UNB, Dhaka :The government will announce a 10-year conservation action plan to protect the country’s endangered vultures from extinction, says a senior forest official.”The 10-year vulture conservation action plan will be formulated involving all relevant stakeholders to make it a sustainable one,” chief conservator of forests Md Yunus Ali told a workshop on Sunday.All relevant stakeholders like the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Department of Agriculture and the Drug Directorate will be included in the vulture conservation action plan, he said, hoping that it will help the Forest Department raise the country’s vulture population.IUCN Bangladesh and Bangladesh Forest Department jointly organised the national workshop on ‘Bangladesh Vulture Conservation Action Plan’ at the auditorium of the Forest Department in the capital. The workshop was arranged to present the draft ‘Bangladesh Vulture Conservation Action Plan’ to scientists, experts and other stakeholders to receive their suggestions to finalise the proposed action plan.Chaired by project director of Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Wildlife Protection (SRCWP) Project Md Akbar Hossain, the workshop was addressed, among others, by additional secretary of the Environment and Forests Ministry M Nurul Karim, country representative of IUCN Bangladesh Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, zoology professor of Jahangirnagar University Dr M Monirul H Khan and bird expert Enam Ul Haque.Talking to UNB, principal vulture investigator of IUCN Bangladesh ABM Sarowar Alam said IUCN Bangladesh and the Forest Department will jointly finalise the draft Bangladesh Vulture Conservation Action Plan within a month and send it to the Ministry of Environment and Forests for its approval.
