Kamrul I. Kamrul*
Community Development Centre (CODEC), C/O Serajul Islam, S E Complex, College Gate, Rangamati Sadar, 4500 Rangamati, Bangladesh
Jashimuddin
Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh
Nuralam Hossain
Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400045, China
Species, Sustainable, Indigenous
Two villages named Korangpara from Ruma Upazila and Kaprupara from Lama Upazila
Conservation and Biodiversity
2.1. Location of the Study area The study was carried out in two sub-districts named Lama and Ruma of Bandarban district in Bangladesh. RumaUpazila is lies between 21°53´N to 22°10´N and 92°17´E to 92°34´E with an area of 492.10 km2 and Lama Upazila is located at 21°36´N to 21°59´N and 92°04´E to 92°23´E with an area of 671.84 km2 which are covered by high hilly area(Banglapedia, 2014). The study sites is located at Korangpara, 5 No. ward of 4 No. Kalenga Union, RumaUpazilaand Kaprupara, 9 No. ward of 5 No. Sorai Union, Lama Upazila. Both sites are situated at Bandarban-Thanchi road about 39 km and 45 km away from Bandarban Sadar. Both village and its VCFs are the very beautiful villages which is inhabited by 183 people in Korangparaand 270 in Kaprupara. All the population of the study area is from Mro ethnic community and belongs to Christianity and Crama by religion. The main livelihoods were traditional agriculture where no modern technology was used and soil formation was flood plain, grey piedmont, hill brown and terrace. The Hills are underlain by sandstone, siltstone and shale of Tertiary and Quaternary ages. The landscape is steep and soils were mainly developed on steep slopes and some occur on more gentle slopes. Paddy, sesame, cotton, turmeric, ginger and vegetables are common agricultural crops in the study area and while banana, jackfruit, papaya, orange, malta are the most common cultivated horticulture crops. Previous studies on this aspect were carried out in other subdistricts of Bandarban in Bangladesh where land value and demographic pressure on forests are comparatively less than our study areas. Therefore, studying the tree species composition and diversity seems relevant to find the current management system of village common forest. Additionally, this study will give a chance to compare the results with previous studies.
2.2. Sampling design and data collection To obtain an idea on general physiography, socio-economic condition, household characteristics, reconnaissance survey and trail hiking was carried out in the study area. Based on the availability of VCF and working facility, two villages named Korangpara from Ruma Upazila and Kaprupara from Lama Upazila were selected purposively. The study was conducted during April 2016 to March 2017 and visited all the households (a total of 63 households both in Korangpara and Kaprupara) of the villages for identifying and gathering information on floral diversity of VCF. The study was carried out following two different methods namely face-to-face interview and vegetation survey. We used semi-structured questionnaire, 5 key informant interviews (KII) and 6 Focus Group Discussion (FGD) for data collection. The socio-economic information was collected from the households and validated by key local informants, such as school teachers, village heads, and religious and political leaders. Forest survey was conducted to know the species diversity and regeneration status of the study area. In case of forest survey of each VCF, stratified random sampling was used for getting a complete picture of the whole area with 9 sample plots in each VCF. The sampling plot size for tree species was 20m X 20m. From each plot, height and dbh of all tree species were measured by using Spiegel Relascope and diameter tape. To know the regeneration status of tree species, 4 subplots of 2m X 2m were taken at the corner point of each main plot. A number of seedlings of each species was enumerated and identified from the sub-plots. Photos of twigs and trees were taken for the identification of the unknown species with the help of local people, experts from Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI) and available literature.
2.3. Functional diversity According to Martinez (1966), functional diversity of any forest area is defined as the variety of interactions with ecological processes and can be quantified by examining the nature of the forest and the extent to which functional groups are represented in an ecological system. Functional diversity can also refer to the number of such groups or species in a forest community, each of which contains one or more species (Smith and Huston, 1989). Functional diversity, evenness and richness were measured using the different world-recognized methods.
Environment, Earth and Ecology Vol. 1 No. 2 (2017), 39 – 51
Journal