Community-Based Restoration of Degraded Tropical Hill Forests ...

Bulletin of the National Institute of Ecology 16: 1-11, 2005 © NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ECOLOGY, Jaipur and New Delhi

Community-Based Restoration of Degraded Tropical Hill Forests: Experiences from Krykhong Para, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh AINUN NISHAT AND SHEKHAR R BISWAS IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Bangladesh Country Office, House No 11, Road 138,Gulshan 1, Dhaka 1212, Bangladesh Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

ABSTRACT Chittagong Hill Tracts is one of the biodiversity rich sites in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, over the last decade forest and biodiversity in this area have degraded largely because of human settlements and extensive land clearing for jhum cultivation. Aiming to restore the degraded forest ecosystem through active and efficient participation of the tribal community, the IUCN Bangladesh has taken up a pilot project in a tribal village. Sufficient settlement of indigenous people, high biodiversity value and favorable socio-political environment were the prime criteria in selecting the village. Dyring 2001-03, the local community was mobilized for restoration of the degraded hill forest as well as for proper conservation of biodiversity of the area. The approach was based on eight pillars of our approach: awareness raising, strengthening local institutions, formation of village development committee, formulation of village development and conservation plan, supporting alternative livelihood upliftment initiatives, reforestation through nursery and seed bank, integrated farming and finally, monitoring and evaluation. Raising awareness through dialogue at hamlet level was the starting point of the approach. Language problem was resolved by appointing social organizers from the ethnic groups. A village development and conservation plan was developed through participatory approach (PRA and focus group discussions). This plan focused on eco-friendly alternative livelihood development strategies (such as integrated farming) and plantation program. The approach was evaluated and the constructive feedbacks were incorporated at an appropriate stage. This innovative approach proved effective in one village and attracted tribal people. IUCN Bangladesh has been able to restore 40 acres of forestland and its associates from only one village. Integrated farming has increased the incomes of the community. Replication of the approach with a focus on the socio-political issues is recommended for ecorestoration of degraded hill ecosystems. Key Words: Eco-restoration, Ethnic community, Chittagong Hill Tracts

INTRODUCTION Chittagong Hill Tracts is one of the biodiversity endowed sites in Bangladesh (Nath et al. 2000).The region is characterized by the undulating hills and valleys, and its unique

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Nishat and Biswas: Community-Based Restoration

flora and fauna. It is estimated that the regions supports almost 80% of the countries total biodiversity. The inhabitants of this area also differ from thpse in other parts of the country. There are 13 different ethnic groups (Ishaq 1971) of basically forest dwellers. Over the last few years, population explosion has resulted in clearing of more forest area than ever. The absence of any land use regulation has constrained soil and water conservation programs in ecologically crucial and sensitive hilly areas (Singh et al. 1991). It has resulted in a loss of source wild bio-diversity (Nath et al. 1998). Realizing the importance of forests and its biodiversity, several initiatives have been taken but none of these programs were successful because of rejection of the approach by the tribal people. Recognising the succcess of community-based approach for restoration of degraded forests in other countries of Asia, especially the Indian subcontinent, Bangladesh recently started adopting it in this region. The Chittagong Hill Tracts faces the problem of insurgency and therefore, the ethnic people are suspicious of all outsiders including the NGOs. The IUCN Bangladesh took the challenge to motivate the ethnic community. It started the eco-restoration program in a tribal village, Krykhong para of Chittagong Hill Tracts on a pilot scale. The village was selected, after considerable discussion and consultation with various stakeholders, considering the presence of sufficient settlement of ethnic groups, sufficient USF land in the village, social coherence of the people and their readiness for alternative land use, good law and order situation, accessibility for providing support services, good demonstration value, potential for good ecological rehabilitation, and high biodiversity value. Following the success of the approach, which is described in this paper, the program has been expanded to three other ethnic villages.

KRYKHONG PARA: AN OVERVIEW Krykhong para (i.e. village) of Hlafaikhong mouza under the Bandarban Hill District had been selected as the pilot project site in Bangladesh for the Himal mountain ecosystem conservation program. The site was selected through a process of consultation with all the important stakeholders: the local indigenous people including the Karobari (i.e. villagechief) of the village and the Headman of the mouza, the relevant Union Council (UC) members, the Forest Department, the district administration, the Ministry of CHT Affairs, and the Bandarban Hill District Council. Bandarban Hill District is a part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in the southeastern part of the country and has a total area of 4,502 sq. km including 751 sq. km of reserve forest and 2,125 sq. km of unclassed state forest. The total population of the Bandarban Hill District is about 250,000. Hlafaikhong mouza is located about 10 km. northeast of Bandarban town. The total area of the Krykhong para is about 16 sq. km. The local people are of Marma tribe. At present, the estimated population of the para is 187 with a total 51 households. They traditionally practice jhum or shifting cultivation for their livelihood. Most of the villagers are engaged in various agricultural activities. They grow mixed crops, viz. rice, potato, eggplants, cotton, maize, ginger, turmeric, and other seasonal vegetables. A few, however, work for different government and non-government agencies. A small number of them are involved in local trades of forest and agricultural products.


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Figure 1. Krykhong para of Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh - the pilot project site

The topography of the para is hilly and undulated, often with very steep slope. However, settlement areas of this para are generally plain lands but surrounding areas are


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high lands. Most of the soil of this para is strongly to extremely acidic and have low nutrient holding capacity. According to the local people, this soil is not suitable for crop cultivation employing traditional agricultural. However, most of the mouza is covered by forests, some of which is used for jhum cultivation while the rest is left unplanted. Of the total area, on the other hand, only 2-3% land is used for human settlement. According to the detailed inventory conducted by Forestal Forestry and Engineering International Limited, Canada, in CHT during 1960, the overall classification of land use capability is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Land use capability of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Class

Suitability

Land area (%)

Class A

Suitable for paddy cultivation

3.20

Class B

Suitable for horticulture

2.90

Class C

Suitable for tree crops with intensive soil conservation

15.50

practices Intermediate class

Miscellaneous use

1.40

Suitable for forestry alone

77.00

between C and D Class D

This region is characterized by heavy rainfall, which generally extends from May to October when 87% of the rainfall occurs. Average annual rainfall of this region is 2032 to 3810 mm per year. Moreover, a charra (i.e. stream) called Baghmara khal is located in the west and north sides of the village. In the wet season, this charra creates lots of problems and one of them is flash flood. These floods usually destroy the villagers’ properties, crops, road network, etc. Mean monthly temperatures range from 25 to 34 oC (maximum) and 12 to 25 oC (minimum). Monthly mean relative humidity is about 65% in the dry season and about 90% in the rainy season. Although there are large areas of forestland in the district, the sources of the major streams in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the jhum has rendered most forests so open that they are incapable of retaining much of the rainfall during dry spell. The scarcity of water over large areas during dry spell can be mitigated only through afforestation and catchments management in Chittagong Hill Tracts. The ranges of hills constituting the reserves form the watershed for numerous small streams, but most of the streamlets coming from the Chittagong Hill Tracts are mostly dry in cold weather. The forests in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are predominantly tropical semievergreen. In the evergreen forests, the predominant trees are Garjan (Dipterocarpus turbinatus), Kadam (Anthocephalus chinensis), chapalish (Artocarpus chapalasha), telsur (Hopea odorata), chundul (Tertrameles nudiflora), narikel (Sterculia alata), boilam (Anisoptera glabra), civit (Swintonia foribunda), champa (Michelia excelsa), chikrassi (Chukrasia tabularis), bhadi


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(Lannea grandis), jarul (Lagerstroemia flosreginae), pitraj (Amoora rohituka), bura (Macaranga denti culata), hargaza (Dillenia pentagyna), kusum (Schleichera trijuga), etc. Bamboos occur as undergrowth in these forests but are scarcely to be regarded as separate types of forest. In some places, bamboo forms pure forest. The commonest bamboo is muli (Melocanna bambusoides). Other bamboos found are mitenga (Bambusa tulda), bariala (Bambusa vulgaris), daloo (Teinostachyum dulloo), kaliserri (Oxytenanthera auriculata), and orah (Dendrocalamus longispathus). Besides the natural forests, there are extensive areas of plantation forests, particularly of teak. Teak plantation in the district is mostly 100 years old. Most of the teak in the market comes from the older plantations in the CHT. A limited quantity of teak is, however, available from the thinning of earlier plantations in the district. Several herds of elephants wander between the forests in the district and the adjoining areas of the CHT, Tripura and Arakan. Tigers are believed to be extinct while panthers are reported to be rare. Gayal or bison is also rare while the rhinoceros, which used to inhabit these forests, is extinct. Sambars and barking deer are found only in the interior. However, wild boars are abundant. Monkeys are also fairly common. Among birds, wild fowl, partridges, green pigeons are common. In the winter, ducks and migratory birds are found in some of the wetland areas (locally called dhapa). The winter birds include most of the waders like the sheld duck, pintail, common and cotton teals, shoveller, mallard, godwall, garganey, pochard, tufted duck, barheaded goose, some of the herriers and falcons, kestrel, lapwings, plovers, curlews, sand pipers, snipes, seagulls, several fly-catchers, and warblers, a few thrushes, wagtails pipits, finches and buntings. Among the most common bird species in the CHT are 15 species of woodpeckers, 4 species of barbets, 2-3 species of hornbills, 3-4 species of bee-eaters, 7-8 species of kingfishers, 4-5 species of swifts, several species of owls, several species of cuckoos, 6-7 species of parrots, 10-12 species of pigeons and doves, 12-13 species of games, several species of storks herons, etc. However, wildlife population is decreasing fast due to uncontrolled poaching and increasing deforestation leading to habitat loss. The forests of Bandarban fall under two broad categories i.e., unclassed state forest (USF) and reserved forest. The forests in Krykhong para are mostly USF. Forest management being a subject of the Forest Department (FD), only those forests which are under its control, are managed as such. Most of the USF lands are under the direct control of district administration and hence, are not subjected to any forest management. Permits are, however, issued jointly by the FD and district administration for the extraction of forest produce from the USF lands. Large chunks of such USF land have been allotted for growing rubber but most of these allottes have not raised rubber plantations after the harvest of natural forest. Besides, the locals have the right of open access to the forest resources in the USF. All these coupled with the increasing demand for forest produces led to serious degradation of USF land, since there is no regulation or restrictions to reverse the process. As a result most of the USF lands of CHT are treeless. These are mostly degraded barren hills with some cover of grass like vegetation. In some exceptional cases, few remnant trees are seen here and there. Deteriorated bamboo groves, mostly of Mellocona baccifera are also common in the hills.

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The natural forests of Bandarban are subject to serious threat of extinction (Biswas 2001). This situation warrants immediate measures for restoration and conservation of species diversity in these natural habitats. Therefore, the program started in Krykhong para of Bandarban.

IUCN-B APPROACH The needs of the people and the ecosystem are in a state of constant tension. This tension also exists between different groups of people. In order to develop a balanced combination between the human and ecosystem well beings that will eventually lead to sustainability, the program had sufficiently addressed the tension. The participatory approach that integrates sustainable management of natural forest and restoration of human needs to strengthen the fundamental connection between economic prosperity and environmental well being in the hill and mountain areas had been used under the Himal Program. This approach provides a framework drawing together the Government, the private sector, public groups and other stakeholders. It is goal-driven and is based on a collaboratively developed vision of desired future conditions that integrates ecological, economic, social and legal factors. The community based management approach had been followed in the implementation of the project. The natural resources management options and strategies were largely being based on the bio-physical and socio-economic conditions of the specific site. For implementation of the project activities, area-specific resource conservation committees had been formed, which was developed jointly by the communities and the project staff. The community groups would be as broad as possible to obtain the necessary consensus among all the stakeholders concerned. Two layered resource conservation committees had been formed at district and para (i.e. village) levels. The members of these committees were selected by the stakeholders themselves to ensure transparency and accountability. The project implementation methods and approach was based on project goals and objectives. The primary function of the project was to demonstrate ecologically sustainable natural and especially forest resources management practices that will allow access and benefits to all users, particularly the poor and landless living at the ecosystem level. The project activity had also been planned and implemented on a participatory basis, and involve all local resource users and stakeholders through transparent community-based planning, implementation and monitoring. It was expected that the success of these community-based interventions, coupled with a comprehensive income generating activity will lead to the replication of this approach in other areas across the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). During 2001-03, Marma community (a tribe) in Krykhong para of Hlafaikhong mouza was mobilized for restoration of degraded hill eco-system as well as for proper conservation of biodiversity of the area and also for improvement in the living conditions of the people through provision of alternative livelihoods under the Himal approach. This approach is based on eight ‘pillars’ or principles which are described below briefly. The Himal approach also makes efforts to establish linkages with various government agencies and departments


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and ensures that technical support from them reaches the villagers. Without these linkages, the villagers would not have gained from these official sources. The Himal model is lineated in figure- 2 through a schematic diagram. Pillar 1. Awareness raising Awareness rising through dialogues at hamlet level was the starting point of the approach.Realizing the paramount importance of awareness; all the villages have placed special emphasis on this component. The villagers and IUCN meet regularly to motivate people and ensure their participatory involvement in the ecosystem restoration program. Under this program, various activities such as dialogues at hamlet level, school programs, publication and distribution of posters, production and posting of signboards, formation of youth club etc were accomplished. Since there were linguistics problem, village social organizers were appointed from that ethnic groups. Pillar 2. Strengthening local institutions After peoples are aware next step was capacity development of local institutions as an essential vehicle in conservation and restoration of forest. IUCN- The World Conservation Union and Krykhong Para Village Development Committee (KPVDC) have been focusing on the capacity enhancement of the local institutions and empowerment of the ethnic people. The capacity development was done interms of training on technical aspects of sustainable development, office management and other necessary aspects so that they could sustain them selves after completion of the project period. Pillar 3. Formation of village development committee There after a Village Development Committee was formed, those were responsible for all. This committee had been formed with people’s participation and were subsequently approved in a village general assembly, where at least 75% of the total population were present. The structure of the 9-member committee is as follows. President (local people) Vice President (local people) General secretary (local people) Treasurer (land owner) Members: 1 (land owner, 2 daily labor and 2 Women groups Pillar 4. Formulation of village development and conservation plan Ours is a village specific comprehensive development and conservation plan, which consists of a package of measures developed through people's participation, with the objective of promoting sustainable use of land and other resources, aimed at biodiversity conservation eventually. The VDCP has three unique features viz. (i) Developed through peoples participation; (ii) Package of measures for comprehensive development and conservation for a specific geographical area viz. a village; and (iii) Aims at conservation of biodiversity.

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All the activities were same as it was appeared in Village development and Conservation Plan. Thus the plan has been considered as the center of the approach.

Figure 2. Himal Approach: Community Based Approach for Ecological Restoration and Sustainable Management of Natural Forests


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Pillar 5. Supporting alternative livelihood upliftment initiatives Since the tribal peoples are depending long on Jhum cultivation, it is not possible to devoid them to do so, unless some supports are provided to sustain their livelihood. Various alternative livelihood supporting elements such as cattle, goats, ducks, pigs etc were provided to the villagers to sustain themselves. These were interest free and revolving fund basis. Once one paid his/her amount another villagers got help from the same. Pillar 6. Supporting reforestation initiated through nursery and seed bank Since the forests of the CHT have been degraded and their ecosystem balance has been disturbed, the program aims to regenerate and sustainably manage the forests simultaneously, thereby restoring the whole ecosystem. One nursery had been established at Krykhong para and significant quantities of seeds of timber species, medicinal plants and fruit trees had been mustered. The seedling raising processes in the nursery were also initiated. To achieve better accomplishment of nursery and plantation activities, the nursery caretaker and VSOs have been trained in subject skills with the help of the local Forest Department officials. Besides raising seedlings of tree species, a small section of the nursery has been allocated for seasonal vegetable gardening, which will help in the livelihood uplift of the community. Pillar 7. Promoting integrated farming According to the VDCP, in Krykhong para, one pond has been taken under integrated farming practices. While fishery is being practiced, the banks of the pond have been planted with timber species as well as fruit tree species such as mango, coconut, betelnut etc. More over, the community had also initiated duck farming inside the pond. Pillar 8. Independent monitoring and evaluation with feed backs The approach had been evaluated at this stage and the constructive feedbacks were incorporated at an appropriate stage. Achievements A study on impact monitoring of ERSMNFP was undertaken by IUCN, in 2003. The assessment methods were simple and included visual observations and use of some semistructured questionnaire in some cases. The results of the progress assessment are as follows. Increasing participation of men and women The study revealed that the interest demonstrated by the ethnic communities about joining different meetings had been growing. At the moment, everybody is joining and actively participating in different restoration activities. The study did not find any evidence of people absenting intentionally from such activities. Figure 3 illustrates the change in people’s participation level in different meetings during October 2002 to August 2003.

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Figure 3. Change in people’s participation level in meetings during October 2002 to August 2003

People are aware of the importance of biodiversity and restoration of forests A semi-structured questionnaire was used to assess the awareness level of the ethnic people, where due focus was given on the aspects of environment, biodiversity, and forest restoration. Figure 4 reflects the change between the before-program and present awareness regarding some basic aspects of environment, biodiversity and forests. It should be mentioned that every day the situation is changing and obviously positively towards ecological restoration.

Figure 4. Change between the before- and after-program awareness regarding environment


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Impact on the forests Since people are much better aware than before and are interested in conservation activities, the scenario of deforestation has improved a bit today. The time when this program was started, the illegal felling of trees was frequent but now it is rare. Beside these the 40 acres of degraded hills and homesteads has been planted with trees of different species viz. timber, medicinal plants, fruit trees etc. This may explain as to whether the program has been able to make any positive impact on the forest and ecosystem or not. Socioeconomic impacts: self-reliance on the highest side Due to the Himal intervention, the income of the ethnic people has increased and so their self-reliance has also been enhanced. Through the two successive program interventions (Himal and ERSMNFP), their livelihood pattern has surely improved. Though at the moment we are not in a position to deliver the exact quantitative picture of their improvement of income level, yet it is quite clear that the situation has improved and is still improving. Due to these program interventions, now the people are more aware than before and their children are going to school, which was rare in the past.

CONCLUSION In view of the Agenda 21 commitments, biodiversity conservation activities in mountainous and hills all over the world have become a high priority. Being aware of the ecological significance, IUCN Bangladesh Country Office initiated a pilot program in 2000 on community-based approach for restoration and management of degraded hill ecosystem and its sustainable use in selected areas in Chittagong Hill Tracts Region. This pilot program has been considered a success. Effective involvement of local community in the planning and implementation remains the major key to success of any community-oriented program. Programs designed and implemented by professional and experts show success at initial stages; but with withdrawal of external support, such programs that are founded on ?top-down? approaches, may collapse as the designers may have failed to recognize the social and anthropological factors. To achieve sustainability, as it is essential to ensure effective ownership of the local communities, Himal had adopted a ‘bottom up’ approach and succeed. Now the approach has been replicated in other three villages of the region with the financial assistance from NC-IUCN.

REFERENCES Ishaq M. 1971. Bangladesh District Gezetteers, Chittagong Hill Tracts. Government Press, Dhaka. 319 pages. Nath, T.K., Hossain, M.K. and Alam, M.K., 1998. Diversity and composition of trees in Sitapahar forest reserve of Chittagong hill tracts (south) forest division, Bangladesh. Annals of Forestry 6 (1): 1-9. Singh, R., Sood, V.K., Bhatia, M. and Thakur, G.C., 1991. Phytosociological studies on tree vegetation around Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Indian Journal of Forestry 14(3): 169-180.