"Save forests of CHT to protect biodiversity of the country"
To conserve the country's biodiversity, efforts must be taken to protect the forests of Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT) which is one of the most important biodiversity hotspots, and is also a part of the Indo-Barma biodiversity hotspot, speakers told a seminar today (June 8, 2022).
This is among one of 25 such biodiversity hotspots in the world, speakers came up with the suggestion in a seminar titled "Priorities of Forest landscape Restoration and Biodiversity Conservation in The Chattogram Hill Tracts" organised by Arannayk Foundation.
The foundation in its data presentation mentioned that CHT accounts for about 10 percent of the total land area of Bangladesh and has only one percent of the total population living there.
The forest is now severely degraded due to multiple factors including shifting of jhum cultivation, overharvesting, land use change and lack of sustainable forest management, the speakers said.
Taking part in the discussion Ishtiaq Sobhan, senior environmental specialist of World Bank said there is no wildlife other than CHT and Sundarbans.
Bangladesh is among 13 countries out of 200 in the world which has elephants and is also among one of 11 countries which has a tiger population. And because of this, Bangladesh's name is uttered in many international forums.
"To conserve the wildlife and greater biodiversity, we must protect CHT from the multiple threats it' is facing," said Ishtiaq Sobhan.
He further said if they could conserve Sangu reserve then at least some rare wildlife would thrive there.
Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmed, former chief conservator of forests of Forest Department said the wretched state of CHT forest reflects the scenario of the forests in the country.
He also added that Bangladesh does not have a baseline as to how many species existed before so it will be hard to tell what we are losing.
He emphasised on finding the shortcomings of the forest department in order to better conserve the forest.
Md Amir Hossain Chowdhury, chief conservator of forest of Forest Department said there are underlying factors for which forestation efforts and wildlife conservation initiatives face risk.
Mentioning the rate of deforestation and forest degradation is much higher in CHT than the rest of the country, he said that they came to this conclusion after analysing satellite data from 2000 to 2015. CHT's forests are increasingly being turned into orchards, he added.
Rakibul Hasan Mukul, executive director of Arannayk Foundatin chaired the programme while Iqbal Abdullah Harun, additional secretary of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry, Abdul Hamid, director general of Department of Environment spoke in the seminar and Mohd Abdul Quddus of Arannayk Foundation presented keynote.
Professor Mostafa Feeroz from Department of Zoology at Jahangirnagar University, Kristofer Johnson, team of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change unit of Food and Agriculture Organization, Farid Uddin Ahmed, senior forestry expert of Arannayk Foundation and Jafar Siddique, environmental specialist of the foundation were present among others.
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