To harmonise environmental laws

When development initiatives cut forest, grab rivers and ponds, decrease air quality, deplete natural resources, threaten to wildlife and contaminate water of river and the Bay of Bengal etc., the efficacy of the environmental laws and policies are questioned. There are several laws which address environment protection in Bangladesh. Besides, the procedural obligations such as the requirement to obtain environmental clearance certificate provided in section 12 of the Bangladesh Environment (Conservation) Act, 1995 and rule 6 and 7 of Environmental Rules, 1997, ensures environmental procedural principles. These procedural principles ultimately lead economic development towards sustainability. However, some pertinent questions remain: are the environmental laws of Bangladesh effective?

Strong institutions are crucial for implementation. With regard to environment, the responsibilities have been conferred upon 'the Department of Environment' (DoE) under the 1995 Act, but other institutions also have corresponding responsibilities under various laws. Hence, institutional strength and independence of DoE is being weakened day by day.

Many laws and rules do not ensure a healthy legal regime rather create chaos and disorder. The fragmentation in environmental laws and regulations in Bangladesh has been yet another problem. With the same subject matter, there are two or more laws, and each Act excludes other Acts' in enforcement. Thus, the enforcement of law becomes slow and non-responsive to the needs of time.

It is noted that Goal 15 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a holistic approach which protects, restores and promotes sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manages forests, combats desertification, and halts and reverses land degradation and halts biodiversity loss. Bangladesh Voluntary National Reviews, 2020 of SDG shows that the progress in achieving goal 15 is slower than other goals.  In recent years, large amount of loss of forest land occurred due to the settlement of Rohingya refugee in Cox`s bazar, development projects in Hill Tracts, agricultural farms etc. This shows that the development of Bangladesh on several occasions contradicts with the sustainable development principles.  As Goal 15 emphasises on ecosystem based management in order to ensure sustainable development principle, a merely environmental protection under the laws and rules of Bangladesh mentioned above does not guarantee environmental improvement in Bangladesh. The ecosystem based management covers all aspects of environment. Despite strengthening the environmental institution and effecting environmental laws and rules, the holistic approach, that is, ecosystem-based management principle, needs to be taken more into account by Bangladesh.

Though Bangladesh has a law, namely, the Biodiversity Act, 2017, the development policy should also be changed from the mere protection of environment to protection, restoration and promotion of terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystem of Bangladesh as a whole. The protection, restoration and promotion of ecosystem is beneficial in many ways: an ecological balanced environment can provide the best service to the people of Bangladesh, as such when natural resources will be enriched, air quality will be improved, temperature will be moderated, groundwater will be abundant, all rivers will flow regularly and so on. Section 31 of the Act of 2017 provides how to protect, promote and sustainable use of bio-resources. The provision recognises 'In-Situ and Ex-Situ' method which are also approved globally. According to this provision, the government of Bangladesh shall identify any area enriched in biodiversity and declare for conservation thereof through in-situ or ex-situ method. Though this Act gives hope and inspiration, there is no specific institutional arrangement for conducting all functions under the Act. In this regard, the main institution, the DoE, does not play active role under this Act. It shows that there is lack of harmonisation among the environmental laws and the role of the DoE was also found to be inactive.

The combination and harmonisation among all environmental laws, rules, regulations, and guidelines is required in order to achieve the sustainable development. The DoE under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change needs to be active to harmonise and lead all functions under laws and rules.

The writer is Lecturer in Law at Dhaka International University.