Ali Sanwar's Page

What is your name?

Ali Sanwar

What is your job title?

Assistant Editor

What organisation do you work for?

The Independent

Website

www.theindependent-bd.com

What aspects of biodiversity are you most interested in?

Access and benefit sharing, Biotechnology, CBD negotiations, Communicating biodiversity, Climate change, Endangered species, Forests, Invasive species, Oceans, Poverty and biodiversity, Protected areas, Trade and biodiversity, Traditional knowledge, Urban biodiversity, Wetlands

What languages do you speak?

English, Bengali, Hindi and Urdu

Please use this section to introduce yourself in more detail, adding any other relevant information not included in your previous answers. The site administrator will use this answer to decide whether to approve your membership

I am one of the pioneers of the environment movement in Bangladesh. I, along with a few others, first established NACOM -- short for Nature Conservation Movement -- in the early '80s. We carried out several studies that include a national census on monitor lizards and a regular census of migratory birds --- what we called "mid-winter waterfowl count". Asian Wetland Bureau (AWB) of Malaysia and a few other foreign organisations joined us, later. It led to the discovery of new migratory routes and also sightings of some rare and endangered birds like the Norman's Greenshank.
I was also instrumental in developing a national conservation strategy for Bangladesh in the early '90s. I attended the first World Coast Conference (WCC) at Nordwig Aan Zea in the Nethelands.
I have been very vocal on different environment issues locally like waste disposal, water and air pollution and protection of wetlands and forests, particularly the virgin ones.
Lately, I have been campaigning about protecting the Himalayan glaciers' melting which very few in the region seem to understand.