Title: Climate resilient reforestation program to manage endangered tree species and conserve the watershed of river Halda in Bangladesh: a success story
Time: February 15, 2024, 7- 8 pm (Vancouver, PST )
Speaker: Prof. Dr. M. Al-Amin
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Professor Dr. M. Al-Amin
Professor Dr. M. Al-Amin is a forest scientist specializing in climate change and forest adaptation with 35 years of experience in the forestry and environment sector of Bangladesh. He earned his Ph.D. in Environmental Forestry from the School of Natural Resource Management, University of Wales, Bangor, UK; did his post-doctoral in population genetics and Isozyme studies from Gottingen University, Germany and completed post-doctoral research in collaboration with the University of Florida, USA. He has 29 years of experience in teaching and research on forest and environment policy, climate change, forest management, remote sensing and GIS applications with different capacities at the university level and 5 years of experience as a Research officer at Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI) with administrative responsibility to manage research on seed orchards. He is the former director of the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at Chittagong University. Currently, he is working as an elected steering committee member of the Asia Pacific Forestry Education Coordination Mechanism (AP-FECM).
He wrote six books, published more than 60 scientific articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and contributed his knowledge as supervisor of 150 PhD, Master and undergraduate theses. He earned the best research award from the IUFRO-FAO-organized conference on climate Change and Forest Adaptation at Umea, Sweden in 2008.
Abstract
This study focuses on the impacts of climate change and deforestation on the watershed areas of Halda River, the only natural breeding ground of carp fishes in the world and also a major source of water for irrigation and drinking. Spatial and temporal trend analysis of land uses and their changes using satellite images from 1990 to 2020 of the watershed area of Halda River revealed that tree cover in the watershed area decreased in the last three decades. This study also assessed the present status and measured tree vegetation with species composition, diversity and density of regeneration of tree species both indigenous and exotic species using field experimentation. Regeneration study divulged that 98 tree species were present naturally on the forest floor. Some species moved to the upper altitude as a strategy to cater to climate change from their earlier parental altitudinal positions. On the other hand, reforestation programs on the hilly part of the watershed area with indigenous and 52 endangered species restricted runoff during monsoon and act as germplasm repository of endangered species for the nation and provide a positive impact on the management of the watershed of river Halda. Recently, this reforestation program earned the best national award for tree planting, which resembles its success as well. This approach of reforestation program with carbon management may provide an instrument to combat climate change and rebuild a healthy forest and also manage sustainable watersheds where rivers are under threat, may be apply to any part of the world as it has a generic nature.