Experts on Sunday said that Bangladesh was focused on reducing emissions from deforestation, now called REDD+ Readiness.
They said that the programme was important for Bangladesh where 90 per cent of the people lived in villages and depend on natural resources especially wetlands and forests.
At a workshop on ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation or REDD+ Readiness Roadmap in Bangladesh’, they said that most recent assessment done by FAO in 2010 suggested that forest coverage in Bangladesh declined to 11 per cent.
Bangladesh Forest Department with the support of UNDP and FAO organized the national workshop at CIRDAP Auditorium in the city.
Environment and forest minister Hasan Mahmud told the workshop that Bangladesh had taken major steps in moving the REDD+ agenda since it joined the UN-REDD programme.
In August 2011, he said, the government established the required institutions including a REDD+ cell, national steering committee, a working groups on safeguards, strategy, monitoring, reporting and verification to facilitate REDD+ preparedness in Bangladesh.
Hasan said that Bangladesh was now prepared to move forward in a coordinated and planned way through the three phases of REDD+ programme.
He also said that REDD+ was not only climate finacing mechanism, but also a sustainable forest conservation programme for halting deforestation.
He described the REDD+ programme as critically important for Bangladesh in need to protect livelihoods of millions of extremely poor people.
UNDP country director Pauline Tamesis appreciated the country’s efforts in forest conservation for sustainable forest management with notable success.
She assured UNDP’s partnership with the government in REDD+ readiness for the government’s capacity building in accessing future climate financing for the forestry sector.
REDD+ specialist Ansarul Karim, UNDP South and West Asia Division chief Elena Tischenko also spoke.
In his paper on ‘REDD+ Readiness in Bangladesh,’ chief conservator of forest Md Yunus Ali said that 90 per cent of the countyry’s population living in villages depended on natural resources especially from wetlands and forests.
He said that most recent forest resource assessment by FAO suggested that forest covers 11 per cent of the country’s land area.
On December 2012, the national REDD+ steering committee headed by the environment secretary approved the Bangladesh REDD+ Readiness Roadmap, said speakers. (Source)
No comments:
Post a Comment