The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Forest Department of Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change signed a technical agreement as part of the project called SUFAL (Sustainable Forests and Livelihoods) for the second cycle of the forest inventory.
The inventory was initially implemented in 2016 as part of the regular forest monitoring. The second cycle is proposed to analyze trends and the need for interventions. The Forest Department will be able to analyze the change in tree and forest resources, the process of change and affect of people in this change of resources. Gobinda Roy, Project Director of SUFAL project and Nur Ahmed Khondaker, Assistant FAO Representative of Bangladesh signed the agreement in the presence of Amir Hosain Chowdhury, The Chief Conservator of Forests and other officials from the Forest Department and FAO.
National Forest Monitoring (NFM) is a process of data collection, analysis and reporting of forest-related data at regular intervals to allow monitoring of changes over time. Traditionally and practically speaking, many NFM initiatives have been limited to a National Forest Inventory (NFI) mostly focused on measuring trees in forested areas without much planning about how to sustain the process. Modern NFM, however, recognizes the need for long-term support, and that an NFI can meet the needs of multiple purposes while collecting information from multiple sources.
In particular, information about socio-economic uses, land cover, and trees outside the forest (TOF) can be integrated into an NFI to provide a much more comprehensive understanding of the status of natural resources and their management.
Nur Ahmed Khondaker, Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) said “FAO provided technical support in the first inventory, and this is the second inventory that we will be implementing together with the Forest Department of MoEFCC through this agreement. Our efforts will help in better monitoring and managing the forest resources in the future.”
A total of 1 858 sample plots from different forest ecosystems spreading across the country will be visited by the trained field crews and around 6 400 households will be surveyed to assess the contribution of the forest resources at the national level, from January to May 2024.
Background Tree and forest resources in Bangladesh play an important role in the country’s physical and socio-economic development, maintenance of environmental balance, and sustainable land-based production system. The role of forests has expanded from the production of timber and fuel wood to include a range of environmental services including mitigation of the impacts of climate change. For any country, it is ideal to have 25% of the forest area of the total landmass. In Bangladesh, the total area of forest land is 15.58% of the country’s area and the Bangladesh Forest Department manages 1.60 million hectares of forest land.
Regular monitoring of the forest resources plays a vital role in assessing the status of the forest resources, identifying the gaps and restoration opportunities, understanding the community linkage with this common resource, and preparing a better management plan for these resources. The Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh has identified sustainable forest management and conservation as one of the key sectors for delivering the country’s climate change mitigation and adaptation goals. The Eight Five Year Plan, Bangladesh Delta Plan, and Plan Perspective 2041 identify the forestry sector as one of the key sectors for climate change adaptation and maintaining a stable environment.
