Bangladesh Forest Department

The Bangladesh Forest Department is balancing industrial development and land encroachment pressures with the need to restore forest cover and meet national climate goals.

Forest Department established 1870 during British Raj; Bangladesh assumed stewardship post-independence 1971. Legal basis is the Forest Act 1927 (as inherited and amended 1989, 2000), which remains the primary operative statute; the Wildlife Conservation and Protection Bill passed April 10, 2026 replaces the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act 2012 and gives BFD updated enforcement tools -- it is not yet gazetted as an Act. Head office: Mohakhali, Dhaka. Chief Conservator of Forests Md. Amir Hosain Chowdhury appointed March 25, 2020 (confirmed in role as of January 2026 per IUCN contract signing). The 25-crore (250 million) tree pledge is a BNP election manifesto commitment now government policy under Environment Minister Abdul Awal Mintoo; the Forest Department is the implementing agency. Most recent Sundarbans tiger census (2024 survey, published October 2024): 125 adult tigers at 2.64/100 km² density, up from 114 (2018) and 106 (2014); a new 2026 census is reportedly being planned by Indian Sundarbans authorities but no Bangladesh BFD 2026 survey was confirmed in sources as of May 2026. Mangrove plantation programme: BFD has planted >200,000 ha cumulatively since 1960s; FY2026 targets 200 ha new coastal char plantations. Annual budget for BFD alone not found in public sources; parent ministry MoEFCC FY2025-26 allocation is Tk 2,144 crore per the ministry JSON already in this dataset. staff_count: not published in any accessible source as of verification date. CITES national authority: the Forest Department is the designated Management Authority for Bangladesh under CITES.