Copyright 2001 Oneworld South Asia
November 14, 2001
By Kalyani, Oneworld South Asia

Amid mounting concerns over a United Nations (news - web sites) warning that 60,000 plant species around the world may vanish within 25 years, Bangladesh has announced plans to survey local endangered plant life.

Bangladesh's National Herbarium is to release a report later this year on endangered or extinct species in a bid to halt the disappearance of a range of plant species.

"Many rice species in the country are already lost," said M. Matiur Rahman, director of the group which aims to shield plant genetic resources. Their demise was due to a widespread shift to high-yielding rice varieties, he said.

The South Asian nation has some 5,000 species of flora, but more than 100--mostly wild orchids and ginger groups--are thought to be endangered or have already died out.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) last week released findings which showed that one-sixth of the world's 350,000 plant species--about 60,000--are in danger.

An earlier UN report estimated that two-thirds of Asian wildlife habitats had been destroyed and 70 percent of major vegetation types in the Indo-Malayan realm--covering South Asia, the Mekong basin and Southeast Asia--had also been lost.

Some of the most acute habitat losses had taken place in Bangladesh.

In addition to changes in agricultural practices, said Rahman, a variety of human impacts had taken a heavy toll on Bangladesh's plant life. This included the clearing of land for settlements and the indiscriminate gathering of wild plants for medicinal use, he said.

The UNFPA has called for balanced and integrated population policies to help keep a check on plant degradation levels. But Bangladesh's population of 124 million is set to double over the next 40 years, exerting an even greater strain on the environment.

While the country has signed up to a cross-border conservation treaty, environmentalists scorn its record on protecting biological diversity.

The World Rainforest Movement says rich woodland areas--from evergreen rainforests in the east to tidal mangrove forests along the coast--are still in danger.

"Little is being done to save [the forests]," the group said. "In the meantime, the annual deforestation rate has reached 3.3 percent." Error: Unable to read footer file.