Economic Geography Wetlands

Introduction

Wetlands are invaluable components of the environment, ecology, resource potential and biodiversity in Bangladesh. They are integral part of the local ecosystem based cultures. About half of the area of the country can be considered as wetlands. These consist of wide variety of types ranging from lakes, rivers and coastal forest to deepwater paddy fields and ponds. All these wetlands form a unique mosaic of habitats with extremely rich diversity of flora and fauna, much of it as yet biologically undiscovered. The wetlands also support the livelihood of millions of people from such diverse activities as fishing to collecting honey and materials for thatching and fuel wood.

The objective of this paper is to provide the wetland ecosystem-information and knowledge products. This includes wetland resources, the role of wetland ecosystem services: water pollution, livelihoods, food change and status of wetlands in the country, database on wetland development, management and conservation approaches and the case studies on conservation and maintaining of the wetland and its ecosystem. Also it includes some section on Geospatial information Multimedia on the wetland and its ecosystem. Available existing published literature, various project reports and information have also been used in perpetration of this paper.

Historical perspective

In its original form, the haor basin of northeast Bangladesh would have consisted of a rich mosaic of permanent and seasonal lakes and ponds with abundant aquatic vegetation, surrounded by vast areas of swampy ground with tall reeds and seasonally flooded grasslands. Swamp forest, dominated by Barringtonia acutangula hijal, Pongamia pinnata koroch, and other flood-tolerant tree species, would have covered the river levees, and provided a secure refuge for terrestrial wildlife during the monsoon floods. On higher ground, this would have given way to scrub jungle and dense stands of bamboo.

Wildlife would have been...