Biodiversity and environmental conservation around the Rohingya settlements in Cox's Bazar is becoming more challenging for Bangladesh as the authority concerned is yet to address the issue properly.
Environmental experts said the concept of environment in and around the Rohingya camps is still limited to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH).
Only 20-26 per cent of the displaced Rohingya people have been provided with LPG cylinders for cooking while a little afforestation by forest department and some other organisations have been done so far to restore degraded ecosystem.
Talking to the FE, climate change and environmental governance expert M Zakir Hossain Khan said although biodiversity and environmental conservation has become more challenging for Bangladesh due to Rohingya refugees, the authority is not conducting any study on the impacts of the present activities in those areas.
"We are not getting any guidance regarding a long-term solution to Rohingya crisis which has been badly affecting the environment and biodiversity. Also the authority is less interested about whether the present governance system in those camps is functioning properly or not," he said.
Bangladesh is home to the largest refugee camp in the world, housing 1.2 million displaced people from Myanmar.
Earlier, International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM) jointly undertook an environment monitoring project in Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas of Cox's Bazar to identify predicted and unanticipated changes to the environment due to the concentration of the Rohingya camps in the areas.
The objective of the project was to contribute to building an evidence base that will inform measures to identify options to prevent further degradation and if possible, restore environmental quality in Cox's Bazar within and outside the Rohingya camps, a project-related source said.
The project titled 'Monitoring Environmental Changes in Cox's Bazar following the Rohingya Influx (MECCRI)' was supposed to be implemented by a team of renowned national experts under the leadership of the ICCCAD.
International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bangladesh country representative Raquibul Amin said Rohingya concentration has been affecting the environment in various ways including deforestation, effluent and extinction of various species. Besides, bamboos used in those camps for constructing structures come from Mymensingh and Sherpur, he added.
World Bank (WB) came up with a fund of US$ 450 million to construct iron structures. But no permanent structures should be built there.
Mr Raquib also said 15 per cent of the elephant population is trapped due to camps while elephants are critically endangered species in Bangladesh.
He said the World Bank has also provided US$ 179 to forest department exclusively for afforestaion. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are also doing the plantation work which is quite insignificant, considering the environmental damage there, he added.
"We planted indigenous trees on two hectares of land at Rohingya camp site in 2018. This year we have a plan to plant trees on 100 hectares provided we get enough land."
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