Climate change in Bangladesh is a relentless daily grinding reality. Intensifying heatwaves, deteriorating air quality, creeping coastal salinity, and aggressive riverbank erosion place unprecedented strain on one of the world’s most densely populated nations.
In chaotic urban centres like Dhaka, expanding concrete and shrinking green canopy have amplified the urban heat island effect, turning summer months into suffocating trials of endurance. Against this grim backdrop, the Bangladeshi government’s ambition to plant 25 crore trees over five years sounds like a desperate, grand strategy for survival.
If executed smartly, it could prove a masterclass in climate adaptation, public health, and long-term economic resilience. Yet skepticism naturally follows such headline-grabbing figures. Skeptics inevitably ask a straightforward question: where on earth will a land-scarce country find the room?
The concern seems sensible at first glance, but the arithmetic tells a far more encouraging story. Assuming an average density of 1,600 trees per hectare, accommodating 25 crore trees requires roughly 156,000 hectares of land. While that sounds like a daunting continuous forest, Bangladesh does not need to conjure up a new Amazon.
Instead, the country can stitch together thousands of fragmented, underutilised, and neglected parcels scattered across its topography, creating a dynamic, nationwide green infrastructure network.
The most expansive opportunity lies where land is literally rising from the water. In the Meghna Estuary, heavy sediment flows continually form new coastal mudflats, known locally as chars. Much of this emerging land remains barren. Recent spatial research indicates that these newly formed deltaic tracts alone offer approximately 65,000 hectares suitable for afforestation.
Planting native, salt-tolerant species like keora, gewa, bain, and sundari would do more than anchor new soil. It would create a vital green shield against ferocious tropical cyclones, sequester carbon, protect vulnerable marine fisheries, and nourish biodiversity.
Further inland, transport corridors offer immediate, linear acreage. Bangladesh possesses over 22,500 kilometres of national, regional, and district roads. Establishing modest green belts just five metres wide along viable sections could yield upwards of 22,000 hectares of tree coverage.
Beyond absorbing roadside noise and trapping dangerous particulate matter, these linear forests would offer crucial shade, stabilize road shoulders against erosion, and enhance public safety.
Similarly, the country’s 3,400-kilometre railway network contains roughly 2,000 hectares of underused reserve land alongside tracks, once safety zones and station yards are factored out.
Waterways offer an equally promising frontier. With government plans underway to excavate or dredge around 20,000 kilometres of silted canals, integrating tree planting directly into these hydro-engineering works could secure another 20,000 hectares.
Lined with native foliage, canal banks and flood embankments would suffer less erosion, store water more effectively, and restore crucial ecological corridors without displacing a single farm.
Then there is the administrative realm of public land. Bangladesh holds roughly 14.8 lakh hectares of government-owned land, known as khas. While much of this is already allocated or ecologically protected as wetlands, identifying and reclaiming a mere 10,000 hectares of degraded, abandoned, or improperly utilized khas land would easily cover remaining targets.
Adding public institutions—schools, universities, hospitals, and government compounds—into this green ledger would mobilize millions of citizens, converting civic spaces into micro-arboretums while embedding long-term environmental stewardship in local communities.
Urban areas demand a radical shift in spatial philosophy. Congested cities like Dhaka, Chattogram, and Gazipur have virtually no vacant land for traditional forests. Here, Bangladesh must look to international pioneers.
Singapore’s transformational "City in Nature" model embeds greenery into roads, canals, roofs, and vertical walls. Melbourne and Sydney rely on detailed digital tree inventories to optimize urban canopy cover and combat lethal heatwaves. Bangladesh can replicate this by mandating urban green corridors, rooftop planting, pocket parks, and shaded parking zones across its expanding metropolises.
Yet the true hazard facing this ambitious enterprise is not spatial; it is administrative vanity. Historical plantation drives in South Asia have routinely celebrated high numbers of saplings distributed, only for the vast majority to wither away unwatered and forgotten.
True success requires measuring surviving mature trees, not photo-op saplings. To enforce real accountability, Bangladesh must deploy a national digital registry utilizing satellite imagery, drones, and mobile applications to track species, coordinates, and survival rates over time.
Furthermore, success cannot rely solely on the chronically under-resourced Forest Department. It demands seamless coordination among local authorities, transit agencies, water boards, and private developers.
If backed by sound spatial data and sustained political discipline, planting 25 crore trees will do far more than turn Bangladesh green. It will make a vulnerable nation cooler, healthier, and far better prepared for an increasingly turbulent climate future.
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Dr Faysal Kabir Shuvo is an environmental researcher, urban planner and policy analyst based in Sydney, Australia. He works as a Systems & Asset Specialist at Sydney Water and is a Fellow of the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP). His research focuses on climate adaptation, urban resilience, water security and sustainable spatial planning.