Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project

BACKGROUND

The project takes place in one of the most densely-populated agrarian countries in the world, Bangladesh, which has also been facing the problem of high rates of deforestation. In the last three decades, Bangladesh’s forest cover has declined by 2.1 percent per year. On the other hand, the country is highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as storms, floods and drought. The lower part of Bangladesh adjoining the Bay of Bengal is particularly prone to frequent tropical cyclones, storm surges and salinity intrusion.  Climate change models suggest that the intensity of super cyclonic events will further increase over the coming decades.

GOALS & Approach

The Bangladesh Forest Department and Arannayk Foundation, under the Ministry of Environment and Forests,  jointly undertook the Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project (CRPARP) with financial support from the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) to increase coastal afforestation involving local communities and providing alternative livelihood development support to the forest dependent households in selected areas. The project implements four components namely, participatory afforestation and reforestation program, alternative livelihoods to support forest communities,  capacity development for forest resource planning and management, and project management.

Reported Takeaways

The project achievements include afforestation and enrichment of 17,500 ha of block plantation, 2,000 km strip plantations under 10 Forest Divisions in the nine coastal and hilly districts of Bangladesh,  alternative livelihood development for 6,000 poor forest dependent households, and establishment/strengthening of forest resource assessment and monitoring system using remote sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies.