Highlights from webinar Bangladesh: Leader in Nature-based Solutions

On September 23rd EcoShape hosted a webinar. Speakers ir. Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga, Dr. Saleemul Huq and Dr. Haseeb Irfanullah presented their experiences with Nature-based Solutions in Bangladesh. Director of EcoShape, ir. Henk Nieboer moderated the webinar and panel discussion.

Quotes

Haseeb Irfanullah: ‘We must go from projects to programmes, shift priorities from project piloting to upscaling and replication. We need to be patient and give our work a long term focus.’

Saleemul Huq: ‘Climate change and biodiversity loss is not solved by stand-alone projects, both by programmes. Projects can contribute by: generating knowledge, build capacity and contribute to long term planning perspectives’

Climate adaptation is ‘trial and error’ by nature

Saleemul Huq

Saleemul Huq: ‘Bangladesh has a strong planning tradition, this has the advantage that certain policies have a long staying power and exist beyond election cycles’

Catharien Terwisscha: ‘Bangladesh has seen a tremendous development in many aspects which only twenty years ago would seem absolutely unthinkable’

Saleemul Huq points out that the work Bangladesh and the Netherlands do together has great significance for the world. He therefore invites the Netherlands to extend the cooperation in the water and climate sector.

About the speakers

Our first speaker, ir. Catharien Terwisscha van Scheltinga, is currently Senior Researcher of Water Management in Deltas at Wageningen University & Research. She is also the Director of Project Office in Dhaka, Bangladesh and International Secretariat at Delta Alliance. She is a highly competent international water professional with a trans-disciplinary focus, combining knowledge areas like water management, climate change, gender, education, irrigation, agriculture, policy, and relate them to change processes. During the webinar she will speak on the background of Bangladesh and it’s Delta.

Following ir. Terwisscha van Scheltinga presentation, Dr. Haseeb Irfanullah will present on the current happenings of Nature-based Solutions in Bangladesh and their goal of becoming a world leader in these solutions. Dr. Irfanullah is an independent consultant working on environment, climate change and research system. He has worked for different international environmental and development organisations, academic and research institutions, donors, and the Government of Bangladesh in different capacities. His working areas include natural resource management, biodiversity conservation, community-based adaptation, disaster risk management, capacity building on research system, and translating research into policy and action.

The last speaker, Dr. Saleemul Huq, will speak on knowledge infrastructure/initiatives and the ambitions of Nature-based Solutions in Bangladesh and worldwide. Dr. Huq is the Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD). He also holds the Senior Fellow position at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). His expertise lies on the links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly from the perspective of developing countries. Recent activities of Dr. Huq have been focused on building negotiating capacity and supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in UNFCCC. Dr. Huq has an interview featured on our website as well as in our book that was published at the beginning of this year.