🌿 Bangladesh’s Forest Resources, Institutions, and Sustainable Management. (Part 2)

Niaz Murshed Chowdhury
4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

📌 5.1. Mangrove Forests (continued)

🔹 ii. Mangrove Plantation (continued)

Coastal mangrove plantations have proved invaluable for shoreline stabilization, protection against cyclones, tidal surges, and coastal erosion, and supporting biodiversity and livelihoods for local communities. The Bangladesh Forest Department pioneered these coastal plantations — a significant success story of applied silviculture under adverse conditions.

Since 1965–66, over 196,000 hectares of mangrove plantations have been raised across foreshore lands, newly accreted char lands, embankments, and coastal islands. Despite losses due to natural calamities such as cyclones and tidal erosion, the current net mangrove plantation area stands at approximately 132,000 hectares (FD, 2022).

These plantations are primarily composed of fast-growing mangrove species such as:

Keora (Sonneratia apetala)
Baen (Avicennia officinalis)
Gewas (Excoecaria agallocha)

Coastal communities harvest non-timber resources like honey, fish, crabs, and Golpata (Nypa fruticans) thatching leaves, which add significant economic value and support thousands of coastal households.

📌 5.2. Tropical Evergreen & Semi-Evergreen Forests

These forests are mainly found in the Chattogram Hill Tracts (CHT), Cox’s Bazar, and Sylhet regions. They cover about 672,000 hectares, comprising around 27% of the country’s forest land. Dominant species include:

Garjan (Dipterocarpus spp.)
Chapalish (Artocarpus chaplasha)
Civit (Swintonia floribunda)
Various bamboos

These forests host diverse wildlife including elephants, hoolock gibbons, clouded leopards, and a wide variety of birds and reptiles. The terrain is hilly with rugged slopes, making sustainable management challenging yet crucial.

Key issues:

Shifting cultivation (jhum) by indigenous communities
Illegal logging
Encroachment

Management strategies:Recent policies promote community forestry, co-management, and alternative livelihood programs to reduce pressure on these forests while preserving indigenous rights and cultural practices.

📌 5.3. Tropical Moist Deciduous Forests (Sal Forests)

These forests cover about 120,000 hectares, primarily in the central Madhupur and Bhawal Garh regions. Sal (Shorea robusta) is the dominant tree species, with associates like koroi, jarul, and mahua.

Historically, sal forests have suffered massive degradation due to:

Encroachment and illegal settlements
Agricultural conversion
Overharvesting

Current management:Social forestry and participatory forestry programs have been introduced to rehabilitate degraded sal forests. Local communities are now directly involved in protection, reforestation, and benefit-sharing schemes.

📌 5.4. Village Forests

Village forests, also called homestead forests, represent Bangladesh’s most productive tree resource per hectare. Spread across ~270,000 hectares, these woodlots consist of mixed plantations on private land, mostly around homes and farmsteads.

Key species include:

Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
Teak (Tectona grandis)
Fruit trees: mango, jackfruit, coconut, betel nut
Bamboos

Contribution:Village forests meet over 80% of domestic timber and fuelwood demand and play a crucial role in rural household economies, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration.

✅ 6. Modern Trends: Towards Sustainable Forest Management

Bangladesh’s forest management has evolved dramatically:

From revenue-driven logging to multi-purpose sustainable management
From exclusion of communities to community-based participatory forestry
From paper maps to modern GIS-based forest monitoring (RIMS/GIS)

The Resource Information Management System (RIMS) and GIS Unit have revolutionized planning. Forest inventories are now digitized, yield estimates are more reliable, and data flows between field divisions and the headquarters in real-time, enabling better decision-making.

📌 7. Future Directions

To safeguard its forest heritage, Bangladesh must:✔ Expand social forestry and agroforestry on marginal lands.✔ Strengthen community rights and benefit-sharing.✔ Restore degraded forests through co-management.✔ Scale up mangrove afforestation for climate resilience.✔ Promote eco-tourism and non-timber forest products.✔ Integrate climate adaptation into all forestry plans.

📌 8. Conclusion

From the historic Sundarbans to the lush hill forests of Chattogram and Sylhet, and the thriving homestead forests across villages — Bangladesh’s forests are its green backbone. They protect its people from storms, sustain millions of livelihoods, conserve biodiversity, and fight climate change.

A future-ready forest management system — rooted in community participation, modern data systems like RIMS/GIS, and robust conservation — is key to ensuring that this natural wealth endures for generations to come.