Activities
Research and investigative reporting
SEHD's research and investigative reporting is aimed at exploring complex human rights issues and their relationship with environmental problems. SEHD's work has highlighted the problems faced by indigenous people in Bangladesh, sex workers and tea plantation workers. SEHD's research also addresses the environmental problems associated with commercial and industrial plantations and forestry, energy issues, coastal erosion and climate change.
Journalist training
SEHD provides training to journalists from newspapers, magazines, radio and television as well as individuals representing different ethnic communities, civil society organizations, and activists. Through training and public events, SEHD helps develop skills, knowledge and ideas thus inspiring advocacy and awareness raising about important issues within the broader community.
SEHD, for many years, has organized cultural exchange programs and festivals for the Adivasi (indigenous) communities across Bangladesh, providing them with the opportunity to interact with other communities. SEHD also publishes books and organizes seminars to advocate for the rights of Adivasi people. Through different means SEHD continues to promote cultures of the indigenous and marginalized communities.
Seminars, cultural programs, and other public events
SEHD also regularly organizes seminars, roundtable conferences, film festivals, Adivasi cultural festivals, photography exhibitions, study tours, and other public events. Issues and concerns of community and national interest that have been voiced through SEHD events include the exploitation of forests and forest people, the problems associated with commercial plantations, the devastating effects of aid and loans on Bangladesh's environment, Adivasi issues in Bangladesh, and problems facing other excluded groups.
Advocacy
SEHD is involved in direct and indirect lobbying and advocacy at different levels. SEHD also targets the general public of Bangladesh and those communities that are the victims of wrong policies. In the past, SEHD has conducted effective advocacy work to raise awareness and understanding of the problems associated with the plantation economy and its effects on local communities and ecologies, indigenous peoples' access to local resources, shrimp aquaculture, ecological farming, threat of coal mining, the rights of tea plantation workers, sex workers as well as climate change issues.
In 2009, SEHD set up an organic farm in Rajghati, a small indigenous Garo village in the Modhupur sal forest in Tangail District (in the north-central region of Bangladesh). SEHD has been working closely with villagers to introduce and encourage organic farming techniques. SEHD has also been establishing a knowledge and learning center among the local communities in the Modhupur sal forest area that teaches about organic farming practices, natural history, indigenous culture, ecology and innovative ideas.
Indigenous peoples, also known in some regions as First peoples, First Nations, Aboriginal peoples or Native peoples or autochthonous peoples, are ethnic groups who are the original or earliest known inhabitants of an area, in contrast to groups that have settled, occupied or colonized the area more recently. Groups are usually described as indigenous when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region. Not all indigenous peoples share this characteristic, as many have adopted substantial elements of a colonizing culture, such as dress, religion or language. Indigenous peoples may be settled in a given region (sedentary) or exhibit a nomadic lifestyle across a large territory, but they are generally historically associated with a specific territory on which they depend. Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world except Antarctica.
The environmental movement, also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists advocate the sustainable management of resources and stewardship of the environment through changes in public policy and individual behavior. In its recognition of humanity as a participant in ecosystems, the movement is centered on ecology, health, and human rights.
Agroecology (a-grō-ē-ˈkä-lə-jē) is the study of ecological processes applied to agricultural production systems. Bringing ecological principles to bear can suggest new management approaches in agroecosystems. The term is often used imprecisely. Agroecologists study a variety of agroecosystems. The field of agroecology is not associated with any one particular method of farming, whether it be organic, integrated, or conventional, intensive or extensive, although some use the name specifically for alternative agriculture.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts, often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, are a group of districts within the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar (Burma). Covering 13,295 square kilometres (5,133 sq mi), they formed a single district until 1984, when they were divided into three districts: Khagrachari District, Rangamati Hill District, and Bandarban District. Topographically, the Hill Tracts are the only extensively hilly area in Bangladesh. It was historically settled by many tribal refugees from Burma Arakan in 16th century and now it is settled by indigenous peoples who have been living there since.
The wise use movement in the United States is a loose-knit coalition of groups promoting the expansion of private property rights and reduction of government regulation of publicly held property. This includes advocacy of expanded use by commercial and public interests, seeking increased access to public lands, and often opposition to government intervention. Wise use proponents describe human use of the environment as "stewardship of the land, the water and the air" for the benefit of human beings. The wise use movement arose from opposition to the mainstream environmental movement, claiming it to be radical.
The Green Belt Movement (GBM) is an indigenous, grassroots, non-governmental organization based in Nairobi, Kenya that takes a holistic approach to a development by focusing on environmental conservation, community development and capacity building. Professor Wangari Maathai established the organization in 1977, under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya.
Adivasi is the collective term for tribes of the Indian subcontinent, who are considered indigenous to places within India wherein they live, either as foragers or as tribalistic sedentary communities. The term is also used for ethnic minorities, such as Chakmas of Bangladesh, Tharus of Nepal, and Vedda of Sri Lanka.
Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the impact of changes to the environment on humans, animals, plants and non-living matter. While environmentalism focuses more on the environmental and nature-related aspects of green ideology and politics, ecology combines the ideology of social ecology and environmentalism.
Tea-garden community are multi ethnic groups of tea garden workers and their dependents in Assam. They are officially referred as "Tea-tribes" by Government of Assam. They are the descendants of tribals and backward castes brought by the British colonial planters as indentured labourers from the regions of present-day Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh into colonial Assam during 1860-90s in multiple phases for the purpose of being employed in the tea gardens industry as labourers. They are heterogeneous, multi-ethnic which includes many tribal and caste groups. They are found mainly in those districts of Upper Assam and Northern Brahmaputra belt where there is high concentration of tea gardens like Kokrajhar, Udalguri, Sonitpur, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia. There is a sizeable population of the community in the Barak Valley region of Assam as well in the districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi. The total population is estimated to be around 6.5 million of which estimated 4 million reside in residential quarters built inside 799 tea estates spread across tea growing regions of Assam. Another 2.5 million reside in the nearby villages spread across those tea growing regions. They are not a single ethnic group but consists of different ethnic group speaking dozens of languages and have different set of cultures. They speak several languages including Sora, Odia, Sadri, Kurmali, Santali, Kurukh, Kharia, Kui, Gondi and Mundari. Sadri with some Assamese influence serve as lingua franca among the community.
Samata is an India-based non-governmental organization that focuses on advocacy and development issues among tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh. Samata helps tribal groups address problems of land alienation, displacement, and political dis-empowerment. Its mission is to uphold the traditional, constitutional, and human rights of the tribal or adivasi people.
MUKTI, is a registered not-for-profit Socioeconomics development trust, working for the needy people in Sundarbans, West Bengal and other parts of India as well, for uplifting of the grassroots who are in penury, social exclusion and myriad discrimination. MUKTI is registered under the Government of India Trust Act Section 64. MUKTI, which means liberation, was founded in 2003 and officially registered in 2005. More than 500 volunteers of MUKTI are working in UNESCO declared World Heritage site Sundarbans region of India in the areas of health, education, agriculture, livelihood, environment and rights.
Conservation refugees are people who are displaced from their native lands when conservation areas, such as parks and other protected areas, are created.
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy promoting the inherent worth of living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, plus a restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.
The Rainforest Foundation US is a non-profit NGO working in Central and South America. It is one of the first international organizations to support the indigenous peoples of the world's rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights to land, life and livelihood.
The People's Biodiversity Festival is a celebratory assertion that biodiversity is a commons. It is therefore a "constructive" Gandhian protest against the moves at international fora like the CBD to privatise and monetise bio-diversity. One such festival event was held in Nampalli Ground, Hyderabad, India from October 13 to 16, 2012. The festival reflects the shared concerns and to lay foundation for cooperation and sharing or the seed wealth and related knowledge - for inclusive, ecological self-reliance in harmony with nature.
Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) working to protect the world's rainforests and to secure the legal rights of their inhabitants. It is one of the largest rainforest organizations in the world, and collaborates with around 70 local and national environmental, indigenous and human rights organizations in 7 rainforest countries in the Amazon region, Central Africa and Southeast Asia. The organization works to support people in securing their rights and increase people's level of commitment to rainforest protection; to prevent policy and business interests from contributing to the destruction of the rainforest; and to consolidate policy and practice that serve to protect it. RFN engages in advocacy work in key international processes concerning rainforest issues.
Palm oil production is important to the economy of Indonesia as the country is the world's biggest producer and consumer of the commodity, providing about half of the world's supply. In 2016, Indonesia produced over 34.6 billion tons of palm oil, and exported nearly 73% of it. Oil palm plantations stretch across 12 million hectares, and is projected to reach 13 million by 2020. There are several different types of plantations, including small, privately owned plantations, and larger, state- owned plantations. There are a variety of health, environmental, and societal impacts that result from the production of palm oil in Indonesia. A recent publication by the ONG Rainforest Action Network (RAN) indicates that the use of palm oil by some of the biggest chocolate and snacks' producers is increasing this problem.
Gladson Dungdung is a human rights activist researcher, writer, motivator and public speaker based in Ranchi, India. He is founder of the Adivasis Publications, Adivasis Hunkar and Jharkhand Human Rights Movement.
