$36m WB credit for wildlife protection

Bangladesh will get US$ 36 million credit from the World Bank (WB) in support of conservation and protection of wildlife, reports BSS. The WB approved the credit for the first phase of the Adaptable Programme Loan (APL) on Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Wildlife Protection in Asia. The credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the WB's concessional lending arm, has a 40-year maturity period, including a 10-year grace period and carries a service charge of 0.75 per cent. The project will tackle global conservation threats to habitats and clamp down on the illegal trade in wildlife species such as the tiger, snow leopard, rhinoceros and elephant in increasingly fragmented habitats. Bangladesh holds the largest remaining population of tigers in the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. However, the country's environmental and ecological balance is under severe threat and studies indicate that 4-5 per cent of faunal species and about 10 per cent of floral diversity have become extinct in the last century. South Asia is home to 13-15 per cent of the world's biodiversity and hosts some of the most endangered species on the earth. Habitats across Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal are home to more than 65 per cent of the 3,000 or so remaining wild tigers. "Economic growth pressures on our planet have resulted in unprecedented extinction of species-one in eight bird species, one in four mammals, and one in three amphibians are threatened," WB South Asia Vice-president Isabel Guerrero said. "Conservation of Asia's emblematic tiger would lead to improved natural habitat for all species and, ultimately healthy ecosystems for South Asia," the WB official said. In addition to wildlife conservation, protecting these habitats has numerous benefits by preserving timber, fodder, medicinal products, and watersheds.