Bangladesh joins pledge to end deforestation by 2030

Bangladesh has signed the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use in the COP26, pledging to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. Mostafa Kamal, a member of the Bangladesh delegation and secretary of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change, confirmed this to UNB.

Mostafa said that NDC had uploaded a letter of consent from Bangladesh on the website of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) on 26 August stating its commitment to forest protection, afforestation, and forest expansion by 2030.

However, as it was not uploaded timely, it was reported that Bangladesh is not with the global initiative of ending deforestation process- which was inaccurate.

The secretary added that Bangladesh has reached an agreement in this regard. "As other countries have reached a consensus, Bangladesh has also expressed solidarity with this consensus. But because of the system error, the name of Bangladesh was not in the first list on the UNFCC web site.

Later on Sunday, the name of Bangladesh was added and published. In this way, the names of more countries can be added and the list can be published in stages, the secretary said.

He said that Bangladesh is ahead of many other countries in the world in protecting forest lands. And the consensus target is to protect existing forest lands in their respective countries by 2030 as well as create new forests.

He added that not only the protection of natural forests, but also the proposal to increase green coverage in the cities to address the climate change has been proposed at the conference.

Another member of Bangladesh delegation chief conservator of forests Md Alamgir Hossain told UNB that a master plan has been taken to increase forest cover from 16 per cent to 20 per cent and afforestation from 22 per cent to 25 per cent by 2030. At the same time, local people are being worked together to protect the forest and create new forests.

"We are constantly protecting the forest," he said. On the contrary, the number of forests in different areas is increasing. Alamgir said that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-15) also speak of sustainable management of forests, prevention of deforestation, restoration of forests and conservation of biodiversity.

For this, Bangladesh has taken various steps to conserve forests and forest resources. Article 18 (A) of the Constitution of the country states the specific constitutional obligation to provide for the protection and security of the state's environment and natural resources, biodiversity, forests, forests and wildlife.

Moreover, the Social Forestry Rules formulated in 2004 and the latest 'National Forest Policy 2016' emphasize on forest conservation and expansion of forest areas, wildlife management and tackling the effects of climate change on the ecosystem.

Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, another Bangladeshi delegate, said that the importance of forest protection has been highlighted in the constitution of the country. In that light, the government has specific policies.

To this end, Bangladesh also expressed solidarity with the unity of all in protecting the forest. At the COP26 Conference, 134 countries, including Bangladesh, came together to protect the world's forests and protect the world's forests from adverse effects of climate change.