Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS)

The BEDS (Bangladesh Environment and Development Society) is a leading community-based, non-profit, environment and development-focused non-government organization committed to maintaining ecological balance and harmony between humans and nature. BEDS was established to solve complex environmental and social problems in Bangladesh together with local people through respecting local knowledge and culture.  They have been working with local people to identify and solve complex environmental and social problems of Bangladesh for the past ten years. The grass-roots initiatives are focused on mitigating the harmful impacts of climate change; addressing the unsustainable use of natural resources; monitoring the interaction between humans and the mangrove ecosystem; and tackling the lack of electricity, drinking water crisis, and issues of gender inequity and human rights violations. They do this through research, communication education participation and awareness raising (CEPA) programs, and physical activities in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Vision of the organization is to promote ecological balance and create harmony between human and nature and The Mission of the organization is to build the capacity of the most vulnerable communities in the region to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, provide eco-friendly means of living, reduce the adverse effects of climate change, and improve their socio-economic condition while maintaining ecological balance.

Awards:

BEDS has received the following international and national prestigious awards due to its outstanding contribution on environmental sectors

BEDS has been selected as one of the 50 finalists of Equator Prize 2021

• Energy Globe National Award in 2018;
• Annual Balipara Foundation Award in 2018;
• Divisional Environmental Award in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015;
• Top20 District Development Award in 2018.
• BEDS’ implemented projects “Eco Village in Bangladesh” has been selected to be showcased at Expo 2020 Dubai’s Global Best Practice Program.

SECTORS OF INTEREST

BEDS has been long working to develop the capacity of the local population to coexist with nature. With that in mine, BEDS continues to work in the following sectors:

• Environment and ecosystem
• Livelihoods
• Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation
• Clean/Solar energy
• Water and sanitation
• Wildlife conservation and protection
• Women and child rights
• Gender development
• Relief and Rehabilitation

Working Area

Throughout Bangladesh, with a priority focus on coastal regions of Bangladesh.

Target community

The primary target community of BEDS is the most vulnerable coastal community, natural resources users such as forest dependent people & marginal farmers, women & youth, ethnic community, teachers-students, researchers, tourist and mass urban and rural people. Beside these, BEDS has been closely working with local government, administration and civil society.

Areas of Action

BEDS works on multiple social and natural issues that need to be tackled in a local context in order to global impact on environmental safety, biodiversity conservation, mangrove restoration, community awareness, etc. The major initiatives of BEDS are Community Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR), Mangrove based/Nature based livelihoods promotion, Integrated Mangrove Aquaculture (IMA), Integrated and organic farming, native seed preservation, community based tourism promotion, create disaster ready community, climate adaptive livelihoods, youth leadership development, establish Eco Village, safe drinking water and solar energy services, wildlife conservation and protection, trans-boundary dialogue etc. The major working components of BEDS are presented below:

Environment and Ecosystem

Bangladesh covers diversified climatic zones and experiences an array of climate change impacts in last few decades. Human pressures together with changing hydrology and land resources have distinct impact on the production of food grain and resilience of ecosystems. The most threatened areas are coastal grasslands and ecosystems of the Sundarbans. Mangrove Forest (the Sundarbans) of Bangladesh is one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet are getting destroyed due to unsustainable resource harvesting Practices, climate change impact and People’s unconsciousness. Availability of freshwater is highly seasonal in this region, and water supplies become more threatened by higher temperatures, changes in river regimes, and greater incidence of coastal flooding. Major environmental issues here are biodiversity loss, impacts to the marine environment, atmospheric pollution, drinking water scarcity and degradation, soil erosion and land degradation and natural disaster. For all these reasons BEDS has been working with this thematic area.

Livelihood

Bangladesh is a developing country. But people in the coastal regions of Bangladesh are poor, more especially the people of Sundarbans coastal region are ultra-poor. Most of them lead a measurable life. Majority of the people of this region are dependent on Sundarbans natural resources for their livelihood. People have not sufficient alternative livelihood opportunities. Considering all these issues, BEDS is working to improve the socio economic condition of the forest dwellers by providing them alternative livelihood opportunities.

Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation

Climate change is the most discussed issue around the globe now a day. Due to climate change, natural disasters are occurring frequently all over the earth. Bangladesh is a South Asian country which is frontline of global climate change due to its geographic location. Sundarbans coastal region is the most vulnerable region of Bangladesh in regards to climate change. People of the Sundarbans coastal region are not very aware of natural disaster. They are very poor and keep themselves busy in income generating activities even when there is high signal of disaster. Moreover, infrastructures including the households of the coastal areas are not very strong. So, loss and damage becomes huge for them. This is why BEDS has been working in this sector.

Clean/Solar Energy

Clean/solar energy is an eco-friendly energy which is renewable. Unlike the dirty energy, it doesn’t produce carbon which is dangerous for environment. Renewable energy is comparatively cheap than general electricity. In the Sundarbans coastal region of Bangladesh, there are so many areas/villages where electricity is not available yet. But electricity is the precondition of development. So, BEDS is working in this sector.

Water and Sanitation

Safe drinking water is the biggest social crisis for the people of south western coastal region of Bangladesh. Drinking water scarcity is found everywhere in the coast. People of this area are completely dependent on rainwater and pond water for their drinking purpose. Due to lack of sufficient storage, people cannot preserve much rainwater for their use. As a result, after three or four months of monsoon, the preserved rainwater finishes. Then they started collecting pond waters for their drinking. Unfortunately, they do not purify the water and drink it directly. As a result, they fall in different water borne diseases. To reduce the water crisis of the coastal villagers BEDS has been working on this sector.

Wildlife conservation and protection

Wildlife conservation is a very important issue in respect of maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. Sundarbans is the single largest mangrove forest world having huge biodiversity in which there are endangered and critically endangered species. Climate change, peoples’ unconsciousness and lack of conservation knowledge are the reason why wildlife is in threat. Some greedy people also engage themselves in wildlife hunting activities. These are the reasons why BEDS has been conducting activities on wildlife conservation and protection.

Women and Child Rights

We are living in a civilized world where both man and woman should have equal rights. But picture is different in Bangladesh, more especially in the Sundarbans coastal region of Bangladesh. Here women are absolutely dominated by male. Most of the women in the coastal region are aloof from taking part in decision making of a family. They have been forced to work inside the home. They are not permitted to raise their voices even when they are tortured physically or mentally.

Gender Development

Gender development is an important issue in Bangladesh and takes a new meaning for adolescence as girls or boys for social, physical and cognitive changes for preparing them in a self-developed adult role. The gender development of Bangladesh affects by the sex-hormones and brain, gender schema, social structure and social-cognitive. There are some factors that influence the socialization of the gender (i.e. family, schools, large community and mass media). In Bangladesh, adverse effects of these factors are severe on adolescence specially girls which creates difficulty for predicting future trends and gender development. BEDS has an aim to involve the adolescences especially girls and women of the society particularly into various nature and social development work and awareness development which will eventually leads to proper gender development as adult of the society. BEDS also promote the equal livelihood opportunity and social dignity for the women.

RELIEF AND REHABILITATION

Relief and rehabilitation is one of the focal thematic areas of BEDS and the organization has been focused on this work since 2013 in emergency situations like natural disasters or pandemics. So far, BEDS has supported the

Source of Funding

• The main source of fund of the organization is foreign and national donation; CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) fund.
• Membership subscription and
• Community Based Social Business