The conundrum of social forestry
Running alongside the Dhaka-Sylhet railway track, there was once a picturesque road.
A dense canopy of around 1,200 Mahogany, Orjun, Eucalyptus, Shishu and various types of rain trees provided cool breeze for travellers all year round.
This serene greenery will no longer be seen on the nearly five-kilometre-long stretch of Sylhet-Fenchuganj road in Parairchak area.
Located in Dakkhin Surma upazila near Sylhet city, this wall of trees also worked as a natural curtain covering up a dumpsite of Sylhet City Corporation from travellers' sights.
The trees not only provided travellers with a soothing respite during hot summer days, but also delighted the train passengers with its view from far.
This eye-pleasing forestry came alive after 24 years of rearing and nurturing by 22 insolvent locals under a social forestry programme.
The Forest Department is the facilitator of the project and they recently started harvesting almost all the matured trees -- 1,095 to be exact, for timber.
As per the rules of social forestry programmes, trees are planted for consumption needs of the community that provides care for the trees. The proceeds from the sale of the trees are split three ways among the care provider (beneficiary), the Forest Department and the Roads and Highways Department.
One might still wonder whether felling almost all the trees at once defeats the very objective of the forestation programmes.
Artificial forestation programmes are encouraged worldwide as the trees planted in an area primarily help foster different ecosystems and species of insects and birds.
Therefore, felling or uprooting of trees in that entire area will endanger the ecosystems including insects and birds.
The families of Kestrel, Kite and other species of birds in the area are now endangered as their habitats, built on the trees on the Sylhet-Fenchuganj road, are being destroyed.
During a visit on the road in mid-July, this correspondent found more than half of the trees had already been chopped down.
According to the government's social forestry guideline adopted in 2004, mixed types of trees -- fruit, timber and medicinal -- have to be planted under a forestation project. Nearly 90 percent of the trees are allowed to be harvested, as at least 10 percent of the trees are prohibited for felling.
The guideline, however, does not prescribe forestation in phases so that different batches of trees are matured in different years. Such a provision would help maintain ecological balance in a project area since all the trees could not be felled at the same time.
The provision allowing harvesting 90 percent of trees at the same time goes against the forestation concept as the project area will again be deforested and the newly-built ecosystem there will be destroyed or endangered.
Fruit-bearing trees are not allowed to be felled in many countries and the social forestry policies there ensure that the environment of a project area is protected while both the government and the care provider reap the benefit through the harvesting of trees, said Dr Mohammad Sharaf Uddin, chairman of agroforestry and environmental science department at Sylhet Agricultural University.
Chopping down all the trees at the same time results in deforestation of the area again and it destroys the ecology that once became alive through the painstaking forestation work over many years. Besides, the temperature in the area also rises without any vegetation, Dr Sharaf added.
Dr Narayan Saha, former head of forestry and environmental science department at Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, said various types of trees should be planted under social forestry programmes and the trees should be planted in phases.
This way, the balance of minerals and other elements in the soil would be maintained and the trees would be healthier. The environmental balance in the area would also be intact as matured trees would be harvested in phases, he explained.
What will happen to the birds and other species that depend on the trees on the Sylhet-Fenchuganj road, asked Mohammad Ashraful Kabir, coordinator of Bhumi Santan Bangladesh, an environment and animal rights organisation.
In his opinion, the social forestry policy needs to be revised and it needs to specify methods for forestation and harvesting on different types of areas, especially for roadsides and arid lands.
Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bapa (Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon) in Sylhet, said it is understandable that trees under a social forestry programme will be cut down for the beneficiaries. But, at the same time, the project could also protect the environment if the trees were planted and cut down in different phases.
Also, the guideline needs to include planting of a new tree in place of each tree felled, Kim suggested.
When contacted, Sylhet Divisional Forest Officer RFM Monirul Islam said the beneficiaries put their investments in the trees on the Sylhet-Fenchuganj road and they have to cut down the trees as per the principle of social forestry.
The trees were sold for over Tk 31 lakh in a public bidding, said forest officials in Sylhet.
Comments