The Sundarbans
By
dr.fourkan Ali
Peoples
cry to protect the Sundarbans from the onslaughts of the International Oil Companies
(IOC) has gone unheeded. Ignoring their protest, both at home and abroad, the
government has to go ahead with the PSC
(production sharing contract) deal on block 5, covering the Sundarbans and its
adjacent areas, which had been initialed some one and many years ago.
Recently,
the cabinet committee on the finance and financial affairs has given its nod to
PS (1sinitia1ed earlier on the blocks 5 and 10. Ang1oDutch oil company Shell
and its British partner Cairn Energy Plc won exploration contracts for the two
blocks under the country’s second round bidding.
Earlier
the government had signed another PSC on block 7, adjacent to the Sundarbans,
with Uncoil, the US
oil company for exploration of oil or gas, ignoring the consequences on the
ecosystem of the Sundarbans forest area.
According
to the Ecofile, a periodical on life and nature, the Sundarbans spans over an
area of about S,77,D00 hectares of which 70 per cent is on land and 30 per cent
in water bodies. Some 62 per cent of the total Sundarbans area lies in Bangladesh, constituting about 51 per cent of Bangladesh’s reserved forest.
The
Bangladesh area of the Sundarbans offers habitation to 425 species of wildlife,
which include 49 species of mammals, 315 of birds, 53 of reptiles and eight kind
of amphibians, More than 120 species of fish are also available in the
different rivers in and around the Sundarbans area.
The
Sundarbans deserves conservation attention from the economic point of view.
Besides contributing four percent forest revenue, it is the source of livelihood
for about 0.5 to 0.6 million people. These people enter the Sundarbans almost
every day from its surrounding villages under five Upazillas to catch fish fry,
collect honey wood resources and for other economic purposes. The Sundarbans is
not only the world’s largest mangrove forest, some parts of it have been
declared as 'World Heritage Site'. Some 139,700 hectares area of the Sundarbans
east, south and west have been identified as the World Heritage Site by the
UNESCO.
Considering
the great importance of environment and other related issues, people in general
and, environmentalists and civil societies in particular have raised their voice
against the opening of the Sundarbans and its adjacent areas for hydrocarbon
exploration activities.
A
national conference to protect the Sundarbans held in Khulna on February 14-16,
2001 expressed concern that exploration of oil and gas in blocks 5 and 7 may
endanger the world’s largest mangrove forest and the World Heritage Site.
Not
only the environmentalists and civil societies, the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MOEF) have also expressed concern at the possible negative impact on
the Sundarbans, if it is opened for hydrocarbon exploration. The MOEF's
position is that the entire Sundarbans and its adjacent areas up to 20
kilometers should be kept out of any exploration activities.
If
the position of the MOEF is taken into consideration then there should not be
any PSC deal on block 5 and the deal on block 7 should not be allowed to proceed
in its present form.
But
the Cabinet committee on finance and financial affairs did not take into
consideration the concerns expressed by the MOEE environmentalists and the
civil societies and approved the PSC deal on block 5, allowing the IOCs to
conduct the exploration activities in the northern pan of block 5.
The
IOC side pleaded that there would not be any negative impact on the Sundarbans’
ecosystem if the exploration is conducted outside the reserved forest areas.
The environmentalists and the civil societies have contested this argument.
They said that for exploration purposes, different chemicals are likely to he
used which would endanger the bio-diversity of the Sundarbans forest.
It
seems that the government has accepted the position of the IOCs and ignored the
counter-argument though it has signed the World Biodiversity Convention, e
Prime Minister and tl1e Environment Minister, in their messages on the world
environment day early this year, made firm commitments to protect the country‘s
environment. The Environment Minister told a discussion meeting on the environment
day that exploration activities would not be allowed within 20 kilometers of
the Sundarbans.
But
the actions of the Cabinet committee on finance and financial affairs with
regard to the approval of the PSC deal on block 5 did not reflect the
commitment made by the Environment Minister Under the circumstances, the
question has been raised whether the government leaders are providing only lip
service to the environmental issues,
The
Prime Minister is the Chairman of the National Environment Council. But she did
not consider the environment and bio-diversity aspects while approving the
second round bidding proposal for exploration of oil and gas in different
blocks
Thus
the government appeared to have ignored both national and international concerns
about the Sundarbans forest. The Friends of Earth, UK and its Netherlands
chapter in recent past staged demonstration in front of the Shell’s office in London
demanding stoppage of exploration activities in the Sundarbans and its adjacent
areas. A two-member delegation of the Friends of Earth also visited Dhaka
and expressed their conoem to the government and the non-government officials.
Dr.Fourkan Ali
Mob: 01711579267
Email- dr.fourkanali@gmail.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment