Conflict over forestry sector development in Bangladesh

Written by Fazlous Satter Sunday, 23 May 2010 13:26

State aggression on the lives, livelihood options and access and control over forest resources of the forest community is a common feature in almost all the forest Protected Areas (PA) here in Bangladesh. Although most of these PA’s are inhabited by the indigenous forest community but state reluctance to their traditional customary and occupancy rights over land, forest and forest product has created forest conflicts for a long time. Rather than resolving the conflict state repression is also contributing in the process of escalating violence and ultimately that caused massive human insecurities.

State aggression on the lives, livelihood options

The conflict with state and the forest community in particularly with the indigenous peoples is nothing new but goes back to colonial annexation of CHT in 1860 by the British imperial ruler. Shortly after colonial annexation the state began to exploit the forest products of this region and jurisdiction over large part of the CHT had been taken away from the Chiefs and given to the department of forest. In 1870’s the Head of the Department of Forest proposed that the whole Mugh and Chakma population should be removed from their native hills to protect the forest. In 1871 almost entire area was declared as government forest. In 1871-72 the first experiments with teak plantation were carried out. In 1874-75 two forest reserves were demarcated, followed by 5 more up to 1883. Thus in twelve years one-third of entire CHT area was taken away from use of cultivators and put under forest department. This conflicting and alien type of attitude still prevails among the state mechanism of our country, especially within the Department of forest.

Uprooting the Custodian of Forest in the Name of Eco-tourism

Although the international community considered the forest community, especially the indigenous peoples as the custodian of biodiversity but yet it is to practically recognize by the state, in particularly by the department of forest. The said department is always hostile to these peoples and as a result their getting victims of regular state repression that includes threat, harassment and finally continuous threat of eviction and intimidation.

As Fazlous Satter mentioned in his research report titled “ Eco-Park & Eco-Tourism in Protected Areas: An Assault on Life, Livelihood and Human Dignity” that the establishment of so-called Eco-Park or inserting eco-tourism as component of all most each and every forestry sector project in particularly in Protected Area given the forest conflicts a new dimension as its full implementation is depend on the uprooting of the local indigenous and other forest community and also depriving them from their means of subsistence livelihood and rights to land as well as practice of traditional and customary law and practices. At present in Bangladesh there are 19 protected areas and 5 Eco-Park and others are named as National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, Game Reserve and Safari Park. Further more government recently undertakes three more Eco-Park project. But if we go through the each and every project profile we will found that the main objective is same that is developing the infrastructure and facilities for future corporate tourism by ignoring the both national and international laws, standard and practices.

The first controversy with the idea of so-called Eco-Park started in 1999 when the government of that time undertaken a project titled Modhupur national Park development project which includes a component called “Creation of recreational facilities” with a total budget973.50-lakh taka. Modhupur National Park Development Project, commonly known as the Modhupur E-co Park Project is the latest assault on the Mandi Peoples’ land rights as well as life and livelihood including freedom of movement, right to preservation of distinct cultural tradition and identity as indigenous peoples. Basically this project is an implementation attempt of controversial Modhupur National Park Project in a different name.

Another big assaults on the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh; especially for the forest community was occurred on January 17th, 2001 when Prime Minister of that time Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the Sitakunda Botanica Garden & Eco-Park.The park was the first of its kind in the country has been set up on 1,996 acres of land with a panoramic view on the foot of Chandranath Hills, 35 km off the port city and uprooted more than 11 indigenous Tripura families without paying any compensation.

In this program she said apart from Sintakunda Eco-Park, the government has been setting up Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park at Dulahazra in Cox’s Bazar, another Eco-Park at Madhabkunda and Muroichhari, Alutila, Kuakata, Chimbuk, Madhutila, and resort in the Gazani forest in Sherpur. The Prime Minister said her government has formulated a nature conservation management plan for 13 reserved forests. These are – three sanctuaries in the eastern, western and southern parts of the Sundarbans, Bhawal National Park, Madhupur National Park, Himchhari National Park, Teknaf Game Reserve, Rema-Kelenga sanctuary in Habiganj, Hajarikhil sanctuary in Chittagong, Char Kuri-Mukri sanctuary in Bhola, Nijhum Dweep sanctuary in Noakhali and Companiganj wetland in Sylhet.

Second victim was the indigenous Khasi and Mandi peoples of Madhabkunda and Muroichhari. On April 15, 2001 the Minister for Environment and Forests, Mrs. Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, laid the foundation stone for the Eco-Park at Mahdhabkunda. Two separate ceremonies were held, one at Mahdhabkunda and one at Muroicharai. The minister spoke at the first site, to which the indigenous people were not invited.

Authoritarian development

In Bangladesh the concept of protected area management and tourism promotion is so backdated that it does not match with any international standard. Although beside modern protected area management, planning process for developing eco-tourism facilities is now based on effective partnership, collaboration and co-management and community based approaches with the stakeholders, especially with local community. The fundamental criterion of this partnerships are the recognition to the rights to land whether it is based on general law or customary land practices (especially for indigenous and ethnic minority), respect to the religious and cultural practices, respect to the peoples rights to self-determination over development process, natural resources and the subsistence way of living. The rights to self-determination over development process includes rights to determining the development priority, effective participation in the planning, monitoring and evaluation and finally in the management. Based on both entitlements over the environment and natural resources and also on the land ownership whether it is community or individual this modern approach ensures the democratic processes that include gender sensitivity, cultural sensitivity, benefit sharing, property rights intellectual and genetic resources and finally the participation of the citizen groups.

But in our country rather than acknowledging the role of forest community as custodian of biodiversity, they’re being treated as the alien or enemy of conservation. As result before undertaking any project in the protected areas including that undertaken in the name of so-called Eco-Park or eco-tourism, no prior consultation was done with the concerned communities. Even the issue was not discussed with the community leaders or the representatives of the local government. Nowhere concerned peoples were discussed regarding the project planning. Even in most of the cases socio-economic and environmental impact assessment was also not done. Concerned of the women also were not addressed anywhere.

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Note: This article is a part of research report of this author titled “Study on the Conflicts & emergencies resulting from development activities along with elite capturing, non-participatory management of natural resources” conducted with the Action Aid Bangladesh as an Independent Research Consultant.

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