The role of global governance mechanisms to protect the environment for sustainability: A study on Bangladesh perspective

• Main Author: Mohammad, Noor
• Other Authors: Mohd Sani, Mohd Azizuddin
• Format: Book Section
• Language: English
• Published: College of Law, Government and International Studies, Universiti Utara Malaysia. 2010
• Subjects: GE Environmental Sciences
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/2512/1/Noor_Muhammad_-_the_role_of_global_governance.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/2512/; http://icis.uum.edu.my/

Many messages in the different religions including the Islam describe the importance of the environment consisting of flora and fauna for our own happiness, which is quite vast and vague and develops with the human civilization. With the change of time and social needs, this global environment has been facing numerous problems such as air pollution, water pollution, over population, poverty, unwise use of natural resources, excessive use of pesticides and herbicides, unplanned urbanization, non compliance with the existing environmental law and policies etc. Consequently, some impacts and changes such as; that causes biodiversity degradation, global warming, acid rain, natural imbalance, extinction of species, deforestation etc, have been found. To cope with this problems, some important legal foundations such as the Role of UNO with Specialized Agencies, the Ramsar Convention 171; the Stockholm Declaration 1972; the Rio Declaration 1992; the Aarhus Convention, 1998, the Biodiversity Convention 1992; the, Kyoto Protocol to the UN Frame Work Convention on Climate Change 1997 along with some important principles such as the polluter Pays, Precautionary Principles, Good faith principle etc; have already been passed but not yet implemented and enforced properly due to non compliance with the international environmental laws and policies, weak enforcement mechanism, non-coordination, absence of international environmental courts etc. Additionally, some international Inter Governmental, Governmental and Non Governmental Organizations such as the ASEAN, SAARC, EU, PADELIA, OAS, UNITAR, Asia Pacific Law Centre, IUCN, WWF, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, BELA etc. , have been contributing much to the services of the mankind though the legal education and interpretation. Moreover, as a case study in Bangladesh, it is found that around two hundred environmental laws with international environmental treaties such as ‗the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995; the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Rules 1997; the Environment Court Act 2000; the Environment Policy and Action Plan 1992 etc‘; have been passed to protect and conserve the environment but regrets that these laws are not implemented properly due to the above mentioned grounds with, insufficient penal provisions, lack of man power etc. It is notable that some important principles as above mentioned are absent in the environmental laws of Bangladesh. This study will provide an overview of the role of the International environmental actors based on primary and secondary sources consisting of at least 25 respondents in different criteria such as the various professionals including the university lecturers, lawyers, law enforcing agency, foreigners, students, business man, and ordinary people etc., based on the primary and secondary sources through structured and unstructured questionnaire. In order to build a healthy haven, our home. We need to implement their initiatives strictly including the human rights provisions and the environmental rights at home and abroad under the public international laws for our own sake and existence.