As most of Bangladesh's population lives in plains and without enough tree cover, forests are almost an unknown entity for them. It is urgent, therefore, to shed light on forests and explain its utility.
A forest is a land area of more than 0.5 ha, with a tree canopy cover of more than 10 per cent, which is not primarily under agricultural or other specific non-forest land use. In the case of young forests or regions where tree growth is climatically suppressed, the trees should be capable of reaching a height of 5 m in situ, and of meeting the canopy cover requirement.
The world is divided into 20 Global Ecological Zones. Two of these zones are present in Bangladesh: tropical rain forest and tropical moist deciduous forest. Ecologically, there are four main types of forests in Bangladesh as follows:
1. Tropical wet evergreen forests: These forests usually occur in hills and moist shady areas in Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachari, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Sylhet.
2. Tropical semi-evergreen forests: These forests are located in Cox's Bazar, Chittagong, Rangamati, Khagrachari, Bandarban, and Sylhet in less dry and hotter localities.
3. Tropical moist deciduous forests: These forests are found in Dhaka, Mymensingh, Tangail, Dinajpur, Rangpur, Naogaon and Comilla. The principal species is Sal (Shorea robusta)
4. Mangrove forest (tidal forests).
Forests are a source of life for the planet and for the livelihoods of its people. Currently, some 410 million people are highly dependent on forest for subsistence and income, and 1.6 billion people rely on forest goods and services for some part of their livelihoods. Every day forests provide benefits vital to life on earth and to the quality of human life in particular. We have responsibilities for the forest to ensure biodiversity, climate regulation, clean air, soil and water conservation, food security, wood and non-wood products, energy services, medicines, cultural values.
As natural capital in a green economy, forest assets are important at many levels and in many sectors. These constitute the source of significant benefits to people, ranging from providing subsistence to mitigating the impacts of climate change. At the local level, forest-dependent communities benefit from having access to materials such as timber, medicines and wood for fuel.
Furthermore, forests provide many communities with their only means of gaining access to formal markets. At the regional level, forests are instrumental in the provision of key ecosystem services such as water regulation, soil stability, flood mitigation and air quality.
At the global level, forests make an important contribution to economic development, biodiversity and climate regulation.
Wood and manufactured forest products add more than $450 billion to the world market economy each year, and the annual value of internationally traded forest products is between $150 billion and $200 billion. Besides providing wood and other products, forests are home to most of the world's terrestrial biodiversity, which itself provides benefits for gene pools, pharmaceuticals and other unique and highly valuable goods and services.
FORESTS FOR LIFE AND LIVELIHOODS: Many of the world's poor depend on forests for their livelihoods. Forests are a form of natural capital providing indispensable resources and benefits, essential for human survival and economic activity.
Conservation and production must coexist if the full potential of forests for poverty reduction is to be realised. On the basis of sustainable management as part of a green economy, forests can and should play a significant role in attaining the target under the Millennium Development Goals of halving the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. Forests in fact offer huge benefits.
Forest is the habitat for large biodiversity. A single tract forest supports more biodiversity compared to other same-size areas. Forest provides life security, food supply, breeding ground and overall safe habitat for both fauna and flora.
REDUCING IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE: Forests play a major role in sequestering carbon dioxide to reduce the impact of global climate change. Globally the overall carbon storage of forests constitutes 54 per cent of the 2,200 gigatons of the total carbon pool in terrestrial ecosystems. Standing forests have an average maximum potential carbon sequestration rate of 1.1-1.6 gigatons per year, including above and below ground pools;
Destruction or degradation (especially by burning) of forest is currently estimated as accounting for 12-15 per cent of all carbon gas emissions into the atmosphere. In addition, through natural carbon capture and storage, terrestrial forest ecosystems contribute to the planetary carbon cycle. It stores more carbon in their soil and organic material than is currently stored in the atmosphere and playing an important role in the human response to the challenges of the changing climate.
Forests act as massive water pumps through water transpiration. Loss of forest cover has been linked to regional climate change in both temperate and tropical forest systems. This loss contributes to environmental tipping points such as drought and insect epidemics and increased natural hazards, such as fire, that further contribute to climatic shifts.
In Bangladesh, already the carbon assessment of the Sundarban and other six protected areas has already done. In the Sundarban, 256 mega gram/ ha carbon has been assessed. The total figure of carbon stock for the Sundarban is 160 million ton; in Inani Reserve Forest it is 4.96 million ton, in Dudhpukuria 6.64 million ton, in Fasiakhali reserve forest (RF) 1.22 million ton, in Sitakunda RF 1.04 million ton, in Medhakassapia RF 26 million ton and in Teknaf RF 9.59 million ton. This is a promising stock of carbon in any developing country like Bangladesh.
CLEANSING WATER: Forests help produce clean water in rivers and streams by reducing sediment loss from watersheds, particularly those caused by intense rain events that occur on steep slopes
Regional water regulation: By promoting the infiltration of water into soils, forests help to maintain a more even flow pattern in rivers. These reduce the threat of flooding while maintaining higher base flows during the dry season through promoting slower sub-surface water flow.
Forests help to provide inputs for healthy soil and nutrient cycling, while preventing soil loss at the local level. Leaves, flowers, fruits and roots of trees enrich the soil by providing humus. This increases bacterial activities in the soil. Stool of wildlife and their dead bodies also increase soil fertility. Trees also increase porosity, consistency, water holding capacity and many other soil physical and chemical properties.
HABITAT FOR WILDLIFE: Forests provide the habitat for many wildlife species of local and global importance that could provide the basis for an economically productive ecotourism industry. The Sundarban is the habitat of the Royal Bengal tiger, deer, monkey, crocodile and so many other animals. Other forest area of Bangladesh also provide important habitat for different bird, and wild animals.
Forest acts like a green factory, to produce various traded products with recognised economic value, such as timber, woody biomass, in addition to other subsistence products such as food, shelter and wood for fuel that do not form part of the formal economy. Forest industries include production of wood and paper, energy from biomass, and other non-wood forest products such as nuts, honey, rubber, thaching materials, rattan, bamboo and so many others. These products meet many levels of demand, including for subsistence activities at the local level and also for export to global markets. It is these forest products that are most widely recognised in the global economy, and they can play a major role in a green economy.
SOURCE OF EMPLOYMENT: The forest sector employs some 10 million people worldwide and sustainable forests can meet the livelihood needs of local communities. The management and control of forests at the local level must be improved, and the need for survival should not be allowed to cause communities to damage forests.
The productivity of forests can endure from decades to centuries, and sustainable management can ensure that much more of their value can be stored from year to year. This can act as a buffer, protecting local communities from the impact of the cycles of good and bad years that can occur in agricultural and grassland systems. While it must be accepted that there is volatility in any market, forests offer a range of market and non-market goods and services that have the capacity to endure.
HUMAN LIVELIHOOD: In a rural context, there are essential human livelihood needs such as home heating, cooking and food, which, for their basic functions, are dependent on the use of forest resources. The health and well-being of the world's poor is both directly and indirectly influenced by the availability of and access to forest resources. It is estimated that more than one third of the world's population - 2.4 billion people - rely on biomass energy (wood, crop residues, charcoal and dung) to prepare meals, boil water and heat and light homes. Of this figure, some 1 billion face shortages as sustainable supplies of wood for fuel diminish.
Forests have the potential to reduce the vulnerability of communities to climate change impacts. These protect settlements from natural hazards and enhance livelihoods and food security, while also playing an important role in the adaptation of national economic sectors. Conversely, degraded forests and insecure flows of forest ecosystem services can make communities and sectors more vulnerable to climate variability and change and lead to increased adaptation costs.
Forests are a source of many medicinal products and continue to provide new treatments and cures as their caches of biodiversity are explored by traditional and modern medicine. Many medical products in common use today would not have existed without the presence of forests. Pharmaceutical companies are engaged in searching forests for ingredients for new drugs and other medical innovations. In Bangladesh Aloe-vera, Asparagus, Kalomegh, Tulsi, Hargoja, Haritaki, Bahera, Amloki and Ullatkambal are common medicinal plants available in forest areas.
INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT: Neem and some other medicinal plants have secondary metabolic ingredients that make them repellant to pest. Use of such trees in the forestry and agro-forestry activities can reduce the uses of chemical pesticide and fungicide.
Eco-tourism is now considered as a worldwide recognised tourism sector. Investment in this sector is increasing day by day. Eco-tourism sector in many countries has a significant contribution to their GDP. Kenya earns about 10 per cent of GDP from tourism sector that fetches about 500 million US dollars. Costa Rica earns 336 million dollars from tourism that contributes about 25 per cent of its GDP. A study reveals that every year about 400 people million travel on tourism from where about 3.5 trillion dollars are earned and it contributes about 6 per cent of the total world's GDP.
The writer is Chief Conservator of Forests, the Forest Department, Bangladesh.
Harnessing forests for development
Md. Yunus Ali | Published: December 15, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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