To protect Bangladesh's biodiversity and conserve and improve its natural environment, 13 areas of the country have so far been declared ecologically critical areas on the basis of scientific surveys. Over the past 13 years, across the current government's three consecutive terms, 106 endangered forest tree species and 240 medicinal tree species have been conserved.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal gave these figures while presenting the proposed budget for 2022-23 in parliament on 9 June.

He said 35 new protected areas had been created in the past 13 years, including nine national parks, 18 wildlife sanctuaries, three eco-parks, one botanical garden, two marine protected areas and two special biodiversity conservation areas, bringing the country's total to 51. Over the same period, 95,265 hectares of block plantations, 26,453 seedling-kilometres of strip plantations and 68,113 hectares of mangrove plantations were created.

The minister said the installation of effluent treatment plants (ETPs) in factories had been stepped up. A National Forest Inventory report has been prepared using data collected with GIS technology, and SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tools) patrolling is under way across the Sundarbans with government funding.

He said 49 Village Tiger Response Teams had been formed with people living near the Sundarbans to resolve human-tiger conflict.

Mustafa Kamal said the target for cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 has been set at 6.73 per cent with the country's own funds and technical capacity, and a further 15.12 per cent subject to international finance and technical support. Work on a National Adaptation Plan, setting out integrated adaptation strategies to tackle climate change in the long term, is in its final stage, and the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, prepared in 2009, is being updated. Steps have also been taken to make all newly established institutions, from factories onwards, environmentally friendly.

As part of this, he said, new decisions have been taken on plans to build 10 coal-fired power plants with a generating capacity of 8,600 MW, worth USD 12 billion. Four of the 10 projects have been cancelled, and the remaining six will be converted to renewable or gas-based plants on the basis of feasibility studies. "We are working to ensure that 40 per cent of our energy comes from renewable sources by 2041," he said.

The finance minister said the government is going to implement the Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan, a strategic investment framework for climate finance, to take Bangladesh from climate vulnerability to sustainability and climate prosperity. Under the plan, investment of USD 80 billion by 2030 is being planned to achieve climate resilience, financed from domestic and international sources.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.