DHAKA (UCAN) -- Planting tree saplings to protect the Bay of Bengal coastline against cyclones and tidal surges is a "greener" and cheaper alternative to manmade embankments, according to Caritas Bangladesh.

The local Catholic Church's social work and relief organization is collaborating with the government's "Tree Plantation Movement and Tree Fair 2008." This ambitious three-month campaign is encouraging people to plant millions of trees to reduce the impact of storms and tidal surges.

Cyclones and flooding regularly cause severe damage and loss of life in the low-lying delta areas of Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country with a population of 150 million people. Cyclone Nargis, which left almost 140,000 people in neighboring Myanmar dead or missing in early May, also swept in from the Bay of Bengal.

Since the government-backed program began on May 24, Caritas has been distributing a one-page pamphlet, "The Role of a Green Wall in Protecting from Natural Calamities," to its field offices to share with people in the areas at risk, primarily low-lying areas near the sea.

Sripoti Mondol is one of 300,000 people involved in grassroots Caritas credit, leadership and environmental programs in the southern delta region.

Speaking by telephone on June 30 from Shyamnagar, in Satkhira district, about 180 kilometers southwest of Dhaka, Mondol said trees do not merely provide fruit and wood. "Valuable things we get from trees include oxygen for breathing and shade over one's head, but the most important thing we learned this year is that trees can protect us from cyclones and tidal surges by making a green wall," he said.

The 48-year-old said he got together in mid-June with 17 fellow members for their regular community meeting, this time to share the information in the pamphlet and their plan to start planting trees.

The pamphlet is important, according to Francis Atul Sarker, Caritas development director, in terms of educating people about how they can use environmentally friendly ways to protect against natural disasters.

"After Cyclone Sidr hit in November 2007, we saw that people living behind the Sundarbans were not as affected as people in other areas," he told UCA News in Dhaka on June 22. Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,000 people.

"It is scientifically proven that the Sundarbans work as a shield and protect the greater Khulna region, so it has linkage in disaster mitigation," he said, referring to the world's largest mangrove forest. About 60 percent of the 10,000-square-kilometer forest is in Bangladesh, and the rest in India.

The Caritas pamphlet explains that that building a "rod-cement-concrete" embankment along the coastal belt areas would be very expensive. "Therefore, it is easier and less costly to build green walls (of trees) to protect people and wealth from tidal surges and cyclones."

According to Sarker, Caritas has intensified its environmental protection work through the "social forestry" program it started back in 1979. Through that program and in collaboration with communities, he said, it has encouraged people to plant trees on fallow land and high embankments, and along roads.

Augustine Baroi, coordinator of Caritas' Improvement of Livelihood through Sustainable Agriculture project, told UCA News in Dhaka on July 2 they recently distributed around 250,000 tree saplings, mostly in Bandarban in the Chittagong area and other parts of the country including Shyamnagar.

Mondol says he has benefited for more than a decade from Caritas projects including a credit program that encouraged him to take a loan and set up a plant nursery in his village.

"Caritas has been educating us year after year, explaining the importance of trees and their benefits," he said. "Now people in my community know that trees can protect us from natural calamities too."

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