Photo: Indigenous people form a human chain in Tangail district, Bangladesh as they demand legal rights to their ancestral forest land. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

TANGAIL, Bangladesh, Jul 7 2021 (IPS) - When the Bangladesh Forest Department felled Basanti Rema’s banana orchard, Rema, a Garo indigenous forest-dweller of Madhupur Forest, felt she was living a nightmare.

The Bangladesh Forest Department has recovered 2,468 acres of forest land from grabbers in the last eight months.

Officials of the forest department shared this information at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on environment, forest and climate change affairs ministry at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

Ruling Awami League MP and chief of the parliamentary watchdog Saber Hossain Chowdhury presided over the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

The African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) gathered representatives from 31African Countries, the private sector, national and international organizations, and youth ambassadors in Kigali, Rwanda, to participate in its Fifth Annual Partnership Meeting.

They have a common goal: tobeginrestoring100 million hectares of land by2030.The hybrid event was a first of its kind for the partnership and featured thelaunch of a documentary film,AFR100 Presents: The Grand African Green Up,which highlights local action for restoring biodiversity, food systems, and theclimate.

THE Forestry and Value Chains Development Programme (FORVAC) has brought in positive results in
Namtumbo District, Ruvuma Region as villagers are no longer engaging in illegal logging as it was in the past.

Reports have it that villagers are now aware of the dangers that comes with illegal logging and
deforestation and in turn they collectively conserve the nearby forests so as to earn cash that
makes them to execute different village development projects.

Two people have been sentenced to six months in prison for encroaching on Mount Kei Central Forest Reserve on the border between South Sudan,  Koboko and Yumbe districts.

Thirty-one others were charged with carrying out prohibited activities in the forest and remanded until June 24.

Livestock farmers in Gomba District have asked Parliament to swiftly intervene and block attempts by National Forestry Authority (NFA) to parcel out the remaining part of two central forest reserves of Kalombe and Nsowe to private investors.
NFA is mandated to manage all central forest reserves in the country.

Early this year the world commemorated the International Day of Forests, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) joining Uganda to reiterate their commitment to restoring forests and degraded lands, as well as calling for action to reduce deforestation.

Background
The call for forest restoration and better management of the ecosystem was made during a high level national dialogue organised jointly by FAO, the European Union, Sweden and the Ministry of Water and Environment.

Patches of forest cleared and tended by Indigenous communities but lost to time still show more food bounty for humans and animals than surrounding forests.

The Sri Lankan army and forestry department has continued its ban on Tamil villagers of North Nedungeeni Vedivaithakal in Vavuniya from entering the village. 

Although residents in the area have proof of their lands, the army has set up camp in the village and continues to prevent people from entering the area. Some 15 families who attempted to clear their own land to relocate there using a permit from the Divisional Secretary, were denied entry by the army and the forestry department. 

A total of 1,60,566 individuals and organisations have grabbed 2.57 lakh acres of forest land across the country. 

Of the total forest land, 1.38 lakh acres are reserved forest area -- grabbed by 88,215 persons and organisations. 

Forest Department submitted the statistics containing names of grabbers of forest land all over the country today at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. 

Forestry crimes including logging, poaching and encroachment on state forest land for private ownership increased considerably last year despite stricter law enforcement, according to an annual report by the Ministry of Environment.

Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said forest rangers cracked down on 8,917 cases in 2020 compared to just 5,745 the previous year – an increase of 3,442 cases or nearly 40 per cent.