In 2018, aerial footage from the Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar revealed a stark and sobering sight: A dusty, yellow landscape without vegetation, pocked with shelters, and a horizon broken only by the silhouette of a single, solitary tree.
It was a landscape that seemed to echo the harshness and desolation of exile, and which became the global image of the unfolding crisis.
Only a year earlier, when a campaign of systematic persecution in Myanmar forced over 700,000 Rohingya to seek refuge in Bangladesh, the country responded with remarkable compassion, opening its borders and hearts to those in desperate need.
But while Bangladesh offered safety, the surrounding hills paid the price. To survive, refugees turned to the forest. They cut down trees to cook their meals and heat their shelters.
Each day, they walked farther in search of firewood. Forests were stripped bare, and the once-green hills turned into dry, cracked earth in the summer and dangerous rivers of mud during the monsoon.
Today, over a million refugees live in this fragile coastal region — including some 35,000 who were relocated to the island of Bhashan Char — but anyone visiting the refugee camps would have a hard time conjuring up such an image of desolation.
Bamboo shelters, while densely packed together, are no longer surrounded by wasteland but flanked by bushes and shrubs. Young trees are maturing on the slopes of green-covered hills.
And perhaps most tellingly, roads and pathways are no longer filled with men, women and children carrying firewood — instead, the green-and-red cylinders holding liquid petroleum gas (LPG) have become a regular part of every street scene in the camps.
In 2018, agencies began distributing LPG cylinders as a clean, efficient alternative fuel to firewood. It was a simple intervention with a big impact: Every day, 0.34 kg of LPG replaced 4.3 kg of firewood per household.
In 2024 alone, agencies distributed nearly 1.8 million LPG cylinders, with immediate and far-reaching benefits. Families no longer had to forage for firewood, easing tensions with host communities who depend on the same forests.
Children returned to classrooms, and women and girls were less exposed to protection risks associated with firewood collection. Health among the refugees improved as the burning of plastic and wood — sources of toxic fumes — was reduced.
But perhaps most remarkable, nature has begun to reclaim her place.
With fewer trees being cut, and thanks to a vast reforestation effort led by members of the Energy and Environment Network and the SAFE+2 initiative, more than 2,300 hectares of forest have been brought back to life.
In 2024 alone, an astonishing 574 hectares of land were revegetated. Where there was once bare, degraded land, trees now rise, their roots stabilizing the hilly terrain of the camps and reducing the risk of erosion and deadly landslides.
The return of greenery has also brought back wildlife, and with it, the sound of birdsong — a powerful reminder that recovery is possible, even in crisis.
What was once a cautionary tale of environmental degradation has become a rare example of rapid, large-scale reforestation — driven not by idealism, but by the hard, practical needs of displaced people, local communities and the organizations supporting them. This collaborative effort highlights the power of community-driven initiatives in addressing environmental challenges.
On World Environment Day, it’s easy to focus on iconic landscapes and ambitious climate pledges. But there is a quieter lesson to be found in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar: That with the right support, even those displaced by violence and conflict can be agents of environmental recovery.
This story is not about perfection. It is about what becomes possible when human dignity and environmental stewardship are treated not as competing goals, but as complementary ones. Here, amidst hardship and human resilience, we are witnessing a rare thing: An ecosystem reborn not by chance, but by choice.
And perhaps that’s exactly where we should be looking for inspiration.
Chris Bender is coordinator of the SAFE+2 project and Energy and Environment Network of the Rohingya refugee response in Cox’s Bazar.
