Steering Environment Preservation with Capacity Building Training

Steering Environment Preservation with Capacity Building Training

Anirudha Alam


Relying on capacity building training
Tying environment preservation to sustainable achievement

We are using pesticide in our cultivation in the name of green revolution. This kind of initiatives is generating environmental burdens and has been already identified as boomerang for our existence. Pesticide plays important role in eliminating species from the nature and damaging our food security cycle. Using pesticide is one common example of practicing risky behaviors in our modern life that is endangering the human race ultimately on the earth.

Farmers should be trained up in using environment friendly methods of cultivation in true sense. They have to have enough access to latest information, technology and know how through training oriented program for scaling up their knowledge and skills for environmental protection. Otherwise, unconsciously they will do harm for our environment and it results in great circle of problem in our daily life consecutively and continuously.

On the other hand, urbanization is polluting our environment on a great scale. The amount of carbon in the air is being increased day by day. Over the past few decades the volume of global consumption has grown dramatically. The results of a recent study show that the current growth rate of Japanese household consumption is greater than the rate of technological advance to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions.

Sky-rocketing usages of motor vehicles and establishing industries are always increasing smoke in the air. At the same time, the wastages ejected from the factories are polluting water and soil tremendously. But we may decrease such kind of vulnerabilities easily. Trainings may play significant role in this regard. The universities and other academic institutions may provide both short & long term necessary training to the owner of the motor vehicles and factories on how they can contribute to environmental preservations. For instance, we may mention the name of United States Environmental Protection Agency working to protect the environment and human health through capacity building of their stakeholders since 1970. Through the lens of holistic approach, environmental studies, environmental managements, environmental engineering, history and methods of environmental protection and so on may be included in integrated life skill development training curriculum. The participants may be oriented thoroughly about the consequences of environmental degradation and the pollution concerned in spoiling their individual and social life. The owner of the factories may take steps for initiating training for the workforce as well.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the average amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been increasing continuously. It is occurring due to anthropogenic i.e. man-induced factors, for example burning fossil fuels, deforestation and industrial production. Generally, humans emit around 32 gigatons of carbon dioxide on an average yearly. Half of these exits in the atmosphere and the rest are absorbed by oceans and plants. Coping with increasing man-made carbon dioxide emissions, the carbon dioxide cycle in nature gets thrown out of balance. Trees can no longer transform the amount of carbon dioxide greater than before into oxygen as well as oceans are steadily reaching saturation level. Imparting training under the technical cooperation scheme, general people from various walks of life may be oriented about such kind of general environmental issues. So they will be encouraged to be habituated with environment friendly activites in their daily life.
The growing amount of carbon dioxide in the nature results in enhanced greenhouse effect contributing to climate change drastically. Carbon dioxide is only responsible for 20 percent of the natural greenhouse effect. But it is yielding about 60 percent of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect causing global warming gradually. Nowadays, it is the great threat for environmental protection. Carbon dioxide increases the heat of our planet with a great speed. Though it is a very common phenomenon, most of the people are not very much conscious of how the growing amount of carbon is contributing to damaging soundness of our environment. So there is a great demand for environmental training to protect and safeguard the environment.
Being involved with uncountable risky behaviors, we are widening the hole of ozone layer by creating CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) for time being comfort in our daily life. CFC is a type of compound in which some or all of the hydrogen atoms of a hydrocarbon (usually an alkane) is replaced by chlorine and fluorine atoms. It is used as aerosol propellants, refrigerants, and solvents, and in the manufacture of rigid packaging foam. CFCs rise to the stratosphere15-50 km above the earth's surface. Due to their chemical inertness, they diffuse unchanged into the upper atmosphere. There they react with ultraviolet light to release chlorine atoms. These kinds of atoms highly reactive catalyze the destruction of ozone. Therefore, their use is tremendously harmful for our environment. Thus, we are getting vulnerable to being affected by harmful ultraviolet rays. But, it is unfortunately true for us that general people even most of the highly educated persons do not know how they are ensuring their contribution to enlarging the ozone hole. Thinking over this pivotal point very seriously in the perspective of Bangladesh, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallayan Foundation is implementing demand driven capacity building oriented comprehensive environmental technical program at community level spurring a greater need for environmental education and training. This kind of initiatives is very much helpful to lessen the gap between knowledge and skills needed for environmental protection.

Emphasizing on how we learn, what we know and why we bother, capacity building orientated environment awareness interventions are effective within both the formal and informal training program with sustainable impact. In this case, the curriculum of the training program has to be conceptualized and formulated keeping pace with the ever changing technologies and regulations in response to the interest and need of the respective stakeholders.

Anirudha Alam
Deputy Director (Information & Development Communication) & Trainer
BEES (Bangladesh Extension Education Services)
183, Lane 2, Eastern Road, New DOHS
Mohakhali, Dhaka 1206
Bangladesh.
Website: http://www.bees-bd.org
Phone: 01718342876, 9889732, 9889733 (office), 8050514 (res.)
E-mail: anirudhaalam@yahoo.com

Ref: International Union for Conservation and Nature, Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallayan Foundation, UNESCO, United States Environmental Protection Agency