Term Paper on Forest Resource Management in Bangladesh
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Introduction
Forests are a very important source of natural resources like wood, bamboo, thatching material etc. It also has a great influence on the environment like climate, water availability, soil erosion, flood and nutrient turnover. It is also the last portion of the world’s fauna and flora. Wood which is the main forest produce has been used from the very early days of human civilization. Even though substitute has been found for most natural materials wood remains irreplaceable in most of its uses. Wood is the major cooking fuel for vast majority of the world’s population; it provides the raw material for pulp, paper and cellulose base industries and is still a major component in the building industry. Wood is playing as important a role in human lives today as it did in the ancient times. It is still vitally necessary in the lives of people, particularly in the developing countries. With the increase in the population of the world, the pressure on land increased very greatly. This together with the requirement of timber for an increasing world population has resulted in large scale destruction of forest. According to Porte (1989) 33 million acres of tropical forests are cleared every year.
The situation in Bangladesh is not any better than other developing countries. In fact because of its small land base and very large population, the situation here is more precarious than most other countries. The population of the country more than two and a half fold in the last four decades, while during the same period of time there has not been any addition to the existing forests except for the establishment of about 250,000 acres of plantation in the newly accreted coastal char land. Even though on record about 6.1 million acres of forest exists in Bangladesh, in reality, less than half of that can be considered as productive. This has been the result of over exploitation of trees resources
[pic]
Introduction
Forests are a very important source of natural resources like wood, bamboo, thatching material etc. It also has a great influence on the environment like climate, water availability, soil erosion, flood and nutrient turnover. It is also the last portion of the world’s fauna and flora. Wood which is the main forest produce has been used from the very early days of human civilization. Even though substitute has been found for most natural materials wood remains irreplaceable in most of its uses. Wood is the major cooking fuel for vast majority of the world’s population; it provides the raw material for pulp, paper and cellulose base industries and is still a major component in the building industry. Wood is playing as important a role in human lives today as it did in the ancient times. It is still vitally necessary in the lives of people, particularly in the developing countries. With the increase in the population of the world, the pressure on land increased very greatly. This together with the requirement of timber for an increasing world population has resulted in large scale destruction of forest. According to Porte (1989) 33 million acres of tropical forests are cleared every year.
The situation in Bangladesh is not any better than other developing countries. In fact because of its small land base and very large population, the situation here is more precarious than most other countries. The population of the country more than two and a half fold in the last four decades, while during the same period of time there has not been any addition to the existing forests except for the establishment of about 250,000 acres of plantation in the newly accreted coastal char land. Even though on record about 6.1 million acres of forest exists in Bangladesh, in reality, less than half of that can be considered as productive. This has been the result of over exploitation of trees resources
Bibliography: • National Seminar on Forest Resources Management in Bangladesh issues problems and prospects edited by S. H. Rahman. 013, RAF. • The Mangroves and Mangrove Forests of Bangladesh by S. Das and N. A. Siddiqi • Alauddin, S. M. 1998. An Overview of Forest Management in Bangladesh. • Communities and Forest management in South Asia by Mark Poffenberger. 013, POC, C.2 • Bangladesh: State of the Environment 2001. • Roy. M. K. 1997. Forest, People and Environment. Paper presented in the Workshop on Importance of Non-formal Education Organized by Bangladesh POUSH. [pic][pic][pic][pic][pic]