Staff Reporter:
Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md. Shahab Uddin said that the government has pre-pared a list of 1000 plants of which 394 are endangered, with the aim of strengthening conservation and management activities of various species of plant in the country.
This red list will play an important role in achieving our Sustainable Development Goals and in formu-lating national policies for the protection of endangered plant species, he said adding that it will also help in reporting in Convention on Biological Diversity and CITES.
The Environment Minister said these while speaking as the chief guest at a workshop titled ‘Final Dis-semination Workshop on National Red List of Plants’ organized at the Forest Department on Sunday.
He said according to the results of the Red List Assessment, out of 1000 plant species, 08 are primarily extinct, 5 are critically endangered, 127 are endangered, 262 are vulnerable, 69 are near threatened 271 are of least concern and 258 plant species have been identified as data deficient.
The Minister directed the officials of the Forest Department to take urgent steps to conserve the critical-ly endangered species of the country- Bashpata, Triaus Orchid, Chalmugra and Bamon Khejur.
Shahab Uddin said in order to preserve the endangered species of plants of this country, the endangered plants found in the results should be included in the afforestation program.
In order to know the complete information of such species, a Red List assessment of the remaining 3,000 plant species of the country should be completed and the list need to be updated periodically, he said.
Deputy Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Habibun Nahar, Secretary Dr. Farhina Ahmed, Additional Secretary and Director of Bangladesh National Herbarium Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik spoke as special guests at the workshop.
Various government and private university teachers and researchers, various ministries and non-governmental organization officials, representatives from World Bank and various development aid agencies spoke .
