"Corruption Is Everywhere" As Bangladesh Forests, Including Sundarbans, Fall At 4X 1980s Loss Rate

[hatrack]

Dhaka - Bangladesh's jungles, including the world's largest mangrove forest the Sunderbans, are being destroyed because of rampant corruption in the nation's forest department, a graft watchdog said on Monday. Transparency International (TI) said in its report that forest officials were engaged in illegal logging worth millions of dollars a year.

Bribery was most evident in the appointment process for top-level jobs. Over the past two decades, forest chiefs have been chosen through an auction system in which the person who paid the biggest bribe landed the job, TI said.

The local branch of the Berlin-based watchdog conducted a 16-month investigation into Bangladesh's forest department. Lead investigator Manzoor-e-Khuda said it was among the most corrupt in the graft-ridden country. "Corruption is everywhere in the department and it's threatening the future of our forests. Our biodiversity is now at stake because of corrupt practices," he said.

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About a dozen top forestry officials have been detained since then on corruption charges. TI said Bangladesh was losing 37 700 hectares of its forest each year, largely due to illegal

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http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20080818135532901C278891

[marmar]

1. Isn't the Sunddarbans one of the last refuges of wild tigers?

Oy vey.

[hatrack]

2. And a key barrier to cyclone storm surges - mangrove forests and all that . . .

But hey, can't stop that digitized, globalized incentivized world, now can we?

[LeftinOH]

3. I wouldn't have thought Bangladesh has any room for a forest -

highest population density of any country (except for some city-states)