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Delta State to host online seminar in honor of Earth Day, April 22

Pictured is a photo of a Rohingya refugee camp.

CLEVELAND, Miss.—Since 1970, Earth Day has been a momentous and unifying day each year. Delta State University is joining this year’s global observation, set for April 22, with an online seminar exploring the world’s largest refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

DSU’s Environmental Sciences program, part of the Division of Math and Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, is hosting a seminar entitled, “Nature Conservation in Refugee Crisis: What can we learn from Bangladesh?” The speaker for the event will be Dr. Haseeb Irfanullah.

The virtual event will be available at 12:15 p.m. Thursday, April 22, via Zoom at www.deltastate.zoom.us/j/93907353546.

Since late 2017, about a million Rohingyas have been staying in the world’s largest refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. In addition to unprecedented human sufferings faced by these Muslim minorities of Myanmar, the campsites have been experiencing tremendous environmental degradation.

“The presentation gives an overview of major ecological challenges caused by this refugee crisis. It also highlights the effectiveness of the actions so far taken by the UN and other agencies to improve the situation,” explained Associate Professor of Biology Dr. AHM Reza, organizer of the event.

“Since the Rohingya refugee crisis remains an unfinished story full of complexities and uncertainties, sustainable nature conservation continues to be a big challenge.”

Dr. Haseeb Irfanullah

The speaker, Irfanullah, is a biologist-turned-development facilitator, who often introduces himself as a research enthusiast. Over the last two decades, he has worked for different international environment and development organizations (including IUCN), academic institutions, donors, and the Government of Bangladesh in different capacities.

Currently, Irfanullah is an independent consultant on environment, climate change and research systems. He is also involved with the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) as a visiting research fellow of its Center for Sustainable Development (CSD) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

For questions or more information about the online seminar, contact Reza at areza@deltastate.edu, or (662) 846-4242.