VCF in CHT: A sustainable model of forest management
Climate change signifies the deforestation issue as a major development challenge. FAO estimates that 13 million hectares of the world's forests are disappearing annually, and that accounts for 20 per cent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. If deforestation continues at the present rate then the tropical forests may be lost by 2050. This is likely to be true, but so far no international treaty has provided any financial incentive for reduction of deforestation and degradation of the ecosystem in the tropics, except the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows investment from developed countries to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions through forestry schemes for developing countries.
However, where poverty is a big issue and people depend on forest for subsistence livelihood, deforestation considered as a component of development. Considering the overwhelming dependency on forest recently REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) has been proposed where incentive will be provided to conserve existing forest. Undoubtedly, it is an opportunity for forest poor countries like Bangladesh; where many indigenous and local people directly rely on surrounding forests for their livelihood. The million dollar question, albeit, is how to manage the existing forest in a sustainable way. Village Common Forest (VCF), solely managed by the indigenous communities in CHTs, would be an influential model in this regard.
Village Common Forest (VCF) is a natural forest other than the government reserve forest around the households of the indigenous communities and is managed to fulfil their daily demands. The birth of community-managed VCF in the CHT is a direct result of resource constraints caused by deforestation and the prevention of entry into and use of the resources of the newly acquired reserved forests (which were promptly declared off limits to local people). These constraints led local communities to devise newer and more sustainable modes of the natural resources management. One such innovation, drawing upon indigenous traditional methods of forest fallow and Jhum cultivation, gave birth to the VCF during the first quarter of the 20th century.
Between 1871 and 1885, three-fourths of CHT's land was declared as government forestland by the British colonial government and the remaining area, except some privately owned land obtained through leasehold or freehold, declared as 'khas land' (government owned fallow land, where nobody has property rights) (Rasul, 2007). One forth of the government forestlands (1,345 sq km) were declared as Reserved Forests (RFs), where any rights of indigenous people including those of collection of fuel wood, fodder and Jhuming were totally denied.
Of late, the government declared the rest of the government forests as Unclassed State Forest (USF), where indigenous peoples' customary rights are allowed (Ibid.). These forests are common forests and all the members of the adjacent community have equal rights over the resources under certain guidelines.
In 1900, according to CHTR (Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation) manual Headman of each Mouza had given power to manage the forest within a Mouza. It is reported that since 1939, traditionally the indigenous communities had been managing the forests around their homesteads in CHT. In the face of continuous forest degradation government issued a circular to Headman of each Mouza to raise and conserve VCF in 1965. Currently, it is estimated that VCF covers 202 ha of land in CHT (Chakma, 2005).
Village common forest is managed as common property resource by the villagers. Generally, the community groups manage the VCFs under the leadership of Mouza Headmen. The management of these forests is based on traditional resource management pattern, where Jhuming is not allowed. The community themselves decide through a meeting when and what to harvest from VCF for their domestic uses.
Every VCF is run by a Forest User Group (FUG). The village headman is the head of the group and the villagers are the members of group by regulation. However, the system is more or less democratic and after every three years the executive committee is elected by the members of the user group. The indigenous communities are guided by their traditional norms and select the same headman as the head of the group until he is dead or physically disabled. The user community collectively set the rules of VCF management and punishes the rule breaker.
Even though individual extraction is restricted in VCF but with permission from the executive committee, individual families may extract wood and other natural resources for their domestic uses. The villagers also sell some of the forest produces, usually bamboo and less occasionally timber to meet community needs for school and temple construction and for emergency medical expenses.
There are no written rules for VCF management. All the rules are traditionally followed. Moreover, the rules are not same in all the VCFs. These differ with different ethnic communities and also with local condition. However, some rules are common for all the VCFs and these are followed strictly with the provision of penalties or sometimes exclusion from the clan in case of rules violation:
* All fire works are restricted in the VCF area;
* Without prior permission of the forest management committee (executive committee) access is restricted to the VCF;
* If any body cuts bamboo without permission, he has to pay Tk 50 as penalty for each bamboo;
* Every year new plantation should be done in VCF by the members;
* Immature bamboo extraction is restricted;
* The executive committee will approve the requirement of forest resources in general meeting before starting extraction;
* Commercial selling is forbidden unless the committee decides to spend the money collected from the sell of forest products in community development (developing prayer place, school, roads etc);
* Committee can give permission to outside villagers to collect forest resources in case of emergency;
* Harvesting of bamboo is generally done after 2 to 3 years;
* Hunting is strictly forbidden in all the cases;
VCF plays important role in conserving forest resources as well as fulfilling other demands of the forest dependant communities. The indigenous communities are managing VCFs around their homesteads for the following reasons:
* To maintain tree cover and protect the environment in the face of rapid deforestation.
* To maintain a diversity of plants and animals (including herbs and plants used in herbal medicine), which have significant potentiality in modern medical science.
* To sustain a supply of wood and bamboo required for house construction and fuel consumption.
* To reduce the pressure on government managed reserved forest for forest products.
* To preserve the drinking water sources as many VCFs contain headwaters of streams, natural springs and other aquifers.
The VCFs are also related to the religions, cultural beliefs, rituals and ceremonies of many indigenous people.
Village Common Forests, managed by indigenous communities, have set a standard model for the protection of biodiversity, environment and natural resources in CHT. Forest resources of VCFs are used to develop educational, religious institutions and in making shelter for poor people. In some areas mature trees and bamboos are sold to create a fund to be used in disaster time. These forests provide indigenous communities with pure drinking water in inaccessible hilly areas by keeping annual and perennial springs and small rivers into sustained flow.
VCF villages are found rich of natural forest resources and people are inextricably linked with VCF for their day-to-day needs. As VCF villagers have no access and rights inside the government owned reserved forest, therefore, various forest products from VCF such as bamboo, wood, medicinal pants, natural dyes and fuel wood have played a significant role in their livelihood. Among the forest products, bamboo is estimated to be the highest one utilized by VCF-community reasonably for domestic purposes as well as a source of income.
Moreover, the production rate of agricultural crop is satisfactory in VCF villages. From the study, it is revealed that rice, ginger, turmeric and different types of vegetables sales provide high economic surplus to many households in VCF villages. Horticultural crops are now increasingly grown to replace cereals or vegetables. On one hand, horticultural crops ensure food security, on the other, these enhance income of VCF communities to a great extent. VCF has protected many seasonal and perennial water bodies which provide not only drinking water and fish protein, but also enhances agriculture production.
The issue of deforestation and environmental degradation in CHT has received increased attention in recent years. One important concern is the efficiency of the land that is managed, particularly forestland that is communally owned. However, it is very difficult to conserve the forests without considering the livelihood options of the dependant communities. In this regard, VCF would be an influential model for maintaining a balance between conservation and exploitation that can be replicated in the mainstream forest management programme to halt current trend of deforestation.
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