The tree-covered land area in Bangladesh has increased significantly to over 22 percent of the total land area of the country.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin said this while addressing a discussion in the capital on Monday.
The minister said, “According to a survey for the period 2015-2019, the area of tree-covered land in the country was 22.37 percent of the total area which has already increased significantly.”
He said that Bangladesh would be successful in forest conservation and development if people from all walks of life work together to ensure a sustainable environment. For this, cooperation from the people, particularly the public representatives, forest dependent people, small ethnic groups living in the forest and media personnel, is absolutely necessary, he added.
The Forest Department arranged the discussion on the occasion of the International Day of Forest-2022.
Deputy Minister Habibun Nahar, Secretary of the ministry Md Mostafa Kamal, Additional Secretary Iqbal Abdullah Harun, Chairman of Nature and Life Foundation Mukit Majumder Babu and others were present as special guests at the function with Chief Conservator of Forests Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury in the chair.
Vice-Chancellor of Independent University Prof Dr Niaz Ahmed Khan and Deputy Chief Conservator of Forests and Project Director of SUFAL Project Gobinda Roy presented the themes.
The International Day of Forests was observed across the globe, including Bangladesh, with the theme ‘Forests and Sustainable Production and Consumption’.
Like Dhaka, the day was observed in other parts of the country amid various programmes.
In the Forest Department’s programme in Dhaka, Md Shahab Uddin distributed cheques worth Tk 1.5 million among 10 male and female beneficiaries of social forestry. He also visited the exhibition of photographs and wildlife organised to mark the day.
Speaking in the discussion, the minister said that more trees must be planted to meet the basic needs of fauna. “In addition to ensuring the conservation of the forests we have to plant trees in vacant and fallow land. Steps have already been taken to implement the plan to increase the amount of land covered by trees to more than 24 per cent,” he added.
He said that degraded and marginalized government and privately owned lands have come under afforestation through social afforestation activities being implemented by the forest department.
The minister asked the employees of the forest department to work with patriotism and dedication in forest protection. He said that necessary measures, including filling up of vacancies, would be taken to increase the capacity of the forest department.
