UNESCO World Heritage Committee supports Bangladesh’s efforts to protect Sundarbans: Minister

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has supported Bangladesh's continued efforts to protect the resources of the Sundarbans through planned afforestation, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin has said.

The 45th extended meeting of the highest policy-making council of UNESCO's World Heritage Committee held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, praised the initiatives of the Government of Bangladesh in a decade to protect the Sundarbans, he said.

The minister said these at a press conference at his ministry at the Secretariat on Wednesday (4 October) morning.

"The present government is implementing various initiatives for the protection and development of the Sundarbans as a World Heritage Site. The government has had significant success in this regard. Under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the government is working relentlessly to protect the Sundarbans, which is recognised as a World Heritage Site," he said.

The government's use of ultra-supercritical thermal technology at Maitree Super Thermal Power Plant, revising the Power System Master Plan-2010, to avoid harmful effects on the outstanding universal value of the Sundarbans has been appreciated at the meeting, he said.

The decision to cancel six coal-fired power plants as part of the Nationally Determined Contribution has been lauded, the minister also said.

The government has banned the felling, purchase, sale, use and transportation of trees till 2030 to preserve the Sundarbans and its biodiversity, he said, adding that collection of all types of resources from the protected area of 53.52% of the total area of the Sundarbans has been prohibited.

Since 2021, incidents of deer hunting in the Sundarbans were not like the previous years and there has been no adverse impact on the environment of the Sundarbans, the minister also said.