52% of Sundarbans declared protected area: Minister

Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin has said 52% of Sundarbans forest area has been declared as a protected area and extraction of all types of forest resources from there has been banned.

"The ministry has undertaken capacity building and human resource development programmes at the grassroots level to address the risks of climate change in coastal areas," he said in a dialogue titled 'Climate crisis-poverty-disaster want integrated initiative to prevent human disaster in southwest coastal region' organised by Sundarbans and Coast Protection Movement in the capital on Wednesday (26 October). 

He also said the National Climate Adaptation Plan has been finalised to deal with the risks posed by the impact of climate change at the national level. 

"Here the necessary measures have been taken to deal with the potential risks of other areas including Sundarbans.

"Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund has been constituted and about 800 projects have been undertaken so far with the financing of this fund," he told the programme.  

The minister further said that appropriate programmes are being adopted and implemented to alleviate poverty by increasing the capacity of local communities. 

"Four new ponds and 84 old ponds have been excavated, and re-excavated for providing drinking water to various foresters, forest workers and wildlife inside the coastal Sundarbans."