Protecting Nature – A story on encroachment of forest land.
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Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries with a low resource base and a huge population. National income is very low - per capita GDP in 2000 was only about 314 US$. The economy of the country is based mainly on agriculture. Due to huge population, low per capita land holding and very highly skewed distribution of lands (10% people hold 40% of land and 60% are landless) lead to overexploitation of natural resources (ADB 2000), including the forest resources.
Bangladesh has 11% of the landmass designated as forest (ADB 2002) but the actual tree cover is estimated at around 8-9%. Although the contribution of forests to the national economy is reasonable (2.6% in GDP), yet they play important role in maintaining quality of local and national environment. Forestry sector provides employment to 2% of the labor force (Anon 1997). In addition these forests are rich in biodiversity and abode of many endangered species.
In 1999 per capita forestland in the country was 105 m2(FAO 2001). The existing forests are decreasing at rate of 9000 ha per year (FAO 1999). The main causes of forest degradation are encroachment (Flint 1994, Capistrano and Kiker 1995, Rasheed 1995, Kamal et al. 1999, Salam et al. 1999, ADB 2002, FAO 2002); illegal logging (Rasheed 1995); increased demand for fuelwood (Flint 1994, Rasheed 1995, ADB 2002) and unplanned development activities (Ahamed 1998, FAO 2002). Forests are encroached by individuals, group of individuals and institutions (Contreras - Hermosilla 2000). In different South Asian countries agriculture, population pressure, cash cropping, human settlement, pasture, road construction and shifting cultivation have been identified as the main causes of encroachment (Mather 1990, Collins et al.1991, Thapa and Weber 1995, Saxena et al. 1997). In Bangladesh, similar investigations to find the causes of encroachment, have not been reported.
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