It is a multidisciplinary project to evaluate traditional and local knowledge which are being used by the people living in the Ganges Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM) basin of the Greater Bengal managing the resources of the floodplains and the coastal zones years together for their survival and to maintain livelihoods. Traditionally the people of the GBM basin are living mostly in the flood-plains by managing the landscape, wet-bodies, soil, forests, biodiversity and other natural resources etc., observing and following the nature’s laws and changes. The Great Bengal civilization is one of the culturally richest and most densely populated regions of the world. Here the people are very conscious about food, hygiene and safety; maintain social cultures with extended family respecting each other, love nature’s diversity and thus living peacefully for long.
However, with rapid industrialization, urbanization and road transportation systems etc., especially after the Green Revolution, many changes have occurred and most of the natural systems are being disturbed; humans often govern the natural systems and their biased activities accelerate the changes. Thus, climate change effects have accentuated the disasters like cyclones, tornadoes, tidal surges, floods, droughts and erosion etc. The landscape and the soil phases of the great GBM basins have been changed due to expansion of flatland irrigation-dependent agriculture destroying hills and hill forests, wet bodies; construction of dams and embankments, roads and highways across the floodplains and natural flows of streams and rivers etc. Thus the anthropogenic biased activities have created a great imbalance in social, economical and environmental conditions and on overall sustainability of the region. Therefore, to secure the lives, livelihoods it needs to manage natural systems wisely and logically. It is essential to conserve and maintain the significant or characteristic features of the natural systems for managing the resources.
The project involves study on traditional natural resource management practices; farming and cropping culture, waste recycling, surface and grey water use, health and nutrition, uses of medicinal plants and animal extracts, traditional defense mechanisms against natural and climate extreme disasters and choosing the right crops and other agricultural practices etc. Many of these traditional wisdoms and practices were recorded by Khona in the 9th century usually known as “Khonar Bachan” and some are being collected by Dr Dinesh Chandra Sen and compiled in “Maimansingha Gitika” (in 1923) and Purbababga Gitika (in 1926) and there are many remained as ritual and in religious culture.
This multidisciplinary project has been conceptualized to reflect on the importance of the traditional knowledge on social, economical and environmental sustainability towards climate change adaptation, disaster risk reduction and food security. This project has been accelerated and encouraged by the colleagues of United Nations University (UNU-IAS), partial support from the IUBAT and also from Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research Program.
Recognition: This year in the World Environment Day June-2014 IUBAT and RCE Greater Dhaka received National Environmental Award (Second Prize) for its outstanding contribution in research and awareness with this program “Science behind Tradition” under the theme: Raise Your Voice, Not the Sea Level.
Publication: Several publications have already been made and three are under publication.
1. RCE Greater Dhaka: Biodiversity Conservation, Chapter 5; In Innovation in Local and Global Learning Systems for Sustainability: Traditional Knowledge and Biodiversity- Learning Contributions of the Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development; United Nations University Institute of Advance Studies (UNU-IAS) Yokohama, Japan e-ISBN: 978-92-808-4540-2; United Nations University-2013
2. Traditional Practices For Solid Waste Recycling In Rural Homes —A Lesson for Education for Sustainable Development Presented in the International Symposium on “A Decade of Regional Centres of Expertise on ESD: Reflections and Advances in Asia-Pacific”, 7th Asia Pacific RCE Regional Conference held at University Seines Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia from 25-29th August 2014

Under Publication by the Weather and Climate Extreme Journal of Elsevier

1 Natural and Traditional Defense Mechanisms to Reduce Climate Risks in Coastal Zones of Bangladesh reference: WACE-D-13-00081
2 Climate Extremes and Challenges to Infrastructure Development in Coastal Cities in Bangladesh: WACE-D-13-00082
3 Impacts of floods on forest trees and their coping strategies in Bangladesh WACE-D-13-00078

Paper Accepted for Oral Presentation:
1. Submitted in the International Conference Submitted a paper entitled “Superiority of Organic Agriculture over Conventional Agriculture” to International WWOOF Conference will be held on October 17-20 2014 at Fetheiye, Turkey: This research was devoted to find out smart-ways of agricultural practices especially, organic farming, permaculture, biodynamic, eco-agriculture or ecological farming emphasizing the traditional and indigenous knowledge incorporating with advance farming systems. Multiple and multistoried cropping culture, urban agriculture, mixed farming, home-centered short-cycle biomass recycling are also important practices towards sustainable agriculture to feed the world population and to ensure food and nutrient security.
2. Submitted a paper entitled “Traditional Floodplain Managements of The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Basin are Unique Landscape Management Practices for Climate Change Adaptation” in the International conference on Climate Change in relation to Water and Environment I3CWE-2015 12-14 February, 2015, DUET, Gazipur, Bangladesh
Proposal Submitted: Submitted a project proposal to Asia Pacific Network under 2014 CAPaBLE Call on “Capacity Building for Sustainable Landscape Management in Bangladesh” with a broad objective for capacity building of youths and young researchers to evaluate the scientific values of traditional and natural adaptation practices, lives and livelihoods and for functional ecosystem services; to strengthen interaction between scientists and policy makers provide input to decision makers and to disseminate scientific values of traditional knowledge to the public for formulating a better and sustainable adaptation and DRR policy. (Summary Proposal CBA2014-SP42-Rahman: accepted)
Traditional knowledge has been considered as an important component of Education for Sustainable Development. It is tested for years together and is continuing generation after generation. However, a knowledge gap has been created due to ignorance, biased and overutilization of natural resources in the present high-tech era. As a result, many social, economical and environmental problems are developed and today the earth has been passing a crucial time with many problems and the overall sustainability is under a great threat. Therefore, to aware the consequences of the future climate change effect and resource crisis, education for sustainable development is a great need of the present world. To materialize the aims of the ESD, the scientific values of the traditional knowledge must be investigated and the positive results which are essential for the wellbeing of the humanity should be integrated to solve the manifold crises like climate extremes, disasters, global warming and food security etc. Hence, the special objective of this project is to create confidence on the scientific values of the traditions by improving the scientific and technical capabilities of the local, national and regional vulnerable groups and to implement them in the other similar situations.