By Monika Paik, from Shyamnagar, Satkhira
Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira is one of Bangladesh’s most climate-vulnerable coastal areas, where communities regularly face cyclones, tidal surges, salinity intrusion, and lightning. Despite these challenges, local people continue to adapt through community-led initiatives that strengthen resilience and protect the environment.
With support from BARCIK, women’s, farmers’, fishers’, forest-dependent people’s, and volunteer organizations have been formed across the upazila. These community groups are actively promoting environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, and climate resilience.
As part of these efforts, members of the Jelekhali Agroecology Group, led by President Lata Rani, launched a palm seed plantation campaign recently along a two-kilometre roadside stretch from Paschim Jelekhali to Bakultala in Munshiganj Union. The plantation will continue throughout the monsoon season.
Young farmer Prashanta Mondal said that farmers and livestock are often struck by lightning while working in open fields located far from their homes. Believing that tall palm trees can help to reduce lightning risks, 18 men and women from the community joined the plantation drive. He encouraged local communities to plant unused palm seeds around their homes and public spaces or donate them to the campaign.
Purnima Rani Barman said that palm trees are valued for their fruit and for their role in maintaining ecological balance, conserving biodiversity, and reducing the impacts of lightning, which has become more frequent due to climate change and rising temperatures.
Lata Rani called on everyone to plant palm seeds along roadsides, pond banks, homesteads, and other unused lands. She said expanding palm plantations would help protect people and livestock from lightning, restore habitats for birds, provide shade for pedestrians, enhance the landscape, and contribute to a healthier and more climate-resilient environment.