The cabinet has approved the draft "Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation Act, 2022", which provides for the protection of all kinds of forest. Under the draft, government permission will be needed even to cut large trees planted on private land.

The report says the draft was approved at a cabinet meeting at the Secretariat chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It also says the proposal was placed on Monday (7 February) at a virtual cabinet meeting chaired by the prime minister, who joined by video conference from Ganabhaban while ministers and state ministers joined from the Cabinet Division at the Secretariat.

Cabinet Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam gave the details at a press briefing at the Secretariat after the meeting.

He said the law gives protection to all forest areas, including trees planted under social forestry. "It has to be understood that this is about permanent trees. There is no problem cutting a gourd plant," he said.

"People who make an ordinary garden or plant permanent trees will not be able to cut them as they wish either. Almost every country in the world has such rules."

Khandaker Anwarul Islam said that in Saudi Arabia, "you cannot imagine", if a tree falls at your home you cannot cut it without permission from the city corporation or the relevant authority. India has the same rule, he said, and the government has been told to implement it well.

The cabinet secretary said that as far as he knew there had been a similar provision before. The authorities have been asked to make granting permission simpler, because if someone in trouble has a broken tree lying for seven days while waiting for permission, that is a problem. They have been asked to see whether it can be done online.

He said the corporation used to run under the Forest Industry Development Ordinance of 1959, which has been updated into a law. Under it there will be a corporation with a chairman and directors to handle administration, and a board to oversee policy. Timber and wooden furniture produced under the corporation will come under the law, as will how rubber is extracted from the corporation's rubber gardens and developed. It will also cover making the best use of forest resources and building modern, eco-friendly industries to stop various synthetic rubber products harmful to the environment.

The cabinet secretary said the law protects other forest areas besides reserved forests, and other forest industries such as agar, which is grown in one area of Sylhet. Special arrangements have been sought to protect forests beyond government forests. For example, a large forest has been created on the far side of the Padma; although it is not a reserved forest of the forest industry, it too must be protected.

"If you go over Bangabandhu Bridge, the forest we have made on both banks is probably the deepest forest in Bangladesh. I don't think even the Sundarbans has such dense forest," he said. It covers a huge area, and cobras, pythons, monkeys, deer and many kinds of insects have been released there. It has also been brought under the law: although it is not a forest, it cannot be destroyed and must be protected.

He said the cabinet has asked for a wide publicity campaign, with the environment ministry to run promotional campaigns to bring the law's compulsory provisions to people's attention before they are enforced.

Khandaker Anwarul Islam said 75,000 trees had to be cut on the road from Elenga to Hatikamrul when it was made four-lane. "Nothing can be done now. Seventy-five thousand trees were cut. I myself went and planted two and a half lakh trees for it. I started planting beforehand. I think they have all been planted by now. So compensation has to be given. What is compulsory has to be done."

Asked about land in a reserved forest in Cox's Bazar allotted to the BCS Training Academy, he said he did not know the full details, as the public administration ministry was handling it. "As far as I have seen, the structures will be built where there are no trees," he said.

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