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 the world's total and growing at about 2.1% per annum with about 80% of them living in rural areas in 59, 990 villages having an 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 the northeastern 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 southeastern edge and bay of Bengal on the south.
Forest Resources are renewable resources that can provide timber, pulp, pole, fuelwood, 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 freshwater during the monsoon that gradually dries out during the dry winter season. These depressed basins are known as ‘Haor’. The 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, vegetables, 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 meters 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 Meghna rivers, 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 percent of the annual runoff generated in the GBM catchment area flows through Bangladesh, although it comprises only about 7 percent 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 overexploited 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 making 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 the case of private forests, the data represent the tree-covered areas.
Of the 2.52 million hectares Forest Land, Forest Department manages 1.52 million hectares which include Reserved, Protected and Acquired forest, and Mangrove forest on the newly accreted land in estuaries of major rivers. The remaining 0.73 million hectares of land designated as Unclassed State Forest (USF) are under the control of the Ministry of Land. Village forests (homestead land) form the most productive tree resource base in the country and accounts for 0.27 million hectare