Chapter 6 Bangladesh Experiences of Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction

According to the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) (2008) , Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country to natural hazards and disasters due to its geography, high population density, and poverty. The country is exposed to a variety of recurring natural hazards such as floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, and riverbank erosion ( Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MoFDM), 2007 ). Furthermore, Harmeling (2010) mentioned that Bangladesh heads the list of countries most at risk for floods. Bangladesh has suffered from 93 large-scale natural disasters in the period from 1991 to 2000 that killed 0.2 million people and caused loss of property valued at about 59 billion dollars in the agriculture and infrastructure sectors ( Climate Change Cell, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Bangladesh, 2009 ). Fig. 1 represents different natural hazard-prone areas of Bangladesh.