Unbated felling

The pilferage of teak trees in the reserve forests under Maulvibazar range and shed trees in various tea gardens in Bangladesh has caused ecological imbalance in the region. Though the district administration has filed more than 300 cases against nearly 500 offenders, the efforts to stop the felling of teak-trees have gone in vain. The production of various kinds of fruits has declined considerably in the area due to unauthorised felling of fruit-bearing trees.

ILLEGAL LEASING

The Kerala High Court, has directed the state government not to further lease out reserve forest lands for cardamom cultivation in Idukki district. Justice K A Abdul Gafoor issued the interim direction on the writ petition filed by the Forum for Legal Research and Social Development Studies, Thripunithura. The Forum had approached the court challenging the indiscriminate leasers of the forest land to private individuals for cultivation of cardamom in the district.

FIGHTING AIDS

The government of Bangladesh is soon likely to approve its national policy on combating HIV/AIDS. A core group led by the director general of health services reviewed the draft national AIDS policy while a select committee formed by the national AIDS committee scrutinised the draft before placing it to the government. Official sources added that the AIDS policy has been drafted on the basis of the universal declaration of human rights as being a standard policy for action in response to the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases in Bangladesh.

Victims of a green cause

MORE than 2,000 people belonging to the ethnic Karen community have been massacred in Burma since February by the Burmese army to clear their land for the Myinmoletkat Nature Reserve. Over 30,000 have been forced to work unpaid and unfed or to flee across the border to Thailand. Isolated by the rest of the world for its abysmal human rights record, Burma's military junta is keen on building its image as an environment-friendly nation and also on attracting foreign tourists. The proposed nature reserve would be the biggest of its kind in the world. It

Selective saving

WITH a view to conserving the diverse habitats of the world, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched a campaign in 100 countries on April 5. The Global 200 campaign aims at preserving 232 places thought to be representative of the remaining ecosystems in the world by the year 2000. Among the prominent Global 200 sites are the tropical forests on the coast of Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo and Nigeria; east African marine ecosystems of Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique; the ecoregion of Mediterranean Sea in southern Europe, northern African and western Asia; and

AIDED PROGRESS

Sustainable development is the bottomline of a new package by the UN Development programme's (UNDP) Country Cooperation Framework for Bhutan. The US $33 million-package will be used in programmes for sustainable livelihoods, governance and environment between the years 1997 and 2001. Under these programmes, UNDP will focus on management and decentralisation of development projects to assist the government in planning, managing and implementing development activities.

ECUADOR

Hunting for shark fins and sea cucumbers, which are sought after as delicacies in South-east Asian countries, is on the rise despite a ban. During raids by the navy and the Galapagos National Park personnel, a total of 57,000 sea cucumbers were captured from fishing fleets in just one week in the beginning of March. The raids follow the government's decision to enforce the ban more strictly. However, local experts say the decision might have

MEXICO

A prominent environmental group in Mexico city recently accused drug traffickers of poisoning at least 60 dolphins whose rotting carcasses were washed up on the beaches of western Mexico early this year. Homero Aridjis, leader of the 'Group of 100', said that the environmentalists were demanding an investigation into the incident.

ACCORDS SIGNED

Recently, Bangladesh signed four agreements with Vietnam. The accords were on the formation of a joint commission for economic, cultural, scientific and technical cooperation between the two nations. The two nations also agreed to extend cooperation in the field of agriculture, as both of them have economies that are primarily agriculture-oriented. The talks were attended by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wajed and the Vietnamese Premier Vo Van Kiet.

Waste welfare

a novel method of managing food waste from school meals has not only generated economic and environmental dividends, but also established a kinship between urban and rural people. The food waste is recycled into compost for use in agricultural fertilisers. The compost is used by farmers in rural areas to grow vegetables and flowers, which are then sold in the cities.