The Supreme Court of Bangladesh and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warmly welcome participants to the Fifth South Asia Judicial Conference on Environment and Climate Change, to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The conference aims to promote environmental adjudication, enforcement, and justice in South Asia, as well as discussion regarding the key environmental concerns and climate change challenges and needed regulatory and judicial responses. We hope to create an opportunity for the judges and the environmental practitioners to develop a common understanding of the issues and available legal solutions.
Environmental Challenges of South Asia
South Asia is home to Mount Everest, the Thar Desert, the world’s largest mangrove forest, Cox’s Bazar Beach, some of the world’ largest river systems, four biodiversity hotspots, and the Maldives’ coral reefs, which are arguably the world’s most complex coral reef systems. The region’s incredible biodiversity faces serious environmental challenges. The South Asia Environment Outlook 2014, published by South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Development Alternatives (DA), cited climate change, deforestation, land degradation, air and water pollution, and biodiversity loss as the major environmental issues of the region. The report identified industrialization, rapid urbanization, population growth, and demographic transitions as the major contributors to environmental degradation.
Deforestation is a major issue in South Asia. It is one of the least forested regions in the world and has a per capita forest area of about 0.05 hectares, less than one-tenth of the global per capita forest area. Diminished forest cover reduces critical habitats for the royal Bengal Tiger, Greater one-horned rhinoceros, Asiatic elephant, and a further 179 mammal species that are categorized as threatened species. The region is also home to 14% of the world’s remaining mangroves and the highest percentage of threatened South Asia Sub regional Report: Asia-Pacific Forestry Sector Outlook Study II, 2012 wetlands in the world, 82 of which are in Bangladesh. Bhutan stands as a bright exception to the region’s deforestation, with 72% of its land covered by forest and 42.7% of the country categorized as a Protected Area. It has also been declared as one of the 10 global hotspots for conservation of biodiversity.
Six of the world’s mega cities are in South Asia, with an estimated urban population of 130 million, which is projected to increase to nearly 250 million in 2030. South Asian cities have failed to maintain livability conditions and rank at the bottom of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) 2016 rankings, with Karachi and Dhaka ranking 134 and 137 respectively out of 140 cities.
The recent increase in intensity of smog and Asian Brown Cloud (ABC) has become a major concern for some South Asian countries. The ABC is caused by large amount of aerosols produced in the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Indeed, at the time this background paper was written, 1,800 schools in Delhi, India had been shut down due to concerns regarding air pollution stemming from heavy smog. Current estimates state that more than 150,000 people die annually in South Asia as a result of air pollution, which is approximately 1.4% of total morbidity. A 2008 report by the World Health Organization stated that outdoor air pollution killed 168,601 people in India, 45,300 people in Pakistan, and 10,300 people in Bangladesh annually.
South Asia’s major river systems are extremely polluted, affecting most of the region’s river cities. The Ganges is ranked as the most polluted river of the world, Dhaka’s major rivers have been declared biologically dead, 9 and efforts to restore Kathmandu’s Baghmati River continue to struggle.