Since last year, anthropic pressure on nature in Cox’s Bazaar has increased at a level which put natural resources at irreversible risk. Rapid and extensive land degradation and deforestation has led to severe damages of key watersheds causing mass erosion, increasing the threats of landslides, flash floods and affects recharge of ground water reservoirs. To reduce the risk and to improve living conditions inside the camps, FAO took steps to improve land stabilization and restore the land through plantation activities in close collaboration with Bangladesh Forest Department and Rohingya Refugee Repatriation Commissioner's Office. 

According to the report on Assessment of fuel wood supply and demand in displacement settings and surrounding areas in Cox’s Bazaar District (FAO-IOM, 2017), in 2016, the demand for fuelwood was 54,451 tons per year and increased up to 312,807 tons per year in 2018, fuelwood being the primary source of energy for cooking. Providing alternative energy consumption means is a prerequisite to reduce the pressure on the resources and is being covered under different projects. In addition, restoring degraded land inside the camps is fundamental to reduce risks from landslides, pollution of ground water and to improve living conditions of displaced people.

Building on the technical expertise of FAO and BFD, land cover maps were prepared, ground truthing was conducted, land was delineated, vegetation changes monitored, land degradation assessed, plans for landscape interventions as well as technical specification prepared. Five different sites have been identified for piloting the proposed activities. On 7^th July, the first activities to green camp 11 started with terracing, establishing bamboo fences on sloppy areas to provide biological reinforcement against landslides, plantation of 8000 grass seedlings and 1300 tree seedlings on 2 acres as well as planting nitrogen-fixing seeds (leguminous) for improving the fertility.

Matieu Henry, Chief Technical Advisor, FAO Bangladesh, said “The information provided by the Bangladesh Forest inventory with FAO support provides robust information to plan and prioritize interventions in the forestry sector, as well as to restore the land in the displacement settings in Cox’s Bazar”.  

Landscape restoration activities are being implemented involving refugees in close collaboration with BFD and RRRC, as well as IOM and UNHCR and others. Restoring the land and greening the camps contribute to improve livelihood and living conditions of refugees.

The piloting intervention will be replicated and improved based on experience in other degraded places of the camps to make them greener.