Dawn on St Martin’s island, the southernmost part of Bangladesh. This small island in the Bay of Bengal is, like Bangladesh itself, home to a composite mosaic of life. Its fine sand beaches are the nesting place for sea turtles, and the trees that line these beaches are home to a myriad number of birds. Below the surface of the water that surrounds St Martin’s is another world, rich in coral and the marine life for which Bangladesh — the land of water — is famed. This variety of life is what St Martins, indeed, what the whole world depends upon. The living networks of biodiversity provide all with the health, wealth, food, fuel and vital services. Yet on St Martins, and elsewhere across Bangladesh, this diversity is being undermined, with irreversible species loss threatening the basic life support systems upon which so much life depends. The tourist boats which each year bring thousands to explore the Island’s remarkable beauty, bring with them many environmental pressures. A lifeline to many who live on St Martin’s, the boats also mean more people, more roads and more construction than the Island’s fragile ecosystem can handle. Unplanned tourism is unleashing upon St Martins new challenges that for its thousands of years of existence it has not yet had to face. The tremendous pressures on natural resources faced by this small nation with a large population are similarly played out on St Martins. Overfishing of recent years has reduced fishery stocks, meaning that …
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