Not long ago, our mind had been so preoccupied with a shrinking forest cover that we would most likely overlook the gains we were storing up outside the classified forest areas. We suddenly wake up from a frustratingly poor tree cover over a land, reputed for centuries as fertile and greenery-clad , into a relatively positive frame of mind. We now know that a new tree canopy has grown outside the forest ranges.
Collaborative research by Maryland university in the US and our forest directorate leads to a striking revelation that between 2000 and 2014 , tree cover outside the forests in Bangladesh has grown by 2 lakh,19 thousand and 300 hectares! Actually, the solidity of finding and its confirmatory value is derived from the exercise being based on satellite imageries and field surveys, courtesy of US space agency NASA and the US geological survey agency, USGS.
This is put down to citizens' consciousness of the economic value of trees, community initiatives for tree plantation and popularisation of social forestry duly encouraged and aided by the forestry directorate. The growth of nurseries , availability of seeds and saplings along with horticultural consultative services, are no longer confined to the public sector, they have been supplemented by private sector too. This trend needs to be taken forward with incentives provided to private and group enterprises.
It is perhaps worth musing that tree canopy pictured on the satellite imageries couldn't have missed out on roof-top gardening in the urban centres which has become a new rage.
The replenishment of trees outside of the forests shouldn't even be unwittingly allowed to provide handle to grabbers' and poachers' community to go about their 'business as usual'. Actually, those in charge of the forest ranges and environmental protection need to be up to their tasks of ensuring biodiversity and combating ecological degradation with redoubled energy.
According to the survey report, the new tree cover is mostly attributed to backyard gardening, fruit trees grown commercially through private initiative and above all, the forest department's massive mangrove plantation on the newly accreted lands near but a few miles off the coastal belt.
By an association of thought and collaterally, one may like to refer to Swarna Dip (golden island) and Nijhum Dip (tranquil island) thought to be great potential tourist assets. The former in particular, roughly the size of Singapore, and being developed by the Army, conjures up future bonanza as a tourist destination. In these two islands, extensive tree plantation has been undertaken with a view to building soil capital. This is a key to solidifying all new accretions at the river estuaries and off-shore, something we better keep in mind so that the newly accreted lands can be put to sustainable use.
Global Forest Watch enlightened us by its finding that in 2010 Bangladesh had 1.8 mha of tree cover comprising slightly over 13 percent of our land area. Net increase in tree canopy is put at 4.3 percent during 2000-2014 ie. in fourteen years nothing to be euphoric about. In the same period, depletion of forests in the three districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts alone stood at 80,800 ha. The survey puts the total tree cover of the country at 31 lakh, 65 thousand 500 ha.
The latest application for satellite-based measurement of change in tree cover can play an important role in determining national cover for policy update including ensuring carbon sequestration. We must go on having such assessments at shorter intervals to monitor our status, say, every five years.
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