World Environment Day on Monday

The World Environment Day will be observed in the country as elsewhere around the world on Monday with a call to control plastic pollution.

This year, the theme of the day is 'Solutions to Plastic Pollution' and the slogan '#beatplasticpollutions' to raise awareness among people, said Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Md Shahab Uddin while talking to reporters after a press conference over the World Environment Day and Environment Fair 2023 and National Tree Planting Campaign and Tree Fair 2023.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the programme by planting trees at Gonobhaban at 9:30 am on Monday.

Besides, an environment fair will be held at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar from June 5 to June 11.

The tree fair will continue till June 26 starting from June 5 and July 1 to July 12. The fair will run from 09 am to 8 pm every day.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud will be present as the chief guest at the opening ceremony of the tree fair at Bangabandhu International Conference Center. 

Bangabandhu Award for Wildlife Conservation 2022, National Environment Medal 2022, Prime Minister's National Award for Plantation 2021 will be distributed.

Besides, dividend checks will be distributed among the beneficiaries of Social Forestry on the occasion.

Bangladesh Television, Bangladesh Betar will air special programmes highlighting the significance of Environment Day. 

Newspapers will publish special supplement on this occasion. Besides, a circular and booklet will be published by the Department of Environment.

The day will be observed in 100 educational institutions of all districts and upazilas of the country and in the capital.

A number of programmes including children's painting, debate and slogan competition, environmental seminars and awareness seminars will be held marking the day.

Besides, the theme of this year's National Tree Fair has been set as 'Plant trees and care, build a healthy generation'. 

Like every year, tree fairs will be organized at national, divisional, district and upazila levels. 

Tree saplings will be distributed in educational institutions.  SMS will be sent through mobile phone operators.

The environment  minister said that a ten-year action plan has been formulated to prevent plastic pollution while a three-year plan to ban single-use plastics.

As part of taking action against banned polythene shopping bags, 3 692 cases were filed through mobile courts from January 2019 to April 2023 and Tk 5.47 crore was  realised in  fine and  1,763 tonnes of polythenes were seized and 169 people were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

The minister said that solid waste management rules 2021 was formulated for proper waste management.  Besides, Environment Conservation Rules 2023 has been enacted recently.

By the year 2030, the country's forest coverage has been set to increase from 22.37 per cent to 25 per cent of the total land and the amount of forest land from 14.1 per cent to 16 per cent.

A total of 1,93, 453 hectares of blocks and 28, 551 km seedling strip gardens have been created and 10.86 crore saplings have been distributed and planted from 2009-2010 to 2021-22 financial year for forest expansion and prevention of deforestation and degradation.