The New Nation - Internet Edition

Planting of trees or seeds in order to transform open land into forest or woodland is termed as afforestation. It can also refer to giving land the status of 'royal forest'. Afforestation is not to be confused with reforestation, which is another related term. Reforestation involves using native trees to restock already existing depleted forests. Most countries have seen rapid decline in forest cover since the dawn of the industrial revolution. Hence, both government and Non-governmental organisations (NGO's) have been directly propagating afforestation & reforestation programs. Afforestation and reforestation can go a long way in minimizing the Green House effect. These are relatively quick, easy to accomplish options with no economic penalties. It is a viable option to reduce net emissions. The essential benefits that these programs include climate stabilization, food and forest products.

Afforestation process of planting trees on land formerly used for purposes other than forestry. Reforestation, on the other hand is the restocking of existing woodlands that have been depleted. In Bangladesh the degradation of forests is a problem for more reasons than just the loss of forest-based products. The forests under the control of the Forest Department have been classified into hill forests, mangrove forests and plain land forests. The hill forests belonging to tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen species extend over the hilly eastern part of the country. Over four hundred tree species have been found in the hill forest region. According to one estimate more than 100,000 ha of hill forests have been replaced by plantations of valuable and fast growing species. Around 12,000 ha of plantation are raised in hill forests every year. It is also known that about 1.8 million acres of forestland is available for plantation development activities.

Homestead forestry is another method by which forest resources are being enhanced and it has an important environmental component. But as it stands today, programmes for community forestry or large-scale social forestry in Bangladesh have had limited success so far on account of nominal participation from local villagers. For the sustainable management of forest resources, it is thus necessary to ensure active participation of the people at large, especially the womenfolk as trees have always been central to women's life-style.

Taieba Ahmad

Santosh, Tangail.