Forest land lost to govt agencies

The government is supposed to increase forest land to 20 percent of the country's total landmass by 2030, but the reality is, it is losing land every year to different government agencies who demand land for their establishments and development projects. Official numbers show that so far Bangladesh has 17.62 percent of its landmass covered by forests and of that the Department of Forest (DoF) has jurisdiction over 10.84 percent.

Sources in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change said so far almost 1.6 lakh acres of forest land has been handed over to different government agencies and establishments, or used for development projects. That is not all; the feasting on forest has not stopped and several government agencies and wings are demanding a huge amount of woodland from the ministry to build their establishments, make recreation centres, cottages, guesthouses, offices, and roads.

The government aims to stop deforestation by 2020 and have 20 percent of the landmass as forests by 2030 with 70% tree density — a quantitative measure of tree cover in an area — as per the sustainable development goal (SDG) finalised in 2015.

For More: https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/forest-land-lost-govt-agencies-in-bangladesh-1718209

Posted by admin on Mar 28 2019. Filed under Forest & Land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry