The Ministry of Environment and Forests administered a Project on National Capacity Self- Assessment (NCSA) for Global Environmental Management with the technical support of The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Bangladesh Country Office during July 2006 – December 2007. This was carried out with technical and financial support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh. A Capacity Development Action Plan (CDAP) for Sustainable Environmental Governance in Bangladesh has come out successfully.

The CDAP has been prepared to address the climate change, biodiversity and land degradation issues at local, regional and national levels. It is done through an extensive consultation process. The ministries/divisions, departments/agencies concerned, research organizations, academics from the universities, civil society representatives, NGO workers, development partners, experts, environmental practioners, local government representatives, communities, media and other relevant stakeholders were involved in this process.

The CDAP is a living document. It may be updated time to time keeping pace with the emerging need of the changing situation. The document has been prepared within a short span of time. The data and information were collected from different departments/agencies/ resource persons through a consultative process. Some of these are not published documents. Therefore, despite all efforts, references/sources some of these data and information could not be mentioned in the report. I regret such inconvenience and I would request the readers to further search the available data and information and department concerned while referring this document. An attempt has been made to take stock of existing capacity building measures undertaken within the different projects/programmes/actions of the Government and Non-Government Organizations. This document would help the policy makers in different sectors prioritize their development programmes and projects integrating the climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and other cross-cutting issues for sustainable environmental governance. The Development Partners may also prioritize their projects based on CDAP.