Climate Plans
Listen to grassroots people's concern
Stress environmentalists
Environmentalists at a dialogue yesterday emphasised that the opinions of the grassroots people should be considered before taking any steps and plans to combat the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, chairman of the parliamentary committee on climate change and environment, said the culture of giving importance on the grassroots people in development projects is absent in our country, which causes failure to many projects.
"We need to prioritise projects to combat climate change. Rivers and forests should be saved, and grassroots people's opinions should be given due importance," he said, also suggesting establishing a research centre for climate researches.
Saber was addressing as the chief guest the dialogue on "climate crisis and people" jointly organised by Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (Bapa) and Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge at Chhayanaut Bhaban in the city.
Bapa President Muzaffer Ahmad, who chaired the dialogue, said environmental impact assessment should be emphasised most in every development project. "True development is possible only if we take the opinions of the grassroots people for their development".
"We are causing environmental catastrophe by building dams on the rivers without proper planning," he said.
Former adviser to a caretaker government ASM Shahjahan also addressed the dialogue moderated by Bapa General Secretary Md Abdul Matin.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments