Impacts of participatory social forestry practiced in Madhupur Sal forests, Bangladesh | |
| Author | Rahman, Molla Mohammad Mizanur |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.NR-06-10 |
| Subject(s) | Forest management--Bangladesh--Madhupur Sal--Citizen participation Forest management--Social aspects--Bangladesh--Madhupur Sal |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. NR-06-10 |
| Abstract | The constant failure of the traditional forest management to fight back the ongoing devastating depletion and the consequent shrinkage of the Madhupur natural Sal forest led the Bangladesh Forest Department to implement the participatory social forestry practices with the participations of the local people under the guidelines of the `Forest Policy-1994' (enunciated in 1979) in the study area (GOB). The objectives of the study aimed at inquiring into the impacts of participatory social forestry on the social and economic parameters of the participants and on the biological parameters of the Madhupur Sal forest. The dream of the participants to get access to forest uses came true after the implementation of the PSF programs in the study area. Since, they enjoyed the `bundle of forest use rights' to meet their aspiring needs of increased `current income flow'; which affected the participants' households socially and economically as well. The PSF trainings equipped the participants with the modern social forestry techniques, led them towards IGA and built up their social capital to work together with team spirits in PSF and in their private social life. The PSF practices reduced their job crisis. Moreover, the participants enjoyed the equity in sharing of benefits of the final sale proceeds of the first rotation plantations. These all were the social and economic gains for the participants which brought them social esteem in their societies. Thus, the PSF practices positively affected the social parameters of the participants. The participants across the study area attained the economic benefits from all sources of PSF practices with significant differences depending on their performances, intercropping patterns, availability of NTFP and site qualities etc. The participants also enjoyed the nutritional benefits differently across the study area based on the rate of their intercrop productions (including fruits). They had scopes to either change or improve their previous occupations using the economic benefits gained and trainings received from the PSF programs. Therefore, the economic gains of PSF certainly affected the economic parameters of the participants positively based on the level of economic benefits achieved by them from the PSF programs. The tree productivity of the exotics and fast growing species were higher than other species in the PSF plantations. Sal associates were found naturally regenerating in the plantations. The nitrogen and CO2 fixation ability and coppicing power of the exotics and fast growing species had the biological and environmental effects on the degraded forest lands. Hence, the plantations performed as a catalyst for restoring and replenishing the degraded forest lands of the Planting sites. But the species diversity of the plantations was lower than the natural Sal forest and the species distributions in the NF were likely to be more even than the plantations. The comparison between this study and the Webb and Sah (2003) exhibited that the Sal forest of Bangladesh was much more degraded than Nepal. It was true because the NTFP collections exhibited decreasing trend of NTFP from the past (before 1987) to the present (2005). The study findings exhibited that there were gaps in between the PSF performances /implementation and the PSF objectives (FSP) (e.g. mistargeting of FSP in participants' selection procedure). Therefore, the participatory social forestry still has a lot more to do for achieving the socioeconomic development of the target groups and ensuring the sustainable management and conservation of the Madhupur natural Sal forest with the help of advanced research findings |
| Year | 2006 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. NR-06-10 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Natural Resources Management (NRM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Webb, Edward L.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt;Ahmad, Mokbul M.;Gautam, Ambika P.; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Ministry of Environment and Forests, Bangladesh; |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2006 |