Afforestation drive awfully slow; DoF renews target
DoF claims the country has now 13. 2 pc forest coverage, including the tress on private lands and homesteads
UNB
Having failed to achieve its earlier target to increase the country forest coverage to 20 percent by 2015, the Department of Forest (DoF) has now set a goal afresh to have 15 percent vegetation coverage by 2021 through strengthening its afforestation programme, reports UNB.
In 1994, the government had taken a Master Plan under a new Forest Policy with an objective that about 20 per cent of the countrys total areas would be afforested within 20 years (1995-2015) by taking up various afforestation programmes.Though there is no credible statistics about how much area was under forest coverage during 1995, the
DoF officials say it was nearly 10 per cent.The DoF claims the country has now 13. 2 per cent forest coverage, including the tress on private lands and homesteads, but the environmentalists said it is an inflated figure as the real forest coverage will not be more than 7-9 per cent. As per its own statistics, the Forest Department had been able to increase the forest coverage by nearly 3 per cent over the last two decades, but it has no satisfactory answer as to why it failed to achieve its target of 20 per cent.The accepted standard, according to global environment experts, is that a country must have at least 25 per cent of its total land area covered with forests to maintain the ecological balance. A joint report of forest department and FAO says 78 per cent of forest areas in Bangladesh are disturbed.
Talking to UNB at Forest Bhaban ahead of World Environment day to be observed on Sunday, Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF) Md Yunus Ali said they could not achieve the target of the 20 per cent forest coverage by 2015 for lack of proper plans, initiatives, effective programmes and some other reasons.
He said they have now set a new goal that the countrys forest coverage will be around 15 percent of the total areas by 2021 as he claimed that their afforestation programmes are progressing well.
The CCF, however, said the forest coverage will be 21 per cent by
2021 if they can bring the vast forest areas in the Chittagong Hill Tracts under their afforestation programmes.
He said 80 percent areas of the around 7 lakh hectares of forest land in the CHT, which is now under Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council following the 1997 Peace Treaty, has turned barren due to shifting (jhum) cultivation and indiscriminate tree felling.
Yunus said they have already submitted 12 proposals to the government to reinforce their afforestation programme and reach their 2021 target. If half of our proposals are accepted, well get a huge success in our afforestation drive.
Replying to a question, the CCF said there was 17.4 percent forest coverage in 1947 in Bangladesh part. Due to various reasons, including setting up establishments of Army, Navy, BGB, and Coast Guard as well as construction of national highways, thana connecting roads, around four lakh acres of forest land have decreased since independence of the country, he said.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (BAPA) general secretary MA Matin said DoFs afforestation programme could not play any effective role in checking deforestation activities
like illegal logging, indiscriminate tree felling and forest land enforcement.
Therere still big sawmills near every forest of the country those are mainly used by illegal tree fellers.
Environmentalist and director of Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) Philip Gain said the countrys forest coverage has shrunk to merely six-to seven percent now from 20 percent in 1927.
He said a massive expansion of commercial shrimp culture took a heavy toll on forest land. Around 2 lakh hectares of forest lands in the coastal areas were destroyed by making shrimp enclosures.
There were 100 species of indigenous trees in Madhupur forest but in the name of participatory afforestation these trees have been replaced by acacia and eucalyptus, he said.
