Proposed 10 Years Management Plan
(2009-10 to 2018-2019)
7. Introduction
The status of the forest under the management plan has a wide range of causes for which the forest can be said as a depleting one. The present management pattern has a less suitability status as the management of the forest of Bangladesh follows a general way of management rather than site specific management criteria. The main concentration of this management plan is to make the management criteria to a site specific intervention to a range of individual species and land use level.
The main objective of the management plan for every forest is to make it productive while it fulfills the requirement of conservation. To maintain the both of the objectives our way of management will be consolidated to particular zonation for individual species management and natural habitat management for native floral and faunal diversity conservation which can be termed in other words as the zone for natural ecosystem restoration.
In other perspective the productivity of the forest should reach to the forest dependent people sot that the ethnographic pressure on the forest can be reduced to a minimum level which will help the management regime to enforce the conservation law and order as it is quite impossible to manage any forest without providing adequate livelihood for the dependent people. In this respect the forest area should have the space to create participatory forestry and joint management regime.
In the following pages we will go through by demarking the greatest unit of management to the smallest unit of management concentrating from production stage to organizational stage.
7.1 Plan Objectives and Challenges
7.1.1 Objectives of Management
The plan focuses in the protection of the existing local biodiversity and habitat conservation. On the other end the management will be initiated to establish the Forest Policy, 1994. In this regard the main objective will be to have the maximum forest cover in the areas as well as accommodate the wildlife and to provide a sound habitat to the wild animals. Main objectives of the management will be as below:
- To develop zone management practice to make the forest as a productive and conservation oriented one as well as to permit the local people to obtain their livelihood from the forest.
- To conserve the biodiversity with collaboration of the local people where the participation of the local people will be ensured in the first place as well as paying highest concentration towards the indigenous knowledge recognizing the overall scenario of the forest.
- To reinforce institutional capacity to implement the policy option as well as the development of the infrastructure and operational activities.
- To ensure a safe zone for vulnerable wildlife in the locality and to establish a natural regeneration place for the wildlife and for the floral diversity.
- To create a place for governmental revenue place through the practice of eco tourism to the forest sustainable.
- To create an income generation activities for sustainable livelihood development for the local community so that the forest dependent people can be encouraged to conserve the forest for their own well being as well as to reduce the over exploitation of the forest resources which can be achieved through equitable benefit sharing and capacity building.
7.1..2 Framework Activities
The basic framework activities which will be followed by the Forest Department to achieve the objectives can be as below:
- Surveying, demarcating and marking the park boundary.
- Defining the range of buffer zone and core zone.
- Developing a co-management model for and relevant policy guidelines and establishing a co-management agreements linking protected area conservation with benefit sharing agreements with key stakeholders.
- Identifying major conflicts and the way of resolving the conflicts.
- Determining the potentiality of the land to provide livelihood for the dependent people and to make a trade off between the demand and supply.
- Capacity building for the local people and measuring social capital and social resilience of the community.
- Increasing public awareness through experience sharing.
- Building local institutions and capacity building of Forest Department for conservation and community based forest resource management.
- Developing conservation and visitors’ facilities within the park.
7.1..3. Challenges in Achieving Management Objectives
Encroaching and illegal felling are the two major problems of the protected areas while man-wildlife conflict makes a room increasing the vulnerability of the areas. All this problems are the result of anthropogenic pressure over the forest. This pressure gets the momentum from the poor community of tea garden labor in case of Khadim Nagar National Park while Tilla Garh Eco Park confronts the same pressure from the poor community of adjacent people.
Rapid urbanization by the influence of expanding Sylhet city redeems the forest to barren land and industrialization in the periphery of the forest makes both the forest difficult to thrive. Meanwhile soil erosion, grassland degradation, traffic movement, demarcation of the protected area boundaries, lack of funds, and lack of trained professionals, inadequate staffing and infrastructure, mono culture are the problems can be cited in lurid.
For the remedy of the problems Social Forestry Rules, 2004 providing for sharing benefits from Social Forestry plantation will be helpful in sharing benefits with local communities. Prohibition of urban expansion towards the forested land and discouraging industrial development with collaboration of the local elites can play the role of protected area conservation stratigy.
7.2. Nursery establishment
Central and site nurseries should be established for those stands which don’t have regeneration in satisfactory status. Seeds should be collected from reliable sources and should be planted immediately after collection. It will be convenient to collect seed in the previous year of nursery establishment. Seed treatments will be maintained under existing standard practices. Proper management should be ensured for nurseries of specific species. Nursery practices should be monitored and improved to reduce wastage and cull to 20%. This cull percentageage should be calculated when calculating seed requirements.
Bed size: 40’ X 4’ (or any established convenient size)
The extension of the forest nursery will be for bamboo and cane. In this case vegetative propagation nursery will be established and the propagation materials will be collected from the reliable zone.
Bed size: 40’ X 4’ (or any established convenient size)
7.3 Major Zones of Management
Under the new management system the forest will be classified in three management zones. The basic region to establish the zones is for the existing nature of the bits under observation as protected area. There are two types of protected areas are seen in the field of management. They are
- National Park e.g. Khadim Nagar Bit
- Eco Park e.g. Tila Ghar Bit
As the basic criteria of the protected area management is to conserve the forest in first choice. But like other forests of Bangladesh Protected areas are also subjected to anthropogenic pressure so the protected area should have the enough spacing to generate revenue collection and livelihood earning for the forest dependent people.
Under the above consideration we are suggesting to establishing a three-type zoning system. The zones of our suggestion are
- Conservation Zone
- Production Zone
3.3. Participatory Forestry Practice Zone
7.3.1. Conservation Zone:
The highest degree of management intervention will be concentrated to the conservation of native floral and faunal composition. As the both of the forests are in the practice of protected area criteria the new management prescription will also be related to such conservation nature. As a consequence we suggest the core zone to be established as a conservation zone where very restricted human intervention will be followed. But before establishing the core zone a precise boundary definition should be marked and only after that all type of interventions will be taken. Along with that a well delineated periphery should also be established as there is no such peripheral area still exists.
7.3.2. Plantation in Conservation Zone:
Conservation zone will be planted with those species which are native and can produce fodder for the wild animal. Along with that some rare species will also be planted following in situ management practice so that the exotic rare will not be incompatible for the native ecosystem. Besides, the native species can produce more genetic diversity as for example Moniraj (Cycas pectinata).
Dhaki Jam, Puti Jam, Kanthal, Chapalish, Amloki, Chapa, Bot, Aswath, Pakur, Dumur (several types) etc can be planted in a mixed culture manner. The basic reason for such plantation is the regular supply of food materials to wildlife.
Management of these plantations will be followed by natural regeneration with no harvesting and extraction of the resources. These trees will be remained out of touch of human intervention so that the wild animals can get a dwelling place. Some undergrowth will also be maintained for the habitat conservation of the wild animals. This undergrowth will be maintained by planting bushy plants hedges.
7.3. Management of plantation
Plantation will be management with no interruption of human intervention while the focus of the plantation will be raised to convert the plantation to a natural forest. In this purpose natural regeneration will be followed and the plantation will be allowed to grow with a natural competition of ecosystem.
7.4.. Wildlife Management
Major wildlife of the forests is snakes, monkeys, birds and some types of reptiles and lizards. The major threats of the species are habitat distraction, population fragmentation and scarcity of food materials. Habitat destruction is the result of anthropogenic pressure over the forest. In response we suggest to reduce urbanization and reduction of human access to the core zone of the forest.
While population fragmentation is the result of habitat destruction so we think that the problem will be reduced simultaneously in response to the implementation of the previous prescription.
Scarcity of food materials can be checked by planting the fodder producing trees as suggested to the plantation suggestion for conservation zone.
7.5 Production Zone
Bangladesh is a country with small resource but large requirement of output. So we have make to make a trade off between the conservation and resource extraction as we can not leave the forest only for the purpose of conservation. In this regard we suggest establishing a separate production zone for earning of revenue to the government treasure. In this forest the existing practice of Social Forestry will be prohibited for the limitation of Social Forestry not to give long term productivity. The main objective g the forest will be the production of the valuable timber to reduce the demand and supply gap of the product. This forest will be controlled by the Forest Department fully with no participation of the local community in this intervention. Production zone will be established following the working circle which can be explained as below:
1) Bamboo Working Circle
2) Rattan Working Circle
3) Teak Working Circle
4) Garjan Working Circle
1 Bamboo Working Circle
Especially in Khadom Nagar National Park several types of bamboo species occur in a great abundance. In this forest bamboo occurs in almost 8000 hectors. The most important bamboo species is Jai (Bambusa vulgaris). Other bamboo species are Mitinga (Bambusa tulda) and Muli (Melocanna baccifera).
Management of Bamboo Working Circle
Bamboo resources will be continued to be managed under a 3-year cutting series, as current production levels are still way below the calculated sustained yield. Due to the reported decline in productivity shown in the previous intervention the forest department shall endeavor to conduct field verification. The Forest Department shall increase the cutting cycle to 4 years instead of 3, to be implemented the second 5 years of the plan. This longer cutting cycle will again be evaluated at the end of the planning period to determine if it has created an area productivity in terms of mature stem per hector.
- Rattan Working Circle
Rattan in Sylhet is an important forest product which has a great economic impact in small scale rural enterprise due to the increasing demand of the products obtained from this material. In this regard the production attracts a luminous concentration of management.
There are two rattan species are found naturally and also planted in the forest of Khadim Nagat National Park and an initial plantation of rattan is practiced in Tila Garh Eco Park. And all this plantations are developed as the under story of long term species. We have the following suggestion to be implemented in the forests.
Management of Rattan Working Circle
Rattan will be established as under story of all working circles through out the forest and this will be managed under 5 years rotation cycle. As there are two types of rattan are planted in the forests including Golla and Jali bet making it compatible with the market demand Golla Bet should be expanded in plantation as they have high economic demand. The plantation of Golla bet will be established in the Forest Department controlled areas.
In association of the plantation of the species the other species Jali bet should be established in the Social Forestry Projects as they are of small rotation and can provide immediate economic return to the farmers. In this case the rotation will be managed less than 3 years duration.
In both of the cases artificial regeneration will be followed so that the high quality type of each of the species can be maintained with higher productivity rate.
- Teak Working Circle
Teak is the common species found in both of the protected areas with an average growth of 1.43 m3 in volume per tree. As the plantation of the species bring a poor environmental and biodiversity return the plantation will be harvested in core zone while they will be retained in the production forest. Teak plantation of the forest was established 1961 and plantation area is about 62 acre.
1. Management of Teak Working Circle
Teak working circle in core zone will be harvested that are existing in the forest and this vacant place will be planted with native fodder and shelter giving species as described in the section of conservation zone.
But in case of production forest the plantation of teak will be continued with a rotation of 30 years for the minimization of market demand of the local community and far away markets. This area will also be harvested in first five years with duration of 12 acre each year and will be regenerated with the same species into the last five years. Here each 12 acre land will be remained fallow for at least 1 year for nutrient regaining.
2. Cost in Teak Working Circle
Harvesting cost:
Per tree removal needs = 8 labors
One labor = 100Tk/day
So One tree removal needs = 800Tk
There are 250 tree spp per hectare
So, one hectare removal needs = 250*800
= 200000Tk
One year we harvest 12ha
In one year harvest cost= 12*200000
= 2400000Tk
Ten years harvest cost= 2400000*10
= 24000000Tk
Other cost= 1300000tk
Income:
1 m3= 1600Tk
One year we harvest = 14960m3
One year’s Income =14960 *1600
= 23936000Tk
Ten years income = 23936000*10
= 239360000Tk
- Garjan Working Circle
Garjan is a native species of the forests with small environmental degradation but the plantation of such forest will be discouraged as they can’t provide fodder and shelter for the wild species. But increasing plantation of the species in production zone will be encouraged in case of production forest. Already there is a establishment of Garjan of 822 acre age of plantation is 16 yr average height is 22.5 m and average diameter is 33.85 cm.
1. Management of Garjan Working Circle
Garjan working circle will be managed with a rotation of 30 years also and the under story will be maintained by the plantation of rattan. Artificial regeneration will be followed with selection method.
The existing Garjan plantation will be harvested to the 5th year of the implementation of management plan. Hence the new plantation will be established as described earlier.
2. Cost in Teak Working Circle
Harvesting cost:
Per tree removal needs = 8 labors
One labor = 100Tk/day
So One tree removal needs = 800Tk
There are 255 tree spp per hectare
So, one hectare removal needs = 255*800
= 204000Tk
One year we harvest 105acre
In one year harvest cost= 105*204000
= 21420000Tk
Ten years harvest cost=21420000 *10
= 214200000Tk
Other costs= 2000000tk
Income:
1 m3= 1200Tk
One year we harvest = 34360m3
One year’s Income =34360 *1200
= 41232000Tk
Ten years income = 41232000*10
= 412320000tk
b. Participatory Forestry Practice Zone
The forests in Khadim Nagar and also in Tila Garh are isolated by tea gardens hence no buffer zone was established believing that the tea gardens would play the role of natural barriers. But the increasing population pressure and urban expansion have proved the concept wrong. In this stage for the better management Social Forestry practice can play a positive role in the buffer zones.
- The management of the participatory forestry practice can be as below:
- Security of land tenure will be provided.
- Production benefit sharing will be alike the governmental policy in benefit sharing.
- Capacity building and awareness creation among the local people.
- Establishment of local fund will be generated.
- Enhancement of women participation will be given more importance.
- Building of institutional collaboration and association will be initiated.
- Identification of the participants will be screened
Initiatives for Participatory Forestry Practice Working Circle
§ Total area allotted for participatory forestry is 315 ha.
§ Total fuel wood demands of participants meet from their own plantation.
§ New area will be allocated for participatory forestry is 204.53ha.
§ 34 ha from each beat will be provided for participatory forestry.
§ Each participants will be get 1 ha area for plantation.
§ Road side and canal banks should be used for strip plantation which is managed by participatory approach.
§ Seedlings and other supports should be provided by forest department.
§ Benefit sharing agreement will be as follows
Forest Department = 45%
Beneficiary = 45%
Tree farming fund =10%
Cost for Participatory forestry
§ Total area left for participatory forestry is 204.53ha.
§ Spacing 2m*2m.
§ For 1 ha seedlings required 2500 pieces
§ Total seedlings required 613590 pieces with in which 511325 pieces for plantation rising and 102265 pieces for 20% vacancy felling.
§ Total cost for seedling raising + transportation = 613590*4 = 2454360 Taka
4. Implementation Arrangements
Major players and their and their responsibility in implementation of this plan are:
- The conservator is the chief administrator and shall be responsible for oversight for the implementation of the plan.
- The DFO Sylhet is the chief administrator and will be responsible for carryout implementation.
- DFO-Working Plans shall be responsible for the implementation and additional studies conductions when necessary.
- The DCF-RIMS/GIS will assist the DFO-Sylhet and DFO-Working Plan for the implementation of the plan.
- ACF of the both of the protected areas will be the co ordinate in field level.
- Ranger will implement the plan in field level.
- Field Monitoring Units
Field Crew
ACF 1
Ranger 1
Forest Guard 5
Lasker 5
Casual Labor as needed 6-10
Office Staff
Data entry Operator 2
Accountant 2
Range Office
Ranger 1
Forester 1
Forest Guard 5
Plantation Mali 4
Driver 1
Office Peon 1
Casual Labor 5-7
Beat Office
Beat Officer 1
Forester 1
Forest Guard 4
Plantation Mali 4
Casual Labor 3-5
- Field Reporting
- Frequencies: Monthly
- Period Cover: Starting and ending date
- Apprehensions
- Research Activities
- Report on the conservation objectives
