Prioritise environment while doing cost-benefit analysis

The environmental concerns should be given priority while doing a social cost-benefit analysis, said Dr Wahiduddin Mahmud.
"However, it is extremely difficult and there are so many interrelated aspects of it," he said, while speaking at a virtual discussion on Wednesday.
Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) and the World Bank Group jointly held the consultative session, titled 'Development policy pathways using Natural Capital Accounting (NCA)'.
Speaking as the chief guest, Dr Mahmud, an eminent economist and former adviser of a caretaker government, said an administrative shift was required where the environment ministry would act without any cost-benefit analysis if any threat comes on the environment.
"There is no cost-benefit analysis required if the existence of a river gets threatened," he clarified.
Bangladesh has taken the climate effects seriously though the country is not responsible for global warming, said the noted economist.
He said, "We need to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers to make sure we don't harm the environment further; China has successfully stopped doing so by moving onto more organic alternatives."
Speaking on the occasion, Mimi Kobayashi, senior environmental economist of World Bank, underscored the importance of constructing an Environmental Valuation Database (EVIS), in order to develop a database for environmental valuation studies.
Giving examples of South Korea, she said the database could assist policy assessment by providing relevant information on environmental valuation.
Zaheer Iqbal, head of Resources Information Management System (RIMS) Unit of Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD), said service valuation of the Sundarbans based on tourism and cultural services, storm protection services and provisioning services of eight key different resources, such as fish, shrimp, medicinal plants, crab, honey, etc., had a total economic value of $683.67 million annually.
When it comes to environmental statistics, the particular field faces problems associated with accessibility, quality and timeliness of data, said Rafiqul Islam, project director of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
He said there was a lack of integration in the national planning process and the department also required more manpower with technical assistance for developing new surveys.
According to presentations placed in the meeting, the quality of the environment has deteriorated due to severe environmental degradation and natural capital loss over the past decades.
The World Bank Group said poor environmental performance had affected social wellbeing, public health and productivity, putting pressure on already vulnerable human, physical and natural capital, and posing a severe threat to development and economic goals.
"Loss of ecosystem services could be severe if the economy fails to adapt," reads a presentation.
"A combination of carefully crafted and coordinated policies, particularly those supporting innovation, can simultaneously benefit biodiversity and development," it added.
PRI Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur and Chairman Dr Zaidi Sattar spoke at the virtual event.

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