Bangladesh’s trees are a huge asset for both preventing and adapting to climate change. For example, a 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh that hit where there were no trees resulted in more damage and loss of lives than a cyclone in 2007, which had mangroves to dissipate some of the energy of the storm.[1] Coastal mangrove forests help protect against storm surges and many problems they cause. In addition to these coastal forests, Bangladesh also has hill forests. The heavier rainfall brought on by climate change increases the risk of landslides and soil erosion. Reforestation can lessen this problem. Trees on hills make the soil more stable and less prone to landslides.[1] Trees also can help offset carbon emissions into the atmosphere. So reforestation would not only help adapt to the extreme weather brought by climate change, it could also help prevent further climate change from occuring.
The factors that contribute to deforestation and hinder reforestation efforts in Bangladesh are insufficient accessibility to information, population density, and poverty.[2] While the federal government has information about the benefits of trees, this information is poorly communicated with communities and local decision makers, so deforestation continues. Because of a large and growing population, land grows scarcer as more families pursue land for housing and farming. This pushes settlers from developed areas and leads to exploitation of forests where they settle. Also, wood from forests is cut down for use as timber or fuel faster than the trees can be replaced. Poverty in Bangladesh leads to people choosing short-term methods of economic gain instead of sustainable forest practices. Trees are cut down to make room for agriculture, cattle farming, and subsistence farming.
It is difficult for the problem of deforestation to be solved through policy because enforcing policies would be difficult, and it could worsen poverty in the short term because it would make subsistence farming more difficult. Instead, education programs about sustainable forest practices targeted at local communities could bridge the communication gap between the government and regional decision-makers. Additionally, the program should address how trees can protect the property and lives of community members from adverse effects of climate change to give a non-economic incentive to protect forests.
A good substitute for wood fuel is rice husk briquette. Rice husk is a byproduct of rice harvesting, and it has a negative carbon cost associated with it so replacing wood with rice husk would reduce deforestation, reduce carbon emissions and is financially viable.[3] Rice husk briquette also burns slower, so for cooking purposes, one kilogram of rice husk briquette is equivalent to 1.63 kilograms of wood.[3]
There is still a need for land for subsistence farming where the forest has already been cleared for agriculture; cover crops can be planted to help prevent soil erosion. Food that grows on trees could also supplement other crops to take some pressure off crops that require deforestation. Also, agroforestry allows crops and trees to be grown together. While expanding agroforestry alone can not meet food demands since its main objective is wood production, it can provide even more food for the rural poor.
To address the need for timber, trees need to be planted to replace those that are cut down. This is where expanding social forestry programs can be helpful. Social forestry began in the 1980s in Bangladesh and has shown that it has potential to alleviate poverty and promote more sustainable forest practices. Social forestry involves the rural poor in planting. It has played a role in reforestation by adding 40,387 ha of new forest since 1980 as of 2003.[4] Since fast-growing trees were planted, they can be rotated relatively quickly and when trees are cut down and sold, income was generated for the rural participants and the government. In addition, 10% of funds from the project were put in a reserve to continue the practice. While some participants received sufficient money to improve their quality of life, the average earnings per person was 223 USD. Expansion of the project with more funding from private organizations could help participants earn even more money. Participants may also be more invested in the project if they were given more autonomy and right to the land they are helping reforest.[4]
By Cecilia Esterman
References
- The World Bank. (2016). Climate Resilient Participatory Afforestation and Reforestation Project. Projects & Operations. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
- Iftekhar, M. S., & Hoque, A. K. (2005). Causes of Forest Encroachment: An Analysis of Bangladesh. GeoJournal,62(1-2), 95-106. doi:10.1007/s10708-005-7917-z
- Ahiduzzaman, M., & Sadrul Islam, A. K. M. (2016). Assessment of Rice Husk Briquette Fuel Use as an Alternative Source of Woodfuel. International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 6(4), 1601-1611.
- Muhammed, N., Koike, M., Sajjaduzzaman, M., & Sophanarith, K. (2005). Reckoning social forestry in Bangladesh: policy and plan versus implementation. Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research,78(4), 373-383. doi:10.1093/forestry/cpi045