The Relationship of National and International Environmental NGOs in Bangladesh and TheirRole in Wetland Conservation

Biodiversity degradation, lose of wetlands and arsenic pollution are becoming the major environmental threats of Bangladesh. Huge number of population, corruption and lack of capacity of the governmental agencies are deteriorating the over environmental condition of Bangladesh. This paper reports the findings of NGOs and their role in protection of wetlands of Bangladesh. Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and its daughter organization Department ofEnvironment(DoE) arecomparativelyweakin power andcapacityin comparison toother ministries. To fill up this gap, a number of environmental NGOs (ENGOs) have emerged in Bangladesh after the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. ENGOs are actively involved in the environmental sectors of Bangladesh by doing research, advocacy, companying activities and as pressure group as well. ENGOs are implementing several projects with government and international donor agencies. Their role to protect and manage wetland ecosystem and biodiversity is very praise-worthy. Bangladeshi ENGOs have very good relations with international ENGOs and donor agencies. Most of the Bangladeshi ENGOs (research based) are dependent on the foreign aids. But the prominent companying ENGOs are not interested to seek governmental and international donors’ supports to uphold their independence and to raise their voice against environmental damages taking by governmental and private projects.