By Md Aynal Haque

   RAJSHAHI, July 19, 2022 (BSS)- Social forestation has benefited around 798 people, including 204 women, most of them are marginalized in the region, including its vast Barind tract, by providing them dividends as their legitimate share for looking after trees.

   The participatory social afforestation programme has improved living and livelihood conditions of the beneficiary poor and landless farmers through increasing their income to some extent as they get profit share after being sold trees following 10 years of plantation.

   Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Rafiquzzaman Shah told BSS that the participatory afforestation activities have been expedited with the main thrust of encouraging the rural people in planting saplings and nursing of the transplanted trees.

   He said the department has been implementing various lucrative programmes in all 31 upazilas of Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Natore and Naogaon districts. People of the respective areas were given responsibilities to look after the planted saplings and they get 55 per cent share of the sale after 10 years of plantation while 20 per cent and five percent are distributed among land owners and local government institutions concerned.

   The beneficiary people get around Taka 3.02 crore, while the land owners Taka 40.21 lakh and Union Parishad Taka 24.63 lakh in the last two years. Successful implementations of the social forestry programme always supplement the government's poverty reduction effort while facing the adverse impact of climate change in the drought-prone area.

   Profitable afforestation activities encouraged many people to plant saplings of wood, medicinal and fruit-bearing trees at homesteads, roadsides, office premises, embankments, forest areas, religious institutions' premises and other places.

   DFO Rafiquzzaman Shah said they are implementing a five-year project in 32 upazilas of Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj and Natore districts since November, 2020 last with the main thrust of conserving and improving biodiversity in the region at present.

   The Taka 35.13-crore project titled "Environment Protection through Social Forestry in the Rajshahi Barind Tract Region" has provision of improving the eco-friendly natural tourist spot of Altadighi National Park at Dhamoirhat Upazila in Naogaon district. With intervention of the scheme, around 4,150 people have started getting capacity building support through their involvement in social forestry activities related to biodiversity protection together with adaptation to climate changes.

   Apart from this, 3,250 households of ethnic minorities and other less-incoming groups are getting assistance of socio-economic development through their participation in forestry activities and different income-generating ventures.

   Various infrastructures, including observation tower, seating bench, road, parking area, concrete guide map, footpath, toilet and water supply will be constructed centering the park. It also has a provision of distributing around six lakh saplings of fruit, forest and herbal trees among poor community people for transplantation free of cost so that they can meet up their demands of nutrition and fuel.

  DFO Rafiq Shah said they will generate 600-kilometer strip forest on a participatory basis, 100-hectare woodlot garden and 50-hectare garden with saplings of endangered, extinct and long-term tree species during the project period until June 2025. They will also transplant 40,000 saplings of domestic and ornamental plant species, three lakh palm trees, 5,000 stick-plants.

   Role of the palm tree is very important to reduce the rate of casualty caused by a thunderbolt that claims the lives of both people and domestic animals every year. Herbal orchard will be generated with around 1,250 saplings of medicinal plants. Enrichment plantation will be made on 20 hectares of land for development of natural shal forest in addition to establishing two arboretums with extinct species of trees and generation of herbal orchards with medicinal plants.

   Seating seats, footpaths and other essential infrastructures will be constructed on the embankments and adjacent areas of Sonadighi and Dibor Dighi to make those attractive to the visitors and tourists. Beneficiary people and community watchers will be imparted training on orchard creation and its management, environment conservation, adverse impact of climate change along with its adaptation and mitigation, eco-friendly eco-tourism management and wildlife conservation.