Download Addressing Natural Resource Management in Bangladesh

Addressing Natural Resource Management in
Bangladesh
Amzad Hossain and Dora Marinova
Unsustainable exploitation of depletable renewable
resources, especially water and land, is
contributing to the deteriorating state of natural
environment in Bangladesh. This is due to physical
and behavioural changes combined with poor
governance. The Green Revolution and the
Farakka barrage have triggered environmental
disasters for the country’s already stretched natural
resources. In addition, people’s moral breakdown
is resulting in a culture of profiteering and
consumerism.
The current marketing culture currently encourages
over-exploitation without consideration for the
future and this needs to change. The paper seeks
to investigate how education for sustainable
natural resource management can be integrated to
inform current management practices, including
any marketing affecting resource use. The tradition
of self-reliance as advocated by the sustainability
and spiritual practitioners-cum-activists (including
the mystical Bauls) can be considered as a
benchmark for marketing management. It is
concluded that natural resource management can
be addressed through the eco-spirituality driven
traditional cultural characteristics of Bangladesh.
Keywords: Bauls, marketing, moral education, self-reliance, renewable
resources, sustainability
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Amzad Hossain and Dora Marinova, Curtin University, Austratia.