A programme to plant 25 crore trees across the country will be carried out over the next five years, creating about 3.5 lakh green jobs directly and indirectly, Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury has said.

He presented the proposed budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year at the budget session of the Jatiya Sangsad on Thursday, 11 June.

The finance minister said Bangladesh is among the countries worst affected by climate change, battered by rising global temperatures, sea-level rise, salinity, cyclones, floods and other natural disasters. "Our goal is to build a liveable Bangladesh for future generations, and to that end our government is implementing extensive programmes," he said.

He said 4 crore 28 lakh 97 thousand seedlings will be planted in 25,960 hectares of block plantations in 2026-27. Another 37 lakh 27 thousand seedlings will go into 3,727 km of strip plantations and 1 crore 77 lakh 76 thousand into 4,000 hectares of mangrove plantations. A target of 56 lakh seedlings has also been set for homestead forestry.

He added that a work plan has been finalised under the "One Child, One Tree" programme for government primary school pupils to plant 1 crore trees at their homes or in their yards. To tackle the effects of climate change, 50 per cent of the coastal mangrove forest will be brought under carbon trading, and a circular future model will be implemented in waste management, he said.

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