Local Environment Development and Agricultural Research Society (LEDARS), is a non-profit and non-political organization that has been working for social, economical and environmental development of the poor and marginal people of the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh since 1996. The previous name of LEDARS was Gana Unnayan Shangstha (GUS). The name has been changed in 2007 to address the government regulation and to avoid the duplication of name in the NGO Affairs Bureau. When unplanned shrimp cultivation, river erosion and various natural disasters compelled the coastal people to be migrated in the urban areas during the early 1990s, the organization emerged from a local club to a development organization to stand beside the vulnerable people to support their livelihood security and establish their rights. LEDARS has been registered under the Social Welfare Department and NGO affairs Bureau, Government of Bangladesh. As defined, the organization works with landless, unemployed male & female, coastal fishermen and the Sundarbans resource users groups in general.

To protect the coastal environment and mangrove biodiversity, LEDARS initiated a CBO network and involved Union Parishad to create a movement in 2001. The organization first highlighted the widows of the tiger killed males in the Sundarbans, who are the most vulnerable community in the Sundarbans impact zones. In order to create a wider constituency to address the whole coastal issues, LEDARS tries to build alliances with the like minded and similar organizations.