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Forest Protected Area Systems and Biodiversity Conservation in Bangladesh

Sharif Ahmed Mukul*
Tropical Forests and People Research Centre, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, QLD, Australia 2 Tropical Forestry Group, School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia 3 School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

A. Z. M. Manzoor Rashid
Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, School of Agriculture and Mineral Sciences, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh

Niaz Ahmed Khan
Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

Despite of being an exceptionally biodiversity rich country, the forest coverage of Bangladesh is declining at an alarming rate. Declaration and management of protected areas in this regard is one of the efforts from government side to tackle the loss of biodiversity. The limited numbers of forest-protected areas (FPA), established to conserve the dwindling forest biodiversity of the country with high pressure on them for timber, nontimber forest products, and fuelwood - makes their management challenging. Moreover, most of the FPAs of the country declared only in the recent decades with very limited infrastructure, manpower and policy support for monitoring and governance. Some peoplecentred approaches for the management of FPAs and alternative livelihood and income generation subsidies although made available through a few project interventions, their number are still inadequate and performance remains less than satisfactory. This chapter provides a critical review of the FPAs of Bangladesh looking at their role in biodiversity conservation, management challenges, and key lessons from previous management interventions with recommendations for the future. It has been revealed that the FPA system of Bangladesh still poorly represents the diverse forest ecosystems with relatively small forest size and lack of corridors for the movement of wildlife. There are ample opportunities to render co-management of FPAs an effective strategy to minimize the conflicts in FPAs management in the country. It is, however, important to ensure the access of local forest-dependent people to different alternative income generating options that may adequately support their livelihoods.

Keywords: Biodiversity conservation, Livelihood, Co-management, Stakeholder, Law enforcement

Location: Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Conservation and Biodiversity

Commodity: Plant

Objectives:

Our study builds on the experiences and outcomes of the previous study of Mukul et al. (2008) by providing more updated information and analysis. We also reviewed relevant recent literature covering various aspects of FPA’s management in Bangladesh. We believe that our study is important for the diverse stakeholders dealing with forests and protected areas management and biodiversity conservation in the country.

Methodology:

FOREST ECOSYSTEMS AND BIODIVERSITY OF BANGLADESH Bangladesh has a total forest area of about 2.6 million hectares, of which 1.52 million hectares are managed by the country’s Forest Department (FD) (Mukul et al. 2014a). Table 1 below shows the major forest types of Bangladesh with their share to country’s forest land managed by the FD and total land area. Hill forests comprise majority of the country’s forests area, followed by mangrove forests and plain land sal (Shorea robusta) forests (Khan et al. 2007). Hill forests are located in the eastern part of the country, evergreen to semi-evergreen in nature and dominated by dipterocarps. The mangrove forests of the Sundarbans and mangrove plantations are located mainly in the southern coastal part of the country. The dominant species here are sundri (Heritiers fomes), gewa (Excoecaria agallocha), goran (Ceriops decandra) and keora (Sonneratia apetala) (Mukhopadhyay et al. 2015). The majority of the hill and Sal forests in the country, however, are severely degraded and is without any true vegetation cover (Rahman et al. 2009). Approximately 5,700 angiosperm species, 29 orchids, 3 gymnosperms and 1,700 pteridophytes have recorded from Bangladesh (Firoz et al. 2004). About 2,260 plant species have so far been reported alone from the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, which falls within the greater Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot (MoEF 1993). Similarly, the country also possesses rich wildlife diversity. At least 138 mammal species, 566 species of birds, 167 reptiles and 49 amphibian species are available in Bangladesh. The distribution of major wildlife across the different forest types of Bangladesh is unvenely distributed. The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest with the largest remaining habitats of Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris) in the world. The Sundarbans is also home to around 334 species of plants, 49 mammals, 59 reptiles, 8 amphibians and 315 species of bird in the country (Aziz and Paul 2015). The hill forests and Sal forests bordering the neighboring India and Myanmar is the home of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) - the largest terrestrial animal in Asia (Alamgir et al. 2015). These forests are also very rich in avifaunal diversity. Several endangered primate species including the western hoolock gibbon (Hoolock hoolock) are also common here. Patchy vegetation and lack of corridors, however, making these forest ecosystems unfavorable for country’s remaining wildlife. In the country, a large number of wildlife species are currently threatened with extinction (Table 2). Already, 19 species of birds, 11 species of mammals and one reptile species went extinct from the country (IUCN 2015). In addition, Bangladesh National Herbarium identified 106 vascular plant species with risks of various degrees of extinction (Khan et al. 2001). FOREST PROTECTED AREAS OF BANGLADESH The history of forest protected areas in Bangladesh is rather recent, started only in 1980’s (Chowdhury and Koike 2010). Currently, there are 34 FPAs covering nearly 0.27 million hectares of forests land managed by country’s FD (Table 3). This estimate, however, excludes 4 marine and coastal protected areas that were aimed at protecting the marine and/or aquatic biodiversity of the country. The FPAs of the country represents 17.5% of Bangladesh’s forest lands and approximately 1.8% of country’s total land area. These figures are below the global standard of FPA coverage. Most of the FPAs of Bangladesh established only during the recent decade. Figure 2 and 3 shows the temporal changes in FPA’s in country in terms of their number and coverage. About 55% of the FPAs of the country started their journey only in the present decade. This is largely due to growing focus and consensus on conservation in the country. In terms of coverage, there has been a large increase in FPA between 1996-2000 although it was due to the deceleration of three wildlife sanctuaries in the Sundarbans mangrove forests of Bangladesh. Among the existing forest protected areas, 17 are national parks and 17 are wildlife sanctuaries, representing respectively 17% and 83% of the total area under the FPA’s system in the country.

Source of Information: Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 18 November 2016

Article Link (Online Journal): doi:10.20944/preprints201611.0101.v1

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

The conservation effectiveness of protected areas depends on the effective management of surrounding landscapes of which they are a part (Chazdon et al. 2008; Hansen and DeFries 2007). The majority of the lands inside South Asia’s forest protected areas are somehow altered by human activities and habitat conversions has not been adequately contained even after the legal initiatives taken by forest department through the declaration of protected areas (Clark et al. 2013). Many of the forest protected areas are also established in locations which are away from strategically important sites for biodiversity conservation (Barnes et al. 2016; Venter et al. 2014; Saout et al. 2013). The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Aichi Target 11 recently calls for a substantial increase in global protected area coverage by the year 2020, and to make a realistic progress towards this goal there is an urgent need to substantially enhance the management of existing protected areas with systematic conservation planning and management (Watson et al. 2014; Wilson et al. 2007). Overall, we found that the current extent of forest protected areas in Bangladesh, both in terms of number and coverage is, inadequate to protect the rapidly dwindling biodiversity of the country. The forest protected areas also do not sufficiently represent the different forest ecosystems needing conservation. The lack of infrastructure and capacity of the Bangladesh Forest Department, limited involvement of, and support to local people (mainly through some project interventions) also obscuring the long-term sustainability and success of country’s forest protected area systems. To make the forest protected area systems efficient in conserving Bangladesh’s unique biodiversity and ecosystems, strategical development is necessary with appropriate representation of critical wildlife habitats and corridors within the forest protected area network. A separate institutional body for FPA’s management under the FD, standardized indicators for monitoring the success of FPAs, improvement in local capacity and funding, and effective involvement of local people in FPA’s governance are crucial. Transboundary management and monitoring of forest protected areas are also necessary since the majority of the country’s forest areas are bordered with neighboring India and Myanmar. Incorporation of ecosystem services (e.g., carbon sequestration, flood protection, etc.) framework in the FPA management and payments for ecosystem services could be some other avenues for future expansion and development in the country.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings