The village forest represents about 2% of the total land area and 11% of the total forest area of the country. According to one estimate, about 44% of the present timber comes from the privately-owned village woodlot. According to another estimate, 60% of timber and fuelwood come from privately owned village woodlot (Jalil, 1982). Commercial woodlot plantations have been introduced on forestland to meet the fuelwood requirements of local communities. Such plantations are one component of the ADB-funded Nursery.
Development Project, which was started in 1989 and ended in 1995. Today woodlot blocks can be found in the Sal forest of the Modhupur area and elsewhere (Friends of the Earth, Bangladesh, 2002). From 1960 to 1999, the plantation program was carried out in Sal forest under the social forestry program and at that time 26,890 ha. woodlot plantation was established. At present 30,184 ha. woodlot has been established under social forestry program in Bangladesh (Habib, 2000). In the past 10 years, the place of trees, tree-planting and woodlots in rural development has changed from a larger one of neglect or indifference by development agencies to the recognition that they should be an integral part of all rural development programmes (Evans, 1996). This study is an attempt to give an idea about various aspects of woodlot plantation its problems and potentials, as well as showing some ways of identifying the status of private woodlot owners in our country.
Selection of the study area: Chougacha and Monirumpur Upazila of Jessore district were selected for this study. The site was selected purposively. The criterion for selecting the site was the availability and diversity of private woodlot plantations. Information was collected by a semi-structured questionnaire survey and also by observation.
Data collection and analysis: Data were collected through interviewing woodlot owners with a semi-structured questionnaire survey. The surveyed data were analyzed by using Microsoft Excel.
Ownership status of private woodlot plantation: It was found that 100% of the woodlot owners practiced woodlot plantation on their own land. Most of the owners said that practice of woodlot is not their main occupation and only in the extra time they take care and maintenance of it and this is possible if they practice woodlot on their own land otherwise in case of leased land needed extra care, time, manpower and investment for the plantation.
Ownership pattern of private woodlot: It was found that 70 % of the woodlot owners had single ownership of woodlot and the rest of the owners (30%) had joint ownership on the wood lot plantation. The main reason for joint ownership of woodlot was that the ownership of the land was acquired jointly through inheritance.
Previous land use system of the area: It was found that 55% of woodlot owners were practicing woodlot on fallow land and 40% of them were practicing on agricultural land. And only a few of them (5%) practice on homestead land. The main reason for practicing woodlot on fallow land was that the less suitability and productivity of agricultural products of the land. On the other hand, agricultural land was used for woodlot plantation because the owner can not give proper time to provide care and protection of agricultural products. Other reasons for raising woodlots on agricultural land were reduced soil fertility and to gain more profit at a time.
Educational status of private woodlot owners: It was found that 45% of the owners had below SSC level education. As they were not so much educated and furthermore had no scope of education, they were practicing woodlot in association with other activities. Thirty % and 15% owners of woodlot had the educational status of HSC and SSC level respectively. The level of participation of SSC passed owners was less in comparison to HSC passed owners. This is due to the reasons that in our society most of the SSC passed students were mostly engaged in education and were not the income-earning member of the family. On the other hand, HSC passed peoples were mostly engaged in occupations such as business, service, agriculture, etc. and their participation was higher in woodlot plantation. Ten% of the owners who had completed graduate were practicing woodlot as an extra source of income.