Seventeen invasive alien plant species have been identified in five protected areas of the country, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin has said. The protected areas are Himchhari National Park, Kaptai National Park, Madhupur National Park, Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary and Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary.

He said the Bangladesh National Herbarium, under the Forest Department's Sustainable Forests and Livelihoods project, had identified 17 invasive alien plant species harmful to Bangladesh, seven of them major.

The minister said five strategic management plans had been drawn up for the proper management of the identified invasive species. These strategies would play an important role in conserving the national forests and forest resources and in achieving the sustainable development goals, he said.

The minister was speaking as chief guest on Wednesday (22 February) at the final workshop of the programme "Developing Bangladesh National Red List of Plants and Developing Management Strategy of Alien Species of Plants in Selected Protected Areas" at the Forest Department.

Chief Conservator of Forests Md Amir Hosain Chowdhury presided. Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr Farhina Ahmed and additional secretary and director of the Bangladesh National Herbarium Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik spoke as special guests. SUFAL project director Gobinda Roy also spoke, and IUCN Bangladesh country representative Rakibul Amin presented the programme's work.

The minister said that through this work, funded by the World Bank and implemented with IUCN's support, these invasive alien plants could be controlled by preventing the marketing and trade of species with major environmental, economic and social impacts, eradicating them from ecosystems and stopping their spread. It would also make it easier to include preventive measures such as early detection and screening and quarantine of imported plant species.

Professor Dr Mohammad Kamal Hossain presented the final results of the five strategic management plans drawn up for the five protected areas. Forest Department field officials and the country's researchers and experts on the subject also spoke.

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