1. Introduction: Bangladesh is an independent and sovereign state since December 1971. It has about 157.22052 million people (2014) that is 2.19% of worlds total and growing at about 2.1% per annum with about 80% of them living in rural areas in 59, 990 villages having average household size of 5.3 persons. The overall literacy rate is 32.4% but the literacy rate of women is about 50% of men. The population density is very high and situated in north eastern part of South Asia between 20° 34' and 26° 38' north latitude and between 88° 01' and 92° 41' east longitude. It lies in the active delta of three major rivers viz Padma, Meghna and Jamuna and their numerous tributaries. The country covers an area of 1,47,570 sq. km and bounded by India from the west, north and most of east. Myanmar lies on the south eastern edge and bay of Bengal on the south. Forest Resources are renewable resources which can provide timber, pulp, pole, fuel wood, food, medicine, and habitat for wildlife and primary base for biodiversity A small tract of higher land occurs in Sylhet, Mymensingh, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) regions. The southwestern region consists of a large number of dead and cut-off rivers. The coastal part of Bangladesh includes the famous Sundarbans Mangrove Forest. A number of depressed basins are found in the district of greater Mymensingh and Sylhet which are inundated by fresh water during the monsoon that gradually dry out during the dry winter season. These depressed basins are known as ‘Haor’. Climate of Bangladesh is sub-tropical and monsoon rainfall varies from 1200-3500mm. Rice is the major cereal crop while jute, sugarcane, and tea are the main cash crops. Other important crops are wheat, tobacco, pulses, vegetable and tree fruits. Garments, raw and manufactured jute goods tea, fish and hides and skins are the chief exports. Bangladesh is noted for its estuarine environment, yet less than 10% of its total water flow originates from its own catchments and rest comes from India, Nepal and Bhutan. Normally, 20% of the country gets flooded during the monsoon period. Bangladesh has a border on the west, north, and east with India, on the southeast with Myanmar, and the Bay of Bengal is to the south. Geologically, Bangladesh is a part of the Bengal Basin, one of the largest geosynclinals in the world. The Basin is bordered on the north by the steep Tertiary Himalayas; on the northeast and east by the late Tertiary Shillong Plateau, the Tripura hills of lesser elevation, and the Naga-Lusaiolded belt; and in the west by the moderately high, ancient Chotanagpur plateau. The southern fringe of the basin is not distinct, but geophysical evidence indicates it is open towards the Bay of Bengal for a considerable distance. The formation and growth of the Bengal Basin is directly related to the origin and morphology of the Indo-Gangetic trough, which itself is overlaid and filled by sediments thousands of metres thick (Rahman, 1994). The broad geological features of the Bengal Basin and its prominent tectonic elements are Indian platform, Bengal foredeep, ArakanYoma folded system, and the Sub-Himalayan Foredeep. Other features are Rangpur Saddle, Dinajpur slope, Bogra slope, Hinge Zone, Barisal High, and Troughs of Sylhet, Faridpur and Hatiya, etc. The floor of the Bengal Basin consists of quaternary sediments deposited by the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghnarivers, known together as the GBM river system, and their numerous tributaries and distributaries. The sediments are washed down from highlands on three sides of the Basin, particularly from the Himalayas, where the slopes are steeper and the rocks less consolidated. Over 92 per cent of the annual runoff generated in the GBM catchment area flows through Bangladesh, although it comprises only about 7 per cent of the total catchment (Coleman, 1969). The whole country consists of mainly low and flat land, except for the hilly regions in the northeast and southeast. Bangladesh has a comparatively low natural resource base, but a high growth rate of population, with almost half of the population below fifteen years of age. Most of the people are among the poorest in the world, and depend mainly on the natural resource base for their livelihood. But now the resource base is under serious threat, as many natural resources are either being over exploited or used sub-optimally. Besides the effects of anthropogenic stresses, the low 'land-man' ratio in the country is often further threatened by natural hazards. Thus, for the survival of Bangladesh's dense population, it is essential to have environmental planning and management that conserves and sustains the ecosystems that support their livelihoods. The high population density, low economic growth, lack of institutional infrastructure, an intensive dependence on agriculture and agricultural products, geographical settings, and various other factors, all contribute to make the country weak in its economic development and quality of life
2. Land & Forest Areas: Of the total area of Bangladesh, agricultural land makes up 65% of its geographic surface, forest lands account for almost 17%, while urban areas are 8% of the area. Water and other land use account for the remaining 10%. The total forestland includes classified and unclassified state lands and homestead forests and tea/rubber gardens. In case of private forests, the data represent the tree-covered areas. Of the 2.52 million hectare Forest Land, Forest Department manages 1.52 million hectare which includes Reserved, Protected and Acquired forest and Mangrove forest on the newly accreted land in estuaries of major rivers. The remaining 0.73 million hectare of land designated as Unclassed State Forest (USF) are under the control of Ministry of Land. Village forests (homestead land) form the most productive tree resource base in the country and accounts for 0.27 million hectare Table: Forest areas in Bangladesh:📷 3. Forest Departments: The Ministry of Environment and Forests was formed in 1989, both the departments were transferred to this new Ministry. The DoE has been placed under the MoEF as its technical wing and is statutorily responsible for the implementation of the Environment Conservation Act, 1995. Besides these two departments, MoEF controls the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC), Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI) and Bangladesh National Herbarium (BNH). The Ministry of Environment & Forests is the nodal agency in the administrative structure of the Central Government, for the planning, promotion, co-ordination and overseeing the implementation of environmental and forestry programmes. MoEF oversees all environmental matters in the country and is a permanent member of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council. Apart from two major departments, i.e., Department of Environment and Department of Forest, working under this ministry, there are three others 3.1.BFRI Bangladesh Forest Research Institute (BFRI) was established in 1955 and mandated to provide research support to the Forestry sub-sector of the country, including Forest Department, Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation, NGO and other private enterprises. BFRI's research activities aim to develop appropriate technologies to maintain sustainable productivity of forest land and of forest industries without resource depletion. 3.2. Bangladesh National Herbarium (BNR) Bangladesh National Herbarium is a plant survey, collection, identification and conservation organization. It documents the plant biological diversity of the country and its collections are accessible samples of natural population. The collection of the herbarium is a national property that goes down to the posterity through generation for hundreds of years and work as reference materials on the flora of the country. The National Herbarium serves as repository of technical information on plant genetic resources and advises the Government on technical aspects of question dealt with by the herbarium. It also provides direction required in the implementation of policies laid down by the Government in relation to plant biodiversity conservation. 3.3. BFIDC Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC) is mandated to rubber plantation, processing and to extract timber from inaccessible Forest areas. After sawing, seasoning and treatments, these timbers are used in wood based industries for production of quality furniture, electric poles, anchor logs, cross arms, railway slippers, doors & windows, woodtex, tea chest and plywood etc. In addition to this, BFIDC have been raising Rubber plantation in the district of greater chittagong, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Tangail since 1961 in order to increase the productivity of the fellow forest land through producing row rubber in the country. BFIDC so far has raised 32,625 acres of started plantation in its 15 (fifteen) Rubber Estates in greater Chittagong, Sylhet, Tangail and Mymensingh districts and 10 (ten) acres experimental rubber plantation in Barind tract (Rangpur distict ) to test the viability of rubber plantation. Besides, about 33,000 acres rubber plantation has been raised in private sector with technical assistance of BFIDC. 4. Forest Management:Forest is a very important renewable resource in Bangladesh. It provides materials like timber, pulp, pole, fuel wood, food, medicine, habitat for wildlife and primary base for biodiversity. It also provides oxygen, controls or reduces the intensity of the cyclones and tidal surges in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, influences the rainfall, and sustained water yield in the river systems etc. Besides these, forest is also used for hunting, and nature based tourism. Now a days, eco-tourism is the preferred type of tourism and it is widely believed that eco-tourism could be an alternative mechanism for environmentally sustainable development without depleting the forest resources and its habitat and biodiversity. Considering all these, forest and consequently forest management is getting importance with the passage of time.
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