Climate change and disaster risk are fundamental threats to sustainable development and the eradication of poverty. The negative impacts threaten to roll back decades of development gains. Building resilient and sustainable societies means addressing both climate and disaster risks, and integrating these risks, as well as potential opportunities, into development planning and budgeting. Currently, as decades of disaster risk data show, more than 226 million people globally are affected on average by disasters associated with natural hazards every year. These include both geo-physical events (e.g. earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes) and hydro-meteorological events (e.g. floods, cyclones, droughts). Weather-related disasters comprise about 81 per cent of all events, causing 72 per cent of all economic losses and 23 per cent of fatalities. Natural hazards destroy lives and livelihoods, and have long-term consequences for human and economic development. The detrimental impacts of these events on development have been seen over and over, with destruction of lives and livelihoods setting back development progress and increasing levels of poverty—or forcing new groups into poverty. As a result, both disasters and climate change are increasingly being considered and integrated as part of a development continuum, instead of as isolated phenomena. While hazards are natural, disasters are not. The scientific community has pointed out that the current drivers of risk are linked to poor policies and practices in land-use planning, governance, urbanization, natural resource management, ecosystem management as well as increasing poverty levels. Addressing climate change and disaster risk in sustainable development goals will help ensure that these goals will be maintained and achieved in the face of changing climatic conditions and disaster events, and prove to be truly sustainable.
From the pledge to reach SDGs, especially mentioning the goal of achieving environmental sustainability, Ghashful has been implementing the project to fight off the risks caused by natural disasters and to incorporate innovations at the same time to safeguard the risks in future. Bangladesh, being geographically in the risk zone, is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in perspective of climate change and natural disaster due to greenhouse effects. Taking preparation to go for immediate action is imperative. Arrangements of affordable and environment-friendly energy along with risk-reduction resources have been prime requirements to go on with the commitment of building a safe world for the future generation.
Major Intervention of the project
Two major interventions of the project are:
- Social forestation and environmental development
- Affordable energy through bio-gas and Improved cook stove
The regular activities under the projects:
- Risk coverage fund and Green finance
- Emergency rescue
- Sapling distribution
- Adaptation technology
- Day observation
Social Forestation and environmental development
“When all is said and done, conservation is about people. It is about the balance that must be struck between humans and nature and between generations. And if it is to be relevant to the developing world, it must address the needs of the poor and the dispossessed who ironically share their rural frontier with the earth’s biological wealth”- Wright. Forestry is uniquely positioned to make a major contribution to addressing the problems of environmental degradation and rural poverty, given the multiple roles that trees can play in the provision of food, the generation of income and the maintenance of the natural resource base. The concept of sustainability implies ideas about resource stewardship, on the one hand, and quality of life on the other. Differentiating between ecological and social sustainability is the first step toward clarifying some of the confusion. One way to do this is to incorporate the social dimension into the forestry sector through the use of social analysis, which describes and analyses the potential effects of planned interventions upon specific groups of people. Sustainability should mean that the local population does not degrade its natural resource base, at least not irretrievably, but rather maintains or even improves it. With an aim of achieving environmental sustainability, Ghashful has introduced the program named Social Forestation in rural areas to increase the responsiveness and resilience to fight off the climate change happened in 1997. In association with local government and educational institutions, Ghashful has been implementing the program to reduce the high rate of deforestation and its consequences. With the financial assistance from its fund, the organization is conducting the activities including a random distribution of saplings among the institutions and communities to increase the rate of social forestation to protect the zone from the adversities caused by greenhouse effect.
Goal
In order to meet up the forest product requirements of rural population and to avert the process of ecological and climate degradation resulting in increased livelihood, sustainability and optimum land use in Bangladesh.
Objectives
- To create awareness among the people regarding the need to plant more trees and the economic and commercial value of trees;
- To increase the number of women and children in social forestry activities that created many scopes for women to enhance the standard of living.
Coverage Areas
Chattogram, Feni, Comilla, Dhaka, Nagaon and ChapaiNawabgonj
Target People
People and institutions in the disaster-prone areas
