The Bangladesh government is drafting guidelines to tackle the rising incidence of fires in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, as intensifying human activity raises the risk of burning in the region. “We have already decided to formulate an SOP [standard operating procedure] which will act as a guideline for all stakeholders, including forest officials, forest-dependent communities, and tourists,” Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladesh’s environment minister, told Mongabay on May 12, 2024. He said his office also plans to conduct an awareness-building program for about 3.5 million forest-dependent people on how to collect resources from the mangrove forest sustainably. The announcement coincided with the latest fire incident in the Sundarbans. It took personnel from the fire department, coast guard, forest guard and other government agencies two days to put out a blaze that began on May 4 in the Amarbunia area of Bagerhat district, in the eastern Sundarbans. In all, the fire swept through 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres) of mangroves, damaging 2 hectares (5 acres), according to a statement from the environment ministry. The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest. Image courtesy of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Fires of this extent aren’t new in this biodiverse coastal ecosystem, and they’re largely caused by humans, whether deliberately or accidentally. A 2021 study showed 24 fire incidents recorded in the Bangladeshi Sundarbans from 2001 to 2021, but said the real number was likely much higher. It attributed the accidental causes to people discarding cigarette butts or carrying…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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