Photo: Collected
Social forestation has benefited scores of people, including women most of whom are marginalised in the region, as well as its char (river shoals) and Barind tract, providing dividends of their legitimate share for looking after trees.
Besides, the participatory social afforestation programme has improved the living and livelihood conditions of the beneficiary poor and landless farmers by increasing their income to some extent as they get profit share after being sold trees following 10 years of plantation.
More than 50,000 tree saplings of forest, fruit and medicinal plants have so far been transplanted in Char Mazar Diar village under Paba upazila creating a scenic beauty along with eco-friendly atmospheres everywhere in the afforested area.
The Department of Social Forestry (DSF) has transplanted the trees under its five-year project titled "Environment Protection through Social Forestry in the Rajshahi Barind Tract Region" during the last couple of years.
Another 10,000 tree saplings will also be transplanted in five seedling-kilometer areas of the village during the current season.
Muhammad Asaduzzaman, MP, inaugurated the tree plantation drive at the village on Thursday (1 August) afternoon as the chief guest saying adequate tree plantation can be the crucial means of reducing carbon emission together with mitigating the adverse impact of climate change.
Among others, Upazila Chairman Faruque Hossain, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Abu Saleh Muhammad Hasnat, Divisional Forest Officer Rafiquzzaman Shah and Assistant Conservator of Forest Mehedi-Uz-Jaman were present on the occasion.
Abul Hossain, president of the Char Mazar Diar Social Forestry Committee, said seven volunteers are currently working to guard the forest. He himself spends most of his time inside the forest, he added.
It feels utterly insecure at night to stay inside such a vast forest that takes 4.5 hours to travel on foot. There is a need to set up several solar panels at the forest guard's cottage so that they can get light there.
Hossain said the profitable afforestation activities encouraged many people to plant saplings of wood, medicinal and fruit-bearing trees at homesteads, roadsides, office premises, embankments, forest areas, religious institutions' premises and other places. Divisional Forest Officer Rafiquzzaman Shah told BSS that the project is being implemented in 32 upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj and
Natore districts since November, 2020 last.
Main thrust of the Taka 35.13-crore project is to conserve and improve biodiversity in Rajshahi barind area through social afforestation. It also has provision of improving the eco-friendly natural tourist spot of Altadighi National Park at Dhamoirhat upazila in Naogaon district.
Various other infrastructures, including establishing observation tower, seating bench, road, parking area, concrete guide map, footpath, toilet and water supply are being constructed centering the park.
It also has a provision of distributing around six lakh saplings of fruit, forest and herbal trees among poor community people for transplantation free of cost so that they can meet their demands of nutrition and fuel.
Shah said they will generate 600-kilometer strip forest on a participatory basis, 100-hectare woodlot garden and 50-hectare garden with saplings of endangered and long-life tree species during the project period until June 2025.
They will also transplant 40,000 saplings of domestic and ornamental plant species- three lakh palm trees, 5,000 wood-plants, he said.
Role of the palm tree is very important to reduce the rate of lightning that claims the lives of both people and domestic animals every year.
Herbal orchard will be generated with around 1,250 saplings of medicinal plants, Shah said.
Enrichment plantation will be made on 20 hectares of land for development of natural Shal forest along with establishing two arboretums with extinct
species of trees and generation of herbal orchards with medicinal plants, he said.
Footpaths and other essential infrastructures along with seating arrangements will be constructed on the embankments and adjacent areas of Sonadighi and Dibor Dighi to make those attractive to the visitors and tourists.
On behalf of the project, beneficiary and community people will be imparted training on orchard creation and its management, environment conservation, adverse impact of climate change along with its adaptation and mitigation, eco-friendly eco-tourism management and wildlife conservation.
As a whole, the social forestry project has been providing assistance to around 4,500 people for their capacity building and making them adapt to climate change along with biodiversity protection in the region, including its vast Barind tract for the last couple of years.
Besides, around 3,500 households of ethnic minorities and other less-income groups are making earnings through participation in forestry activities and different income-generating ventures.
Messenger/Nishat
