Revive, restore wetlands, home to 40pc of all biodiversity: UN

UNB :
Although coastal and freshwater wetlands – such as swamps, mangroves and marshes – contain 40 percent of all plant and animal species, many are polluted or degraded due to climate change and human development.
On World Wetlands Day Thursday, the UN called for urgent action to revive and restore these ecosystems, which are disappearing three times faster than forests.
Wetlands cover roughly six percent of the Earth’s land surface and are vital for human health, food supply, tourism and jobs.
More than a billion people worldwide depend on them for their livelihoods, while their shallow waters and abundant plant life support everything from insects to ducks to moose.
Wetlands also play a crucial role in both achieving sustainable development and the fight against climate change.
They provide essential ecosystem services such as water regulation, and reducing the impact of flooding, for example.
Peatlands, a particular type of vegetated wetland, store twice as much carbon as forests.
However, over the past 200 years, wetlands have been drained to make way for farmland or infrastructure development, according to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Roughly 35 percent of all wetlands globally disappeared between 1970 and 2015, and the rate of loss has been accelerating since the year 2000.
Depending on the amount of climate-related sea level rise, some 20 to 90 percent of current coastal wetlands could be gone by the end of the century, the UNEP said.
Wetlands have also suffered more biodiversity loss than other land and marine ecosystems.
Leticia Carvalho, head of the agency’s Marine and Freshwater Branch, urged governments to end policies and subsidies that incentivise deforestation and wetlands degradation, and urgently focus on restoration.
“At the same time, we must guide and drive investments to protect priority ecosystems, such as peatlands, and encourage the
minister, who will also inaugurate the new building of the NBR on the same day,” said NBR Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem at a press conference at NBR conference room here on Friday.
Muneem said there will be a total of three seminars on value added tax (VAT), customs and income tax.
“In addition to seminars, there will be information booths on these issues. People will be able to know more about VAT, customs and income tax. At the same time awareness about online services will also increase,” added the NBR chairman.
At the press conference, NBR Member Pradyut Kumar Sarkar said the ratio of tax to gross domestic product (GDP) will increase once the tax exemptions are gradually reduced.
“Tax exemptions in various sectors have helped the country develop economically and we have gotten good results from this facility in the last two decades,” he added.
He said, “Our GDP is now US$470 billion. The government has provided tax exemptions in many sectors, including the agriculture sector, trade sector, and more. The public sacrificed (their hard earned money) due to these exemptions”.
“The government will continue to provide this facility to sectors that still need it. However, for sectors that have gotten a strong footing already and can run without tax exemptions the number of incentives might be gradually decreased.” Pradyut Kumar Sarkar said and added that this in turn will increase the tax-GDP ratio.
Another NBR Member Masud Sadiq said that the NBR is on the right track to increase revenue as per the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) while providing a loan.
“However, tax restructuring is a continuous process. It is done every year while fixing the budget, irrespective of getting IMF loan,” he added.