DHAKA (UCAN) -- A Church organization in Bangladesh has been working for three decades to protect the environment in an overcrowded country that suffers from severe deforestation, pollution and natural disasters.

Reforestation, including social forestry, agro-forestry, tree plantations, nursery development and homestead agriculture, are the environmental activities of Caritas Bangladesh, the bishops' social and relief arm, said its project director on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5.

Thomas Rozario, director of Caritas Agricultural and Environmental Project, told UCA News June 6 that among many projects they run, group members guard trees they planted on roadsides and in homesteads.

"The group members say that trees give them oxygen and shade and protect against soil erosion," Rozario said.

Caritas Bangladesh, which started its environmental activities in 1974 with drinking water and sanitation programs, runs 27 projects that include direct or indirect measures to protect and develop the environment.

Caritas is one of the coordinating team members of the Association of Development Agencies of Bangladesh, an apex body of 100 NGOs, that has formed a "Coalition of Environmental NGOs" to protect the environment.

According to Rozario, more than 700 NGOs in Bangladesh incorporate environmental concerns in their programs that seek poverty alleviation.

Bangladesh, prone to frequent natural disasters, notably flooding, faces major environmental problems ranging from deforestation, pollution of water sources and land, and poorly planned and controlled urbanization and industrialization, the Church social worker said.

"Air pollution has turned the air in the country's cities hazy, foul smelling and laden with toxic gases that burn people's eyes, irritate their nasal passages, and can lead to bronchitis, cancer, emphysema, pneumonia and premature death," he said.

"Solid waste is the most visible form of pollution, and millions of tons of waste are thrown away by people every year," he said. "Much ends up littering roadsides, floating in lakes and streams, and collecting in ugly dumps."

Under its Social Forestry Project, Caritas has been promoting homestead plantation and gardening. It developed about 1,000 village-based nurseries and planted 1.5 million seedlings.

About 400 tribal families directly and 1,600 families indirectly have already covered about 648 hectares of hilly land in Bandarban district in the Chittagong Hill Tracts under its Horticulture Development Project.

In a forestation project under a food-for-work program, more than 240 women protect and care for the trees planted along some 200 kilometers of roadsides.

Benedict Alo D'Rozario, director of Disaster Management and Development department of Caritas, told UCA News June 6 that the agency promotes environmental awareness to the victims who face natural disasters like flooding, cyclones, tornadoes, river erosion and fires.

Special attention is given so that the victims may take the initiative to protect the environment by planting trees and saving the forests, he said.

To mark World Environment Day, Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia called for protection of the country from environmental degradation by expanding forests and maintaining the normal flow and navigability of rivers.

She told a meeting at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in the capital June 5, "Environmental movements should not be limited only to meetings and distributing leaflets," but rather should involve taking concrete measures to protect the environment.

Last year, her government banned the production of thin plastic bags that had been littering the country and clogging the waterways, and also sought the removal of smoke-belching buses from the streets.

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