- The National Sustainable Development Strategy (NSDS) has been prepared to meet the formidable environmental challenges that Bangladesh faces in the way to development. The challenges arise when the country’s development efforts and made without proper recognition of consequential environmental impacts which lead to degraded agro-ecosystem, rivers and wetlands, coastal environment and urban environment, degradation and depletion of ground water, deforestation and desertification in different parts of the country. Equally and perhaps more important are the challenges arising from global climate change induced by the production and consumption patterns of other countries especially the developed and fast growing developing countries that exert multiple impacts on our development. Apart from the domestic exigencies, NSDS fulfils Bangladesh’s commitment to the international community to formulate and implement a sustainable development strategy addressing environmental issues.
The NSDS identifies five strategic priority areas and three cross-cutting areas that are critical to achieve sustainability in Bangladesh. The five strategic priority areas are:
- Sustained economic growth
- Development of priority sectors (including agriculture and energy)
- Urban environment
- Social security and protection
- Environment, natural resource and disaster management
Climate change is discussed under the environment priority area, with the strategy emphasising the need to scale up investments in disaster risk reduction so that a suitable environment for the economic and social development of the country can be created in the face of climate change. Specific areas include the rehabilitation and climate proofing of coastal polders with especial focus on removing water logging, disaster risk reduction, mainstreaming disaster risk reduction and climate change, coastal char land afforestation, development of climate stress tolerant crop varieties and utilisation of climate change funds.