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Source: South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), www.sawtee.org

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Source: South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), www.sawtee.org

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Chevron's seismic survey, USAID’s Nishorgo Project, the Lawachara National Park of Bangladesh: a critical review.

Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan

CSGR Working Paper 256/08

December 2008

Email: tanzim04@gmail.com

The paper mainly reviews the USAID-funded Nishorgo project which is an environmentalproject undertaken for the conservation of the officially declared protected areas ofBangladesh. This project is based on a co-management approach having the major featuresof Public-Private Partnership arrangements. Both state and non-state actors including thelocal communities are the participants in the project. However, the operation of this projectcoincides with the business interests of the US-based multinational company- Chevron in theproject sites. In fact, it conducted a seismic survey in the Lawachhara forest areas of northeastern Bangladesh. But the survey raised a public controversy as it violated the municipallaws of the country on wildlife conservation.

This paper takes a Gramscian perspective to review the two different but relatedMNC and donor projects. In this regard, the first project of seismic survey provides a casestudy for the analysis of Chevron’s operation in Bangladesh, while the second project reviewsUSAID sponsored Nishorgo. Based on field works, interviews, and content analysis of localnewspapers, this paper finds that both projects appear to have some other purposes whichare largely related to the economic interests of the USA. In both cases, members of the localpublic and private agencies appear to partner with their international cohorts, and neglectthe genuine responsibility of conserving the forests, thus further complicating the principlesof public-private partnership empirically.

Key words: Public-Private Partnership, co-management approach, Nishorgo project, Chevron, USAID,forestry project, conservation, co-option, historic bloc.

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