Commercial exploitation of forests displaces forest-dwellers

Speakers at a seminar yesterday said commercial and industrial exploitation of forests are the main reasons behind mass displacement of forest-dwellers in the country.
They also pointed out rubber and pulpwood plantation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as major reasons for deforestation in the area. Flawed policies have destroyed a large part of the Modhupur forest, they added.
The seminar on 'Tea Workers, Forest and Forest Peoples' was organised by Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) at the WVA auditorium in the city as part of the national assembly of tea plantation workers and forest-dwellers.
Lawmaker Promod Mankin, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on CHT, said traditionally most of the indigenous people in Bangladesh live in and around the forest regions.
The indigenous people only collect firewood and wild vegetables from the forest. But their access to the forest is being restricted by introducing eco park, he alleged.
They are being detached from the forestland, the main source of their livelihood. On the other hand those who fell trees commercially are being patronised, Mankin added.
At Madhupur, indigenous people remain in constant threat of eviction. They do not have land records as they follow the traditional community ownership, he mentioned.
Out of the total landmass Bangladesh has bout six percent of forestland. The forests are classified as hilly forests, plain land Shawl forests, Mangrove forests, coastal forests and home gardens.
Zuamlian Amlai, chairperson of the Movement for the Protection of Forest and Land Rights in CHT, Bandarban chapter said a huge area of natural forests in CHT have been cleared for pulpwood and rubber plantations. Pulpwood plants are felled when they are mature so these artificially planted trees fail to create any forestland.
Meanwhile, a large number of the indigenous people have been evicted from their homeland for rubber plantation, which had attracted outsiders, mainly Bangalees to the region who are often the reason behind many violent activities, including rape of indigenous women, Amlai added.
He blamed the Forest Department for destroying the forest instead of protecting it. Unscrupulous foresters are behind illegal felling of trees, he alleged.
Forest-dwellers Ching Sala Chak, Shambhu Tanchangya, Kajendra Tripura and Nidarshan Khisha gave accounts of their suffering at the seminar.
Dr Noazesh Ahmed, photographer and agricultural scientist, Prof Amena Mohsin of Dhaka University, Farida Akter, executive director of Policy Research for Development Alternatives (UBINIG), and Philip Gain, general secretary of SEHD, also spoke.