The nationwide drive will prioritise native species, long-term sapling survival, digital monitoring and community participation, while targeting green jobs and expanded nursery capacity.
The Bangladesh government has drawn up plans to plant more than 51 million saplings in 2026 through various ministries, divisions and agencies as part of its election pledge to plant 250 million trees over five years, a senior adviser to the prime minister said on Thursday.
Nazrul Islam Khan, the prime minister’s political adviser and chairman of the cell overseeing the “250 million trees in five years” programme, said the government planned to plant a total of 51,488,930 saplings during the year.
The figure includes saplings produced by the institutions themselves as well as those procured through their own funding, Khan told the fourth meeting of the cell formed to implement the government’s election pledge.
The meeting was held at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change at the Bangladesh Secretariat in Dhaka.
Khan said the tree-planting programme should be turned into a nationwide social movement involving people from all sections of society, including young people, students and rural communities.
He called on the institutions involved to play a responsible role in selecting suitable native species for appropriate locations based on local soil, climate and biodiversity and in ensuring that planted saplings survive.
Khan said 43 percent of the targeted saplings had already been planted. He instructed ministries and agencies that were behind their targets to accelerate planting activities by taking advantage of the current monsoon season.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo said the government’s election pledge to plant 250 million trees over five years would require more than simply putting saplings in the ground.
Regular post-planting care, protection and effective monitoring must also be ensured, he said.
Mintoo called for increasing the capacity of government and private nurseries and said native species should be prioritised under a “right tree, right place” policy.
He also stressed encouraging people to plant economically profitable trees such as coconut, palmyra palm, date palm and betel nut trees.
Mintoo advised planned tree planting on government-owned khas land, along roads and railways and on riverbanks, chars and coastal areas.
He also stressed involving students, scouts, the Bangladesh National Cadet Corps, rovers, youth organisations, volunteer groups, the private sector, industrial enterprises and non-governmental organisations in the programme.
Environment, Forest and Climate Change State Minister Sheikh Faridul Islam said 20 million trees would be planted in coastal areas in December and January.
He expressed hope that the year’s target would consequently be achieved by January.
Faridul Islam said an integrated monitoring system would be developed to track the care and protection of planted saplings, any necessary replanting and their survival rates.
Dr Mohammad Saimum Parvez, the prime minister’s special assistant for environment, forest and climate change affairs, said an effective action plan should focus on creating more than 350,000 green jobs through the participation of women, young people and rural communities and developing new nursery entrepreneurs across the country.
The meeting also discussed progress on developing a “Tree Monitoring App” that would digitally store the GPS-based location of every planted tree, its species, planting date, geo-tagged photographs and information about its care.
Plans call for the app to provide data on tree survival rates, replacement planting and district- and institution-level progress, as well as real-time reports displayed on a national dashboard.
Acting Environment, Forest and Climate Change Secretary Dr Fahmida Khanam, Additional Secretary Shamima Begum, tree-planting cell technical expert Professor Dr Mohammad Nurul Islam Jamail Bashir JB and senior officials from the ministry and related departments attended the meeting.
