical forests throughout the world and the widely recognized "biodiversity crisis" have spurred various nongovernmental conservation organizations and international agencies to develop strategies for protecting natural habitats. But the scale of the crisis is so daunting that conservationists widely accept the need for some sort of triage, whereby limited funds go to the places where the greatest good can be done. Experts have explored various ways to set priorities, and almost without exception, rainforests get top billing. The reason is simple: These tropical ecosystems harbor more unique species than any other habitat or place. Identifying and protecting such "biodiversity hotspots" has thus become the reigning scientific paradigm among conservationists. More..

EVENTS/ INTERNATIONAL SEMINERS

 

RELATED JOBS

 

 

 

  • Advisor to the Editors: Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir
  • Editor: Mohammed Abdul Baten
  • Asst. Editor: M. Mizanur Rahman
  • Graphics Designer: Polas Ray
  • Web Designer: Md. Rakibul Hasan

Contents

editorial

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has entered into force on 29 December 1993 following a negotiation in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Rio "Earth Summit") in 1992. The objectives of this Convention, to be pursued in accordance with its relevant provisions, are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources, including by appropriate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding. Since the dawn of civilization human is using biodiversity resources for the sake of prosperity beyond sustainable limit which results into extinction of many valuable biodiversity resources. Of late, the world has enormously responded to this issue and consequently the year 2010 has been declared as International Year of Biodiversity (IYB). Bangladesh has a rich diversity of flora and fauna covering a wide diversity of ecosystems from hills to sea; moist deciduous forests to the mangroves and different agro-ecosystems spread over wetlands, flood plains to the hills. Bangladesh is heavily dependent on her biological resources to sustain its economy and livelihoods of the people. Our traditional health care and culture, parts of our long heritage are also linked with different elements of biodiversity. In consonance with global effort of increasing awareness for conserving biodiversity, Unnayan Onneshan, a policy research organization has started to publish a monthly newsletter on Biodiversity and natural resource management. The newsletter named as CBD Watch, will act as a knowledge bank for country’s rich but continuously decreasing bio-diversity resources that could otherwise be used as a sustainable tool to the endemic poverty of the vast majority of the population. The inaugural issue of the CBD Watch has mainly presented an overview the importance of bio-diversity for sustaining lives and livelihood of the people.