Greetings from Bangladesh! I’m Afsana, this is my first term as an ambassador. So excited to share my first story with you. Past year has been so hard for us because of the pandemic, people all over the world are fighting back against all odds. Vaccines have been introducing in most of the countries. As we recover from this dark past, we need to think for a better future. A future that is healthier and happier. The most important component of the environment which maintains a sound ecological balance is the “Forests”. That’s why in my first report, I will write about the forests of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is situated in the north-eastern part of the South-Asian subcontinent. The total area of the country is about 14.4 million hectares and there are three broad physiographic regions - flood plains, of about 80% land area, terraces of about 8% land area and hills of about 12% land area. It is rich in biodiversity due to its unique bio-geographical location between the Indian and Malayan sub-regions of the Indo- Malayan Realm and sub-tropical monsoon climate and accordingly its biodiversity reflects this mixture.

Ecologically, Bangladesh has been divided into 12 major bio-ecological zones including 25 sub-zones supporting a diverse set of ecosystems which can be broadly categorized as 1) forests, 2) inland water ecosystems, and 3) coastal and marine ecosystems  According to the Forest Department (FD), the total area of forest land in Bangladesh is about 2.6 million hectares representing nearly 17.62% of the country’s total land area. Of the total forest area, 84% has been classified as a natural forest and nearly 16% as plantation forest. Though legally, forests are classified as Reserved Forest, Protected Forests, Acquired Forest, Vested Forest, and Private Forest, ecologically, there are 3 major forest types occurring in three distinctly different ecosystems, that are, hill forests (evergreen to semi-evergreen); plain land Sal (Shorea robusta) forests and mangrove forests. Hill forest and Mangrove forest collectively cover more than 68% of the total forest area. Presently Bangladesh supports a total of 3813 species of vascular plants of which 486 species are threatened in different categories.

Table: Different Forest types of Bangladesh

Reference

1.       Nishat et al., 2002; Department of Environment, 2015.

2.       Ahmed et al., 2008; Irfanullah, 2011.

**The attached pictures are taken by me, hope you will like it 😊