Agricultural Research Management Information System

Home
Research Summary
Search
About Us
- ARMIS
- Brochure
Contact Us
Report
User Request
Data Input
Help
- Operation Manual
  - PDF
  - Video
- Program Area & Commodity
We have reached 37600 number of research entries at this moment.

- Logout

Research Detail

Home
Research
Detail

Coastal Afforestation in Bangladesh to Combat Climate Change Induced Hazards

Sk. Ahiul Islam
Plantation Trial Unit Division, Bangladesh Forest Research Institute, Barisal, Bangladesh

Md. Mijanur Rahman
Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The coastal zone of Bangladesh is extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change. The coastal populations are mostly poor, some of them are landless and they earn their livelihood through agriculture, fishing, shrimp farming, salt farming etc. As the poor groups they are severely affected by climate related disaster and hazards. Climate change induced disasters destroy their livelihood options and increase peoples vulnerabilities. The devastating cyclone that occurred in 1991, Sidr in 2007, Nargis in 2008 and Aila in 2009, that killed thousands of people and destroyed inhabitation and infrastructures in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. Creation of mangrove and non-mangrove plantations along the coastal belt is highly desirable for reducing vulnerabilities and hazards of extreme weather events like cyclone and storm surges as green shelter belt. Bangladesh Forest Department has already been raised large scale plantations mainly with Sonneratia apetala in all along the coastal belt to create a green shelter belt. But these established plantations are facing tremendous pressure due to insect infestation, rising up forest floor and lack of inundation resulted large gaps inside plantations. From the available research findings, some of the other mangrove species are found suitable for planting inside the gaps of these plantations. Moreover, some of the non-mangrove species are found promising for planting in the raised coastal lands and embankment. Therefore, the selected promising species can be planted in the accreted lands, roadside, embankment and marginal lands for creating dense vegetation which can reduce the impact of all weather events resulting from climate change. Multi-species mangrove plantations can also be established in the accreted lands for long term sustainability of coastal ecosystem. The coastal community can be incorporated to the afforestation programmes for the sustainable development of coastal forestry. Thus they will be socially and environmentally benefited.

Keywords: Climate change, Coastal belt, Afforestation, Mangrove species and Non-mangrove species

Location: Plantation Trial Unit Division, BFRI at different sites of the coastal belt of Bangladesh.

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Weather/Climate

Objectives:

To highlights some climate induced extreme weather events in Bangladesh that have manifested key vulnerabilities on the coastal areas.
To explore an overview of coastal afforestation programmes,
To achieve a realistic solution to the planner and forest managers for the development and management of costal ecosystem scientifically.

Methodology:

The Research project has been conducted in Plantation Trial Unit Division, BFRI at different sites of the coastal belt of Bangladesh. Information of different coastal afforestation projects and generating data from costal embankment plantations were collected from the Bangladesh Forest Department. This research provides an overview of coastal afforestation programmes started from 1960 - 61. Also the data of mangrove and non-mangrove trial plantations has been collected form Bangladesh Forest Research Institute, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Water Resources Planning Organizations, Ministry of Water Resources, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, United Nations (UN), and World Bank (WB), etc., for preparing the review manuscript.

Source of Information: Journal of Science, Technology & Environment Informatics, Volume 02, Issue 01, 2015, Article no. 02, pp.13-25

Article Link (Online Journal): http://www.journalbinet.com/uploads/2/1/0/0/21005390/coastal_afforestation_in_bangladesh_to_combat_climate_change_induced_hazards.pdf

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Bangladesh is very vulnerable to climate change due to its geographical location, dense population and socio-economic condition. Some coping strategies generally can reduce the adverse impacts of climate change those can be implemented through coastal afforestation. Bangladesh Forest Department has already established large scale plantations with S. apetala along the coastal belt and thus created a healthy environment. In different times, these established plantations had protected the lives and proper ties of coastal population from the attack of natural disaster like cyclone and tidal surges. Mangrove plantations have accelerated sedimentation process and a large amount of landmass has been established at different chars lands and offshore islands. On the other hand, mangrove trial plantations act as a seed sources in the coastal areas. Huge seedlings mainly of E. agallocha and H. fomes have been regenerated inside S. apetala forest in the western coastal belt that creating second generation dense sustainable mangrove forest in some areas. The mono specific plantations of S. apetala are facing some serious problem resulted huge gapes inside forests due to heavy mortality. There is an urgent necessity to restore these gaps through reforestation, establishing a second rotation mangrove plantation by introducing recommended mangrove species with adaptive capabilities for a sustainable long term shelter belt along the coastline. Bangladesh Forest Research Institute worked over the last two decades and selected some suitable mangrove species for the coastal areas to overcome the stated problems. On the other hand, BFRI has selected some of the non - mangrove species suitable for planting on coastal raised lands and embankment. Therefore, large scale plantations can be initiated urgently with promising mangrove species applying the acquired knowledge, experience, technology and expertise for the development of a second generation forest in the gaps of S. apetala plantations. Plantation programme with other site-suitable non-mangrove and palm species can be initiated in the raised coastal lands, foreshore lands and coastal embankment for enriching coastal ecosystem. In this regard, new afforestation and reforestation programmes need to be design, developed and man aged. With this view, lesson from past should be incorporated in new project design. The projects should have right selection of diversified mangrove and non-mangrove species needs to be chosen to withstand present climate change situation to enhance the natural adaptive capacity of coastal mangrove forests. So, the government will able to increase coastal forest coverage as well as carbon sink which have a positive impact on the local and global environment. Local community participation in coastal afforestation programmes needs to be reinforced beyond paid labour to generate their adaptive capacities in withstanding climatic variations and extreme weather event. Proper management of coastal forest resources can also be a worth and can be seen as an integral part of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

Knowledge Management: Journal