Although it has been a wild guess that vast swathes of forest lands of the country are being grabbed every year, no statistics of the lost lands was available until an official statement weeks ago said that the government was going to intensify its efforts to recover 187,000 acres of illegally occupied forest lands from the grabbers. The statement is unnerving given the less than required forest lands the country is supposed to have. Over and above, it speaks of colossal unruliness of a section of people eager to dodge government regulations as well as make the most of the inaction of the authorities that understandably includes collusion, to say the least.
It was reported that until June, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change sent eviction proposals to the Deputy Commissioners until June, 2024 to recover 51,007 acres of occupied land and cleared 30,162 acres as of May last. Referring to the move, the minister heading the ministry said at a press conference that his ministry is going to send more eviction proposals to recover the lands from the grabbers, as part of what he termed a 100-day priority action plan. He added that the ministry is set to implement natural resource mapping to identify and locate natural resources like hills, forest, mountains, wetlands etc. so that the grabbers cannot occupy natural resources of the country.
The total forest area of Bangladesh is 2.6 million hectares, which is nearly 17.4 per cent of the total land area of the country. Forestry sector accounts for about 3.0 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) and 2.0 per cent of the labour force. However, these figures do not reflect the real importance of the sector in terms of monetary value. The GDP figure, however, does not count the large quantities of fuel wood, fodder, small timber and poles, thatching grass, medicinal herbs, and other forest produces extracted illegally. The low contribution of the forestry sector to the GDP is also explained by several other factors, e.g., the value added from wood processing is counted under the industry sector, rather than the forestry sector. The benefits provided by forest ecosystems include: goods such as timber, food, fuel and bio-products; ecological functions such as carbon storage, nutrient cycling, water and air purification, and maintenance of wildlife habitat; and social and cultural benefits. Services provided by forests cover a wide range of ecological, political, economic, social and cultural considerations and processes. The contribution of forest resources in protecting watershed and irrigation structures, reclaiming land from the sea, protecting coastal areas from storm damage, and in maintaining and upgrading the environmental quality, has not been quantified.
Owing to factors such as grabbing, over-exploitation, conversion of forest land into agriculture, forest resources in Bangladesh have been continuously depleting in terms of both area and quality. According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), between 1990 and 2015, Bangladesh annually lost 2,600 hectares of primary forest (FAO 2015). Primary forest land gradually decreased from 1.494 million hectares in 1990 to 1.429 million hectares in 2015. Thus annual rate of deforestation in Bangladesh was 0.2 per cent during 1990-2015 (FAO, 2015).
The economic, social and environmental importance of ecosystem services provided by forests is increasingly recognised globally. The primary objective of sustainable forest management relies on benefits from ecological services without compromising forest's ability to provide those services. Still, forestland grabbing is a harsh reality all over the world. Governments with well planned forest management and preservation schemes are alert in addressing the matter as a top priority. More than 1.6 billion people depend on forest for food, water, fuel, medicines, traditional cultures and livelihoods. Tropical rainforests produce up to 40 per cent of all terrestrial primary plant production, and play a vital role in safeguarding the climate by naturally sequestering carbon. Yet, each year an average of 13 million hectares of forest land disappear.
Coming to what has transpired from official statement about the grabbed forest land in the country, it is clear that for a long time grabbers have been benefiting from what may euphemistically be called 'laxity' of the regulators. Now, swooping on them may not be easy, since the eviction process might involve litigation-a process notable only for its time-consuming nature. In many cases, the grabbers have raised structures, and also it is not unlikely that some of them might have obtained lease from the government, in violation of the regulations, taking advantage of technical loopholes. So, for the 100-day priority action plan to succeed, there has to be a well orchestrated approach to addressing the situation. In this connection, the authorities need to look into the lease of lands in the Chottogram Hill Tracts. Chances are high that these lease deeds are perhaps not in conformity with forest preservation rules.
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