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State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shaikh Faridul Islam
The government has successfully recovered over 2,300 acres of encroached forest land and planted 28.5 million saplings across the country to date, State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shaikh Faridul Islam announced on Tuesday.
He disclosed that an additional 20 million Keora trees will be planted across 4,400 acres of coastal land by December this year, marking the official rollout of Bangladesh's maiden state-led carbon credit initiative embedded within a coastal afforestation project.
The state minister shared the updates while addressing the closing ceremony of a two-day campaign titled "Sustainable Plastic Waste Management Practices in Jahangirnagar University (Source Segregation Campaign)" at the Jannatul Ferdous Senate Building of Jahangirnagar University (JU) on Tuesday afternoon. The environmental initiative was jointly organized by the Jahangirnagar University Central Students' Union (JUCSU) and NextEra for Environment, Equity & Rights (NEER).
Highlighting escalating environmental hazards, Shaikh Faridul Islam emphasized that macro-plastic waste, microplastic toxicity, and lead poisoning have emerged as severe threats to ecological balance and public health nationwide.
He noted that the government recently gazetted the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy framework, making it legally mandatory for plastic manufacturers to manage and treat the post-consumer waste generated by their goods. Concurrently, drafting is underway for comprehensive legislation aimed at eliminating toxic lead pollution across industrial and consumer supply chains.
The state minister stressed that passing regulatory statutes alone cannot resolve systemic degradation without active source-based segregation and robust pollution containment at points of origin. Highlighting the severe ecological damage caused by unchecked dumping into rivers, canals, and wetlands, he called for the nationwide adoption of the 4R principle—Reject, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle—alongside a structured transition toward biodegradable alternatives.
Calling upon JU authorities to transform Jahangirnagar University into a pioneer single-use plastic-free campus, he encouraged the student community to spearhead waste segregation and civic awareness.
Chairing the event, JU Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan underscored the necessity of tangible execution over ceremonial environmental discussions. He requested ministerial assistance to build vegetative green buffer strips along the highway near female student dormitories to mitigate sound and air pollution, install campus-wide effluent treatment plants (ETPs) to safeguard local water bodies, and establish modern waste processing facilities.
The session was attended by JU Pro-VC (Academic) Prof. Dr. Shamsul Alam, Pro-VC (Administration) Prof. Dr. Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Treasurer Prof. Dr. Sohel Rana, Students-Teacher Counselling Centre Director Prof. Jamal Uddin, alongside a delegation from UNIDO Bangladesh, student representatives, and general learners.
