Bangladesh has a large population compared to its natural resource base. About 130 Million people struggle for survival over a land mass of about 1, 47,570 KM, which constitutes the country’s main natural resource, water sometimes abundant and sometimes scares, is both a resource & scourge as floods become more frequent & devastating. Bangladesh is predominantly an agricultural country produces from the agriculture sector contributing 48% to G.N.P. with the industries sector contributing 11%. The country has 24 Million acres of alluvial land for crop cultivation. Despite this, the agriculture sector is still backward. Being characterized by low productivity and huge unemployment among the rural population. Still, 70% of the population lives below the poverty line.

There is also a mutually reinforcing relationship between poverty and ecological degradation. Perception of the scarcity of physical resources engenders nervousness and frustration, which lead to a self-defeating non-sustainable approach to the exploitation of the existing resource base, causing further ecological degradation. This in turn enhances poverty. A country, which had nearly about 25% tree cover, three decades ago, now has merely 6-7% left. The implication of this manifested through recent natural calamities (Cyclone SIDR of November 15, 2007) including river erosion and coastal inundation but also disturbing the natural balance of the environment throughout the country. Rural Bangladesh is a conglomeration of homesteads called villages, where one will find low-lying agricultural land spotted with raised mounds of small structures of various sizes and heights that house about 85% of the total population.