Degrading our forests - Why we need to act quickly

Bangla-desh has successfully achieved Millennium Development Goals set forth by the United Nations. Now we have started pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and I am certain that we will also attain these targets with ease. However, I'm sceptical about attaining one particular goal - Goal 15 - which highlights the need to 'sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, and halt biodiversity loss'. I am sceptical, because according to data published by the Asian Development Bank in 2016, Bangladesh is among the countries with least forest - with 11.2 percent of forest cover - while our neighbour, Bhutan, has a forest cover of 81.5 percent. Even with a number of deserts, both cold and hot, India's forest cover, at 24.1 percent, is more than twice that of Bangladesh. Of this 11.2 percent of our forests, 30 percent covers plantations, lowering the percentage of natural forest to 7.84 percent. Sadly, we are losing even this paltry forest coverage every day.

Last week, on the International Day of Forest, the daily Prothom Alo published a report on a plan to set up a power transmission line through Ramgarh-Sitakunda reserve forest in Chittagong. The line will be 13 km long, and a total of 63 hectares of forest will be felled. This might seem like a rash decision but is nothing new for Bangladesh. Whenever we need to construct a road, railway, pipeline or electric grid through a forest, we cut the trees without a second thought. The Lawachhara National Park in Moulvibazar is a good example of this. The main tourist trail of the forest is actually a gas pipeline built by Unocal. Apart from the lost trees, various wild animals get killed on the road and rail track at Lawachhara every day. The same is witnessed on the highways that run through Chunati, Satchhari, Madhupur and other forests.

Trees worth Tk. 784.6 million will be felled to set up the power transmission line, according to the estimates by a five-member committee which was formed to assess the monetary value of the trees that have to be cut down. The secretary of the power division said that they would plant more trees elsewhere to compensate the degradation of the forest. Clearly, the secretary and the assessment committee see the forest as a collection of trees, not a habitat of numerous wildlife. The committee also admitted that they don't have the capacity to measure the real loss of a forest, taking all the lives into account. Among the members in the committee is also an official from the Bangladesh Forest Industries Development Corporation (BFIDC), whose objective is to monetise forests through the collection of timber, monoculture plantation in forest land, etc. Even the Forest Department now allows participatory monoculture of acacia and agar in designated forest areas for economic benefits. Despite the fact that these plantations do not support wildlife of any kind, they are dubbed as social forestry by the Forest Department.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts are a part of the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot. For decades, we have been destroying and fragmenting the natural forest by planting exotic species like eucalyptus there. Although planting eucalyptus in the forest has been banned, rubber, agar and acacia plantations have taken its place. These plantations further trigger deforestation by pushing indigenous communities deeper into the hills, where they shift cultivation by burning new forests. 

In 2013, I visited a small village, Badurjhiri, of the ethnic "Chak" community, in the Naikhyongchhori upazila, Bandarban, after it was attacked by unidentified miscreants who drove away the local inhabitants. Investigations revealed that planters desperate to expand their rubber plantation were behind this attack. Such plantations take place on unclassified state forest in the hill tracts, which is leased out by the district administration.

Last week I visited a pristine old-growth forest in Alikadam upazila, Bandarban. This forest, named Kirstong, located about 2,800 feet above sea level is home to the sun bear, dear, various large cat species and numerous birds, including the great hornbill. It was shocking to see that loggers have constructed roads using bulldozers to facilitate transportation of timber. The forest now can be reached by large vehicles like trucks from both Tindu Bazar on the bank of the Sangu River and from Alikadam. The forest is being stolen at a very fast pace. It is incomprehensible how such a rich forest can be leased out to be logged. Kirstong should immediately be declared a national park and logging must be stopped. In fact, all our national parks and reserve forests need intensive care. India banned acacia monoculture in forest land in 2011, and there is no reason for us not to do the same. 

On the other hand, the forest department lacks necessary resources to be able to guard our forests properly. This scenario must change and the government should allocate enough budget, vehicles and manpower for that purpose. Development should not come at the cost of the environment and ecosystem, because in that case, it will not sustain. We need to educate ourselves properly about preservation of nature and bring positive policy changes before our country becomes a green desert filled with exotic trees and sparse biodiversity. Or else, we will not be able to achieve the SDGs in its totality.

The writer is an independent researcher. He can be reached at TanimAshraf@live.com