About Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation (CCEC)

Since 1993 the Centre for Coastal Environmental Conservation (CCEC) is working on the awareness and conservation of the Bangladesh Sundarbans, UNESCO declared World Heritage site by preparing conservation education materials such as leaflet, poster, booklet, video and conducted environmental education training of the primary school teachers over 1000 teachers by using the education materials and by demonstrating video CD on cultural folk pot songs by engaging local cultural team. Another ways and means of awareness and conservation of the Sundarbans is by conducting sustainable harvesting training of the Sundarbans resource harvesters, the bawali (wood & thatch cutter), mawali (honey extractor) and jellay (fish & crab harvester) through conservation dialogues/trainings (More Details) and pot song demonstration (life show and video CD show). One of the major activity of the NGO CCEC is to build capacity i.e formation of groups and association of the Sundarbans resource harvesters and secure climate adaptive livelihood options by cultivating salt tolerant varieties of Rice (BR 23) and by culturing salt adaptive Fish (tilapia mozambica) by the climate vulnerable resource harvesting community following the Group Strategic Approach i.e. Co-Management Model . Empower the beneficiary target community by opening the bank account of their own and run Scheme Operation aiming to reduce poverty align with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) following the rules of Co-operative Society with the philosophy “United we stand taller” and policy advocacy towards reducing exploitation and increased solidarity of Sundarbans resource harvester families.

Organization work achievements can be summarized as follows;

• Development of Environmental Education (EE) consists of teacher’s manual, student’s booklet, flipchart
• 800 primary school teachers trained as trainers, using EE package
• 48 km roadside tree plantation involving 575 beneficiaries consists of 2300 family members
• Development of Sundarbans Handicraft involving 70 rishi minority
• 25 indigenous munda and 30 tiger-widow communities. Received Whitley Associate Award
• At least 28000-30000 mangrove species (7 mangrove species: kewra (Sonneratia apetala), bain (Avicennia afficinalis), kankra (Bruguiera gymnorrhiza), passur (xylocarpus mekongenis), sundri (Heritiera fomes), khalisha (Aegiceras corniculatum), and golpata (Nypa fruticans) exist through plantation and regeneration by leasing out 57 acres of land from BWDB in partnership with 150 Mangrove Protection Society Members
• Signed Memorandum of Understanding with Government/Non Government NGO/University
• Became a member of IUCN (www.iucn.org) and implemented "Climate resilient palm tree plantation in households and fodder grass experiment on shrimp farm dyke in Shyamnagar coastal area" (https://www.mangrovesforthefuture.org/countries/members/bangladesh/) in collaboration with Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline of Khulna University (www.ku.ac.bd)
• Partner of Mangrove Action Project (MAP) (http;//www.mangroveactionproject.org/links/) facilitating collaborative research funding on Ecological Mangrove Restoration (EMR)
• "Earth Hour" observation from Bangladesh at Khulna City in cooperation with Khulna City Corporation (KCC). With the leadership of the KCC Mayor, 600000 households switched off their homestead lights, fans and others for one hour tackling global warming
• Mobilizing sustainable use of water, electricity and environmental conservation among the 22 climate migrants families living in a slum under Ward 24 of KCC The climate migrants are from Koyra, Paikgacha, Asashuni, Shyamnagar Upazila (sub district) followed by Cyclone Aila, 2009 published bookllets on
  • Biodiversity talk, 1996
  • Environmental Education package consists of teacher’s manual, student’s booklet and poster, 1997
  • Sundarbans in Environmental Education, CCEC publication, 1998
  • Sundarbans Flipchart, CCEC publication, 2008
  • Role of tiger in protecting Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem CCEC publication, 2014
  • The Sundarbans: A Disaster-Prone Eco-Region (CCEC, director, Mowdudur Rahman is a co-author of a chapter, 2018)

Recently the organization has been awarded National Energy Globe Award internationally recognized hallmark for sustainability.https://www.energyglobe.info/en/award/ As part of the project "Expanding the Protected Area System to Incorporate Important Aquatic Ecosystems (EPASIIAEP)" commissioned by Bangladesh Forest Department funded by UNDP-GEF-MoEFCC, the organization is active on awareness raising among local communities for dolphin conservation, acquire knowledge for decision making, engage local fishermen, tour operator and other community members in discussions on adaptive management needed to ensure human-dolphin coexistence in Sundarbans ecosystem, and also a significant contribution towards achieving SDG14: Life below Water.