THIS is worrying that Bangladesh, one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, has not signed the global pledge to end and reverse deforestation by 2030 at the ongoing 26th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. One hundred and thirty-one countries have signed the declaration which includes about $19.2 billion of public and private funds to help signatories to end and reverse deforestation. Even though there are doubts about the fulfilment of the legally non-binding pledge and the doubts are much justified as a similar pledge launched in 2014 did not produce much result, the government’s stepping back on signing the declaration suggests a lack of commitment to ending deforestation. The foreign minister’s seeking to explain the refusal to sign the declaration on grounds that Bangladesh is at an ‘advanced stage’ of reaching and maintaining adequate forest coverage appears to be flimsy and misleading. The minister’s claim that Bangladesh has attained 24 per cent of the total land as forests against the target of 25 per cent also appears to be stuffed with wrong statistics or erring reasoning.

Official figures show the total forested land to be 2.6 million hectares, or about 17.4 per cent of the total land area, while experts doubt that the figure is highly inflated as the figure stated covers deforested areas, land given to public agencies and for development projects. The actual forested area, as they fear, could be 10 per cent. What is also concerning is the disappearance of forest and little reclamation efforts. Bangladesh has lost some 4.58 lakh acres of forest, including 1.38 lakh acres of reserve forests, since the 1940 cadastral survey. The forest department is reported to have so far handed over 1.60 lakh acres of forest to public agencies. Moreover, businesses and influential people have grabbed about 2.87 lakh acres of forest. The government has, rather, pursued a development model that has relegated environment issues to a marginal concern and has allowed projects that are highly likely to harm the forests, including the Sunderbans. Many such projects have eroded forest people’s right to forests that the CoP26 declaration emphasises as being one of the best ways to save forests.

The prime minister, also the chair of the 48-nation Climate Vulnerable Forum and the Vulnerable 20, has urged developed countries to deliver on their promises to fight climate change. Ending and reversing deforestation is one important way to fight climate change. The government must, therefore, show its political will and deliver on its promises to save forests and to fight climate change.