No trees may be felled in the country's reserved and natural forests until 2030, to protect Bangladesh's biodiversity. The government issued a gazette to this effect on Sunday (19 March), after the Cabinet approved the proposal last year.

The gazette says tree felling in reserved and natural forests is suspended from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2030 to protect the country's biodiversity. During this period, participatory social forestry run with the involvement of poor local people in buffer zone areas will continue, to protect the core zones of the forests.

On 31 October last year, the Cabinet approved a proposal to keep the restrictions on felling trees in reserved and natural forests in force until 2030.

At a press briefing after that meeting, the then Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said trees in reserve forests could not be cut until 2030, but trees in social forests could be felled during this period. Social forests include private plantations, roadside plantations and a buffer zone in front of the deep forest, where joint plantation is carried out with local people.

The Cabinet Secretary said that anyone felling trees in defiance of the ban would face action under the forest law, and that a gazette notification would be issued on the matter.

Asked how much reserved and natural forest there is across the country, the Forest Department's Chief Conservator of Forests Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury told Jago News that Bangladesh has about 33 lakh acres of reserved forest. Part of the reserved forest is natural forest, but there is also natural forest outside the reserved forests, amounting to around three lakh acres.

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