Proceedings of Sundarbans Platform Meeting-I Kolkata, India
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Public Disclosure Authorized PROCEEDINGS OF SUNDARBANS PLATFORM MEETING-I Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized KOLKATA, INDIA 1 BACKGROUND In 2010, prior to signing the Sundarbans MoU between Bangladesh and India, a Sundarbans Platform was organized involving experts from both countries. This was an informal guild of experts, which has stopped the discussions since 2012. Now, we plan to organise series of meetings to engage members of the said Sundarbans Platform with an aim of reviving the platform so as to be able to contribute to future discussions on the Common Sundarbans Multistakeholder Platform and the thematic networks for technical studies. Around 15 such meetings are envisaged with different group of stakeholders, (Legislators, Government officials, NGOs, Academicians, and Media). First platform meeting has been convened on 20 January, 2015 at Bijoy Kumar Banerjee Hall, Assembly House Kolkata by Honourable Speaker of West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The meeting had Hon’ble members of the Standing Committees on Panchayats & Rural Development, Land and Land Reforms and Sundarban Development, Environment, Forests and Tourism, Social Welfare, Disaster Management and Refugee Relief & Rehabilitation; and Hon’ble Members representing the Sundarbans region. This meeting not only helped us to share information about the project but also to receive inputs on the plan as well as the draft discussion paper covering the organizational design for the Common Sundarbans Multistakeholder Platform. Broad agenda of these platform meetings were to discuss the conservation and development issues facing Sundarbans in light of climate change and repeated disasters. This dialogue is part of a process to support resilience planning for the Sundarbans. These multi-stakeholder engagements are means to provide stakeholder input to government decision making, strengthened by participatory processes that facilitate transboundary knowledge generation and sharing. 2 FIRST PLATFORM MEETING Held at Bijoy Banerjee Hall, West Bengal Legislative assembly. 20 January, 2015 Agenda: To discuss the conservation and development issues facing Sundarbans in light of climate change and repeated disasters. Participants: Members of Legislative Assembly ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Introduction The first platform meeting is part of a multi-stakeholder initiative by WWF-India in association with EnGIO. This platform provided an opportunity for discussion to develop an alternative scenario based on the best available current knowledge and research to mitigate disaster risk. Members of West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Ministers and Members of the Standing Committees were part of this dialogue which is expected to help in building a multi-stakeholder engagement process to develop a collaborative and integrated conservation and development plan for the Sundarbans landscape. It is expected to create a win-win situation for both population under climate/disaster risk and the landscape of a global importance . Objectives a. To discuss the conservation and development issues facing Sundarbans in light of climate change and repeated disasters. b. Seek opinion on landscape specific ways and means which will support resilience planning for the Sundarbans for disaster risk mitigation and long term sustainability and; c. Identify places within this region which presents opportunity for planned and resilient urbanization with adequate disaster risk opportunities besides public, social, infrastructural development. 3 Welcome Address Shri Biman Banerjee, Hon’ble Speaker, West Bengal Legislative Assembly Shri Biman Banerjee welcomed the participants and introduced WWF, WORLD BANK and EnGIO to other Honourable elected members of the house. He also praised the joint initiative taken up by the group to support sustainable development of Sundarbans landscape. He stressed that such initiatives are urgently required to create win-win situation for both man and environment in a landscape of global importance. Meeting Introduction and Overview Shri Jayanta Basu Director, EnGIO Mr. Basu expressed his deep gratitude to all participants. He expressed the concern that Sundarbans stand extremely vulnerable; being further exaggerated by climate change. The ecosystem is being repeatedly stretched like a rubber band and is experiencing the rubber band resilience syndrome (repeatedly stretching a rubber band or bending a metal wire weakens the material so that it is more susceptible to breakage than before the deformations began). Sundarbans is affected by both long term impact like sea level rise as well as immediate impacts like increasing frequency of high intensity tropical cyclones. The ever increasing population pressure in Sundarbans enhances the vulnerability of the landscape. The landscape vulnerability has not been yet adequately addressed nationally and internationally. Introducing WWF-India and its Sundarban program Dr. A. Anurag Danda Head, Sundarbans landscape WWF-India is having an engagement in this region since the 1970s. It made significant investments in this landscape since 2003 and since 2007 a dedicated team and programme is in place for the Sundarbans which has worked on issues of biodiversity conservation including tigers, working with local communities to develop strategies for adaptation to climate change, and providing access to modern energy services. Besides pilot and demonstration projects, WWF-India has engaged with the policy-making process at provincial, federal, and multilateral levels, and has been able to positively influence policies. WWF-India’s work has resulted in the notification of a new wildlife sanctuary in the Sundarbans spread over 550 sq.km in 2012 and setting a baseline for tiger numbers in Sundarbans. Earlier this year, the World Bank has proposed a fund for transboundary cooperation on Sundarbans as part of the South Asia Water Initiative based on the proceedings of a transboundary workshop that WWF-India had convened. 4 However, given the multiple deficiencies across sectors in the region, there is need to scale up models on the ground as well as maintain the engagement at different levels to realize the vision of Sundarbans as a climate resilient eco-region that supports biodiversity, ecosystem services, and sustainable development. The key challenges to maintaining this ecosystem and its tiger population are related to developing sustainable alternative livelihoods for local communities, developing clean energy solutions and addressing poaching of tigers. Expert views Understanding River Dynamics in Sundarbans Professor Kalyan Rudra Geographer and River Expert Chairman, West Bengal Pollution Control Board & Advisor, Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal Professor Rudra began with a geomorphic prologue of Sundarbans. Sundarbans, the largest delta in the world, receives the highest sediment load globally but still is not growing - rather shrinking - from North-apex. The Bengal Basin covers an area of 1,40,975 sq. km out of which sub-aqueous Delta and Bengal Delta cover 23,362 sq. km and 57,506 sq. km respectively. He highlighted the geomorphological uncertainty of the delta and also highlighted the issue of erosion of the river banks in different parts of Sundarbans. He explained the threats emanating from change in river dynamics and enlightened the participants by describing the situation during high intensity weather events. The river expert believes that we must leave meandering space for the rivers. Detailed study required to understand the optimum space required by the river and appropriate design and location of embankment. The river expert concluded with the statement that he does not have solution to combat the above; but requested the participants to comment and find solutions and strategize accordingly. 5 Challenges to human development and growth in Sundarbans due to climate change. Shri Subhas Chandra Acharyya Consultant, WWF-India Shri Acharyya briefly discussed major issues of concern in Sundarbans landscape which are segregated sectorally and given below: Agriculture: Changing monsoonal trend, increasing temperature, longer summer, shorter winter, water scarcity during dry season, water logging in rainy season, increasing pest & diseases of crops, increasing soil and water salinity, damaging crops & crop infrastructure like betel vine yards. Fisheries: Fish yield decreasing-rising temperature, water quality deterioration, acidification etc, damage of brackish water bheries , increasing trend of disease outbreak in fishery stocks, decreasing fish catch in rivers & estuaries and less catch in deep sea-fishing. Other livelihoods activities : Increasing pressure on extraction of aquatic and forest resources results in human-wildlife conflict. Self-Employment: Dilapidated transport infrastructure, increasing air pollution, poor absorbing capacity of workforce in the existing livelihood options. Food insecurity : High population density, marginal land holding. Health : Increasing stress on drinking water supply, nutrition deficiency amongst women & children, increasing trend in vector and water borne diseases, disease and deaths aftermath of cyclonic event like Aila (2009). Finally, he requested inputs from the participants on desired path for sustainable development process and adaptation strategies. He also added a caveat that any further delay in intervention will further worsen the situation.