Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Saber Hossain Chowdhury today said as part of tree plantation campaign, the government will strengthen research activities on conservation of trees endangered in the country.

Co-management of forests and collaborative forest management are going on by involving local people, resulting in making the forests more sustainable, he said.

“Forest coverage is being increased by carrying out extensive afforestation prograrmes in existing forests. Encroached forest lands are being recovered by identifying those and afforestation is underway there to prevent deforestation,” the environment minister told a meeting at Bangladesh Secretariat here.

The meeting was arranged to finalise the list of awardees for the ‘Prime Minister’s National Award for Plantation-2022 and 2023’.

Speaking at the meeting, Saber Hossain said patrol activities have been strengthened to protect forests and forest lands, while initiatives have been taken for digital boundary mapping of forest and forest land as it will help identify encroachment of forest land.

Greenery campaigns should be strengthened across the country to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change, he said, stressing the need for planting trees on rooftop of houses in cities.

During the meeting, the names of individuals and institutions were finalised for the ‘Prime Minister’s National Award for Plantation-2022 and 2023’ in different categories including educational institutions, local government institutions, individual, private nurseries, gardening of the forest department, rooftop gardening, and tree research and conservation, and innovation.

Earlier, a draft list of nominees for the award was prepared after examining it by the upazila, district and department level committees.

Each award winner will be conferred with a certificate in each category of the award introduced in 1993. Also, Taka one lakh will be given for the first prize, while Taka 75,000 for the second prize and Taka 50,000 for the third prize.

Former Deputy Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibun Nahar, National Committee member Aroma Dutta, MP, Environment Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed, Vice-Chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University Professor Dr Emdadul Haque Chowdhury, Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University Professor Dr Abu Taher, Dhaka University Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education) Dr Sitesh C Bachar, Dhaka University Emeritus Professor and former Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman, Additional Secretary (Development) of the ministry Md Mosharraf Hossain and Additional Secretary (Environment) Dr Fahmida Khanom were present at the meeting.