©Sanzidur Rahman
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bangladesh has one of the lowest per capita forest land in the world, only 0.02 ha. The country has roughly 6.5% of forest cover in real terms though the total forest land is 13,835 sq km which is about 16% of total land area. However, the country is a proud owner of world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, which is a home for the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger (another pride of Bangladesh. Apart from this, the country has a single stand of Sal Forest (Shorea robusta) in the plains of Madhupur region. Also, a vast stretch of unclassified state forest with bamboo as an understorey is concentrated in the hill-tract regions of Chittagong. Also, the villages consists of woodlots, bamboo bushes and scores of fruit and forest tree species, that are known as homestead forests. The forest and forest product's contribution to annual GDP ranged from 2.8% in 1972/73 to 3.3% in 1993/94. The annual compound growth rate is 8.2% (highest in overall agricultural sector) for the period 1972/73 to 1993/94. Deforestation is a major problem as over the past 20 years, severe destruction occurred to the forest resource base of the country. The government of Bangladesh asserted high priority during its Third Five Year Plan (1985-90) and formally emphasized the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and people's participation in the successive Fourth Five Year Plan (1990-95) and Fifteen Year Perspective Plan (1995-2010) periods. The leading NGOs, such as BRAC, Proshika, Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), etc. launched social forestry programs with extensive people's participation. The major scheme has been to promote agroforestry practices, strip plantations with forest and fruit tree species alongside national, district, and village roads and highways, railway tracks and embankments, and reforestation and conservation with optimum use of the plain land forests, e.g., Sal forest. Substantial success has been achieved and the process is moving on.
Links to other sites on the Web
Natural Resources Planning and Management
Mangrove Forest
© 1997 [email protected]
