CLIMATE CHANGE: BANGLADESH PERSPECTIVE

Coastal Belt

The main victim of the unfavorable consequences of accumulation of green house gases is the developing countries of the world as per they have narrow scope to tackle with the natural disasters. Low economic countries such as Bangladesh are four times more victims by different disasters than high income countries. After 1990s, there were three storms, four floods, one tsunami and two cyclones killed more than 400,000 people, and indirectly affected another 42 million people, damage to coastal infrastructure estimated as much as 12% of GDP by the year 2010. According to IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) prediction, about 20 cm sea level may rise within year 2030, and end of this century it will be more than 1 m. Sea level rise will inundate coastal areas about 2.29 million hectares which is about 15.8% of the total land of Bangladesh. Net-cropped area about 13.74% and about 401,600 hectares mangrove forests will be lost from map of Bangladesh. Recently, a large number of native tree species such as Arthocarpus chaplasha, Cassia fistula, Michelia champaca etc. become in endangered and extinct conditions due to change their favorable site conditions in hill forests. From different research findings, it predicted that natural and mangrove forests of Bangladesh may lose its native economically valuable species in near future due to temperature become high and low precipitation during the year. Only forests react sensitively to climate change; and measures to protect, restore and sustainably management can offer climate change mitigation potential.