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Bangladesh has very little natural forest remaining due to depletion over time. The three main types of public forests that do still exist are the tropical evergreen forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, moist or dry deciduous forests in central districts like Dhaka and Mymensingh, and the unique Sundarbans mangrove forest. Social forestry programs have been implemented to meet local needs for forest products on a sustainable basis, provide rural employment, and improve soil and water conservation. Participatory forestry approaches involving local communities are now being used manage forests. The Tree Farming Fund supports participatory plantations by providing replanting costs to help make social forestry sustainable.
Bangladesh has very little natural forest remaining due to depletion over time. The three main types of public forests that do still exist are the tropical evergreen forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, moist or dry deciduous forests in central districts like Dhaka and Mymensingh, and the unique Sundarbans mangrove forest. Social forestry programs have been implemented to meet local needs for forest products on a sustainable basis, provide rural employment, and improve soil and water conservation. Participatory forestry approaches involving local communities are now being used manage forests. The Tree Farming Fund supports participatory plantations by providing replanting costs to help make social forestry sustainable.
Bangladesh has very little natural forest remaining due to depletion over time. The three main types of public forests that do still exist are the tropical evergreen forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, moist or dry deciduous forests in central districts like Dhaka and Mymensingh, and the unique Sundarbans mangrove forest. Social forestry programs have been implemented to meet local needs for forest products on a sustainable basis, provide rural employment, and improve soil and water conservation. Participatory forestry approaches involving local communities are now being used manage forests. The Tree Farming Fund supports participatory plantations by providing replanting costs to help make social forestry sustainable.
Forestry is a sub-sector of agriculture in Bangladesh, which makes contribution to the national
economy and is supposed to promote ecological stability. Although Bangladesh is amazingly green, it is a forest-poor country. Most of its public forestlands are located in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, greater Khulna district, greater Sylhet district, Dhaka, Mymensingh and Tangail districts. Half of Bangladesh does not have public forests at all. Homestead forests seen around almost all households are important for the rural communities. They meet a significant portion of fuel wood need and house construction materials, among other things. Although it is estimated that Bangladesh has approximately 6% of its land covered with public forests, actually very little of natural forests is left today except for those in the Sundarbans in Khulna. The plantations are not to be considered as forests. The moist or dry deciduous type of forest found in Dhaka, Mymensingh and Rajshahi districts have largely been depleted. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts patches of planted teak and rubber are often seen but solid patches of natural forest are hard to come by. In the coastal areas the mangrove forests are under threat, mainly due to prawn and shrimp aquaculture. The complete destruction of the Chokoria Sundarban, a unique patch of mangrove forest, due to export- oriented prawn aquaculture is a manifestation of the immense threat to the mangroves, the home of the Bengal Tigers. Officially the Forest Department of Bangladesh is supposed to manage around 2.6 million hectares or 18 per cent of the land surface of the country. This is a land mass recorded as forestland when the Forest Act of 1927 came into being. However, according to the Forest Department's latest information it now controls 10.3 per cent of land surface (Forest Department 2001). The largest category of the forests of Bangladesh are "reserved forests" which include the Sundarbans(mangroves) in the southwest, the Chittagong region in the southeast and the Modhupur tracts in the north-central region. The much smaller category of forest is the protected forests. The basic difference between the reserved and the protected forests is that the inhabitants in the reserved forest areas have no rights over the forest products but in the protected forests they have far more rights. In many cases the protected forest is an intermediate category that eventually turns into reserved forest. The last category of forest is the unclassed state forest(USF), most of which are in the Chittagong Hill Tracts(CHT). 'Village common forests' managed by the indigenous people in the CHT include substantially forested portions of the USF lands. The three main types of public forests are: (1)Tropical evergreen or semi ever-green:The Chittagong Hill Forest have been broadly classified as the tropical evergreen or semi-evergreen types, which, according to a source, supply around 40% of the commercial timber. The flora of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is distinctive in character and resembles the flora of Arakan. However, the teak patches that we see throughout the CHT are planted forests, not indigenous to the CHT.The most important commercial timber species of the Chittagong Hill Tracts used to be Jarul, Gamar, Garjan, Chapalish, Toon, Koroi, Civit, Champa, Simul, Chandul, etc. that used to grow to gigantic proportions. Bamboo is still important item for people who live in the hills. But it is much less available today and the way the CHT landscapes are changing with commercial plantations (rubber and pulpwood), the bamboo is bound to become scanty for the hill people. (2)Moist or dry deciduous forest:In the sal forest 70% to 75% of the trees used to be the sal. But today the sal forest patches have been exhausted to such a great extent that in most places they no more represent the traditional sal forests. A traditional sal forest has some unique features. The soil all over a sal forest looks yellowish or reddish in color. In the Modhupur forest, mixed with the yellowish red sandy clay is scattered manganiferous iron ore, commonly called Modhupur Kankar.In addition to its commercially valuable sal tree, this forest has other valuable trees such as koroi, chambal, jogini, chakra, kaikha, amlaki, ajuli and gadila. (3)The mangrove forest,The Sundarbans:The mangrove forest, the Sundarbans in the southwest of Bangladesh, is unique because of its history, size, productivity and significance in balancing the local ecosystem. It is the largest mangrove patch in the world.The Sundarbans have an extreme length along the sea face of the Bay of Bengal, from the Hoogli to the Meghna, of about 165 miles, the greatest breadth from north to south being about 81 miles". Despite official land reclamation programmes and continued exploitation of products from this swampy forest, it still survives with multiple threats originating from the modern world. Sundarbans including the Sundari. Some of them are Bain, Amur, Bali, Bhara, Bonjam, Garan, Kankra, Pasur Gewa, and Sondal. The major trees are found in varied quantity in different zones of the Sundarbans. The forest is also the source of other house construction materials such as Golpata and sungrass, used for making roofs of the local houses. Honey, bees-wax, crustaceans and molluscs are other resources regularly harvested from the Sundarbans. More than 120 fish species are harvested in the mangrove area. Social forestry in Bangladesh: Social Forestry programs have been initiated with a view to meet the forest product requirements of local population and to reverse the process of ecological and climatic degradation through proper soil and water conservation and to improve the socio economic condition of the rural people. Social Forestry programs have following objectives: To meet the needs for fuelwood, small timber, bamboo, fodder and other minor forest produces on sustained basis. To provide employment opportunities to the rural population. To develop cottage industries in rural areas.
To utilize the available land to the best advantage according to its production capacity.
To provide efficient soil and water conservation. To improve aesthetic value of the area and to meet the recreational needs of the population. Participatory Forestry From last two decades there has been a gradual shift in the forest management approach adopted by Forest Department i.e from its traditional custodian role to a more participatory approach. Accordingly the provision of people's participation in protecting the natural forest and afforesting the degraded and encroached forest land with benefit sharing mechanism has been developed and people's participation has been ensured. The ADB funded Community Forestry Project implemented in the seven northern districts from 1981 to 1987 paved the foundation of Participatory forestry in Bangladesh. Following this other ADB funded project named 'Thana afforestation and nursery development project', 'Green Belt project' were implemented and now 'Forestry sector project' is being implemented throughout the country. Major components of this project are: Woodlot, Agro forestry and Strip plantations etc. Social Forestry Achievements
Table: Summary of Harvested Social Forestry Plantation (1999-00 to 2012- 13) Area Felled km/ha Timber Quantity (Thousand Cubic m.) Fuelwood Quantity (Thousand Cubic m.) Poles (Thousand Nos) Total sale Proceed ( Crore Tk) Participant Involved (Thousand Nos) Participant Share (Crore Tk) Tree Farming Fund (Crore Tk) GOB Revenue (Crore Tk) 23,253 ha & 10,729 km 4,46,580 4,95,110 4542.16 461.91 105.92 208.34 45.19 190.46
Major Social Forestry and Co-management Activities
Community Forestry Project (ADB Loan No. 555-BAN; EA:FD; Duration 1981-1988);
Upazila Afforestation and Nursery Development Project (ADB Loan No.0956-BAN [SF]; EA: FD; Duration 1989-1996);
Coastal Green Belt Project: (ADB Loan No.1353-BAN[SF]; EA: FD; Duration 1995- 2002);
Forest Resources Management Project: Forest Directorate Component (IDA Grant and WFP Assistance Duration: 1992-2001 EA: FD)
Sustainability of Participatory Forestry The Social Forestry Rules The Forest Act of 1927 has been amended in 2000 to support and encourage social forestry/participatory forestry activities in the country. Social Forestry Rules have been formulated and now waiting for vetting from the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. Forest Act and Social Forestry Rules will provide legal support to participatory forestry and will also ensure sustainability to this programme. The Tree Farming Fund (TFF) Participatory plantations are being raised from development budget using both government and loan money. Participatory forestry cannot be made sustainable using government fund only. Tree Farming Fund (TFF) has been developed using 10% money from the final harvest to reduce dependency on government and donor fund. The Ministry of Finance has approved TFF. The participants will operate the TFF. TFF will provide 50% of the replanting cost. The remaining 50% cost will be provided by the project. If TFF doesn't cover 50% of the replanting cost, the participant will contribute voluntary labour to cover the gap. TFF and participatory labour contribution will make participatory forestry sustainable. Future Prospect: The Potential land available for the Social Forestry practices are as follows : No. Available Land Area in Million Hectare A Degraded & denuded land of Unclassed State Forest Land 1.00 B Khas lands 0.56 C Degraded government forest land 0.27 D Marginal strip land 0.08 E Homestead marginal land 0.27 F Degraded tea garden land 0.06 G Degraded private forest land 0.05 H Cropland Agroforestry on private agricultural lands 2.36 (29% of the total agricultural land is above normal flood level & suitable for cropland agroforestry) Total Available Land for Social Forestry 4.65 In total about 4.65 million hectare land is available for this purpose, which is about 31% of the country's total land surface. Considering size of Bangladesh and her forest area, the potential land available for Social Forestry production system is quite significant