GCF Concept Note on Climate Resilient Forestry in Coastal Bangladesh

This Project aims to prepare a concept note for submitting to Green Climate Fund to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and enhance tree cover to conserve biodiversity and enhance ecosystem services, including coast protection and carbon sequestration. The target plantation area of the GCF project is 20,000 ha. within the coastal greenbelt area. The Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) will implement the project, and Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) will be the accredited entity.

The main objective of this concept note is to provide for and implement climate change mitigation and adaptation options and opportunities through climate-resilient coastal forest ecosystems and communities. Climate-resilient field programs for achieving these objectives are categorized in the following three components:

1. Reduced emissions and increased resilience of ecosystems and communities through forestry
2. Integrated zone management planning for emissions reduction and coastal resilience; and
3. Knowledge sharing, information management and applied research for coastal resilience and emissions reduction

The project fits into a government plan to develop coastal belts of trees, since it was observed from previous projects that the presence of a belt of trees along the coast acts as a barrier against the onslaught of storms, which saves lives and properties. In addition, the local communities will be involved in a collaborative management program where they will have some ownership through share of the forest products, together with provisions for alternative income- generating activities outside forest will be included in the project. proposed project through implementing three key components will not only contribute to the country’s coastal green belt project to strengthen resilience against climate change but also in the process enhance country’s carbon capture and storage capacity through mangrove afforestation. Hence the project is considered to be a cross-cutting project with greater potential to contribute to global carbon sink.

Client: Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD) & Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL)

Project Duration: June 2018 - November 2018

Location: Coastal Belt of Bangladesh

Accepted by GCF Board: November 2018

Indicative total project cost (GCF+ co-finance): USD $ 80 million