With an aim to increase the country’s green cover in line with the current government’s election manifesto, Bangladesh is preparing for a nationwide plantation of 250 million trees across the country in the next five years. “Currently, we are coordinating with various government agencies, including the Ministry of Agriculture; the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives; the Road Transport and Highways Division; the Ministry of Education; and the Bangladesh Army to finalize the number of saplings that will be planted by each of them,” said Shaikh Faridul Islam, state minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). “The plantation program is a coordinated approach,” he said. “Since the plantation does not require huge amount of funds, we will not spend extra money for the initiative, rather will allocate fund from the regular budget. Here, all government agencies will plant a set number of trees within their own annual budgets.” “At the same time, we are coordinating with different non-government development agencies working in the country and directing them to plant a specific number of trees at their own cost,” he added. The government has already formed a task force committee, led by the MoEFCC, to coordinate and monitor the program. The task force is now developing an internet-based application and dashboard where one can see the update of the activities, including the number of trees planted, their statuses, which agency planted them, the species of planted trees, and the area coverage. Islam said that the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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