Research

I am currently continuing my research on payments for ecosystem services (PES), about which I have written the importance of PES in multilateral environmental agreements in my masters major research paper: “The need for Natural Resource Accounting in the System of National Accounting” (See research paper) and which is the topic of my PhD research. I also participate in CEM (IUCN) shorter term research projects on ecosystem services, ecosystem restoration and capacity building for ecosystem services with CEM thematic groups through online. I also continue research on evaluating ALUS (alternate land use services, an Ontario incentive program) to show its effectiveness and efficiency to provide ecosystem services and conservation of ecosystem services, about which I presented a paper at OMNR (Ontario Ministry of Natural resources) (see presentation slide). I maintain an active interest in a variety of issues central to ecological economics including: green national accounting to measure of real progress (i.e. revising the national income accounts), valuation of ecosystem services (especially valuation of non-market goods and services) and conservation of ecosystem.

Key Research:

• The Need for Natural Resource Accounting in the Bangladesh System of National Accounting. Part 1 & Part 2
  
  This paper provides a general, critical survey of how natural resource depletion and degradation often misleadingly appear as desirable economic growth Through the lens of Bangladesh System of National Accounts (BSNA). In this paper, which is based on my MES major research, I present Natural Resource Accounting (NRA) as an important analytical framework that offers statistical information relevant to understanding the linkages between the environment and the economy and provides essential data on the physical quantities and attributes of natural resources and their changes over time. This paper evaluates the need for NRA in Bangladesh by reviewing the state of Bangladesh's natural resource base and examining specific problems and issues in a number of key natural resource areas. This paper also emphasized on awareness of policy makers and statisticians about the importance of NRA and its policy uses, and the institutionalization of NRA in the routine data collection of the National Statistical Offices, as crucial for the successful adoption and implementation of NRA in Bangladesh.  This approach reflects my understanding of Ecological Economics.

• The study of Ecology and Fisheries Production in Dhaka- Narayangonj-Demra (D-N-D) Canal, Dhaka.
  
  This research showed the contribution of ecological services to commercial fishery, as well as the value of restoring ecosystem functions in the D-N-D canal, Dhaka (measuring only market based economic benefits).