Major Activities

• Research & Publication

• Public Awareness & Campaign

• Public Interest Litigation/Advocacy

• Documentation & Library

Research & Publication

The following books have been published by BELA:

• Poribesh: Rajnoitic Doler Bhumika (in Bengali)
  (Environment: Role of the Political Parties)

• Environmental Regulatory Regime: A Selected Bibliography Covering the SAARC Region

• Loko Shakitye Poribesh (in Bengali)

  (Environment in Folklore)

• Poribesh O Onushandani Sangbadkkota (in Bengali)

  (Environment and Investigative Journalism)

• Laws Regulating Environment in Bangladesh

• Environmental Justice: A compilation of the SAARC Cases

• Laws and Custom on Forestry in Bangladesh: Issues and Remedies

• Regulatory Regime on Inland Fisheries in Bangladesh: Issues and Remedies

• Intellectual Property Rights in Bangladesh

• Handbook on Environmental Laws (in Bengali)

BELA Newsletter 

BELA regularly publishes two quarterly newsletters, in English and Bengali, called BELA Newsletter and BELA Barta respectively. These publications report current environmental actions and events with legal analysis. They offer and act as readily available information to the readers on current environmental issues and selected subjects through news and articles.

Public Awareness & Campaign

Trainings and Workshops
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BELA offers 5 (five) sets of regular training:

Training for Cross sectoral Actors
A week-long training on Environment and Environmental Law is offered once in every three months and is open for lawyers, development workers and government officials.
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Media Orientation 
To ensure that the media is equipped with the right information and reporting strategy, a BELA training on Investigative Reporting on Environmental Issues is organized once every year that is participated by journalists of local, national and international media. The training emphasizes on practical learning of the journalists and hence arranges for field investigation on environmental issues. 
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Judicial Workshop
Given the fact that Bangladesh now has Environmental Courts to deal with environmental offences, special workshop is organized exclusively for the judicial officers in coordination with the Judicial Administration on Training Institute (JATI).
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Strengthening Local Government in Environment and Natural Resource Management
Trainings are organized for the elected representatives of the local governments to create awareness on their roles in environmental management and develop their bargaining capacity with the national government in managing local natural resources.
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Training the Trainers
Quarterly training is organized for the school-teachers who play vital role in shaping the minds of the future leaders.
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Others
Besides these trainings, seminars, lectures, debates and so on are organized by BELA to disseminate important information on environment and as part of legislative advocacy.

Public Interest Litigation (PIL)

The use of legal mechanism as a tool produced various means and ends in addressing environmental injuries. The agenda of PIL was mainly based on strategic issues to generate awareness amongst the common people and all the actors for development of a realistic regulatory framework and parochial environmental jurisprudence.

Following a BELA case in 1996, the concept of PIL was recognized by the judiciary that has allowed the millions of voiceless an access to the formal justice system.

Meanwhile, BELA has instituted more than 40 cases on environmental issues. The cases involve wide range of issues including river pollution, industrial pollution, vehicular pollution, labor welfare, compensation for losses inflicted by development projects, encroachment of important wetland, relocation of industry and so on. The issues are both national and local in nature.

The major achievements of BELA in the filed of Public Interest Environmental Litigation (PIEL) include recognition of ‘right to environment’ as part of constitutional ‘right to life’; directive judgments with regard to against industrial pollution, vehicular pollution; payment of environmental compensation in development projects; river encroachment; unlawful filling of flood plain zones and so on. 
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Most recently, BELA has set up a regular cell where complaints are received and scrutinized for legal persuasion.

Documentation and Library

To reach out to the mass people, BELA prepares animated cartoons, television spots, dramas, documentary (Awareness Material List) that serve the purpose of educative material when disseminated through electronic media. While all these productions of BELA have been aired or otherwise disseminated, BELA continues to produce similar items for wider dissemination.

The organization has a library of about 4000 books, journals, reports and mimeographs of important national and overseas materials with a full time Librarian. It is open to every one wishing to use the same and there is an open reading-room. BELA has collection of newspaper clippings on environment since 1993. These clippings are filed and kept in 18 sub-sectors.