A meeting on September 23 held by officials from the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (the political party of the Jumma indigenous peoples), the State Minister for Environment and the Deputy Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) affairs finalized plans for a reforestation program in the forest reserve of the CHT. Government officials reached an understanding that the forestry program will be conducted in consultation with CHT Regional Council. All parties finally reached concensus that if the forestry program was implemented in the State Forest, it would be harmful to indigenous Jumma people of the CHT as they have been using it for jum, or sifting, cultivation and consider it collective property. Officials plan to complete the afforestation program by 2015.
