The Jubo League has announced a tree-planting programme across the country, which was inaugurated by Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury. He said tree planting is essential to ensure a healthy and safe world for future generations, and that cutting trees is a crime.

He spoke at the programme's inauguration in Mugda in the capital on Friday, 14 June. The Jubo League will carry out a nationwide tree-planting programme on 23 June.

Saber Hossain Chowdhury said that as sea levels rise because of climate change, 17 per cent of Bangladesh will go under water, and no food will be produced in those areas. Salinity will come close to Dhaka and the map of Bangladesh will change. Climate change has created an existential crisis for us, he said. More trees mean lower temperatures, so to preserve Bangladesh's existence, many more trees must be planted.

He said building the Smart Bangladesh announced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina requires a healthy environment, and a healthy environment requires enough trees.

The minister said that, in line with the Awami League's election manifesto, a 500-metre green belt will be built in coastal areas to protect the country from storms and tidal surges. He said the Jubo League's help would be taken in government tree-planting programmes and in protecting forest resources.

The event was presided over by Jubo League chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash and conducted by general secretary Md Mainul Hossain Khan Nikhil. Speakers included Mainuddin Rana, acting president of Dhaka Metropolitan South Jubo League, and H M Rezaul Karim Reza, its acting general secretary, along with central and local Jubo League leaders.

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