H. M. Tuihedur Rahman

Informal Institutional Responses to Government Interventions: Lessons from Madhupur National Park, Bangladesh

Madhupur National Park is renowned for severe resource ownership conflicts between ethnic communities and government authorities in Bangladesh. In this study, we applied the Institutional Analysis and Development framework to identify: (i) past and present informal institutional structures within the ethnic Garo community for land resource management; (ii) the origin of the land ownership dispute; (iii) interaction mechanisms between formal and informal institutions; and (iv) change in land management authority and informal governance structures. We identify that the informal institutions of the traditional community have undergone radical change due to government interventions with implications for the regulation of land use, informal institutional functions, and joint-decision-making. Importantly, the government’s persistent denial of the role of existing informal institutions is widening the gap between government and community actors, and driving land ownership conflicts in a cyclic way with associated natural resource degradation.

Examining the Role of Social Capital in Community Collective Action for Sustainable Wetland Fisheries in Bangladesh

Internationally, the decentralization of property rights is becoming an increasingly common policy intervention for sustainable natural resource management. In the context of decentralized wetland fisheries policy in Bangladesh, this paper examines the role that social capital plays in cooperation building and collective action among diverse households seeking to obtain fisheries property rights. It considers how some households are able to develop collective action in the form of a community-based organization to access wetland fisheries, and why other households are not. Using the Local Level Institution (LLI) study technique, our analysis highlights that the financial capacity of community members plays a crucial role in accessing resources when the government’s decentralization policy also seeks to generate State revenue through fees. In this situation, information access and communication with external agencies were found to be prerequisites for earning the wetland fisheries property rights, with local leaders able to take advantage of their position to dictate collective decision making. This situation resulted in undemocratic decentralization and devolution of wetland fisheries rights, undermining transparency, accountability and the equitable distribution of natural resources.

Density, diversity, composition and distribution of street trees in Sylhet Metropolitan City of Bangladesh

Both for environmental and aesthetic purposes, urban street trees have significant importance. In most of the developed cities, this type of plantation is an integral part of landscape planning. Nevertheless, this issue is poorly considered in the cities of developing countries. Consequently, we observe a scarcity of urban street trees. Considering this scenario, we explored the state of urban street tree planting in Sylhet City, which is a growing urban centre in Bangladesh. We assessed the density, diversity, composition and distribution of street trees in the city using different diversity computation indices (e.g. relative abundances, dominance, importance and richness, evenness and diversity) in main and link roads. We also measured the growth pattern of the trees in the study area. It was found that out of 486 studied transects in both main and link roads, 404 had no trees. Sweitenia mahagoni was the dominant species in both road categories. The Mann Whitney U test results suggest that there was no significant difference in tree density and size attributes between the road categories. From these assessments, we concluded that the diversity and distribution of street trees in the study area was very limited. Moreover, there was no scientific arboricultural consideration in species selection to increase street tree planting for the city. We conclude that only proper management and objective-specific endeavor can change the prevailing scenario of the study area.

Freshwater Swamp Forest Trees of Bangladesh Face Extinction Risk from Climate Change

Global climate change is impacting the distribution and abundance of species acting as a major cause of species extinction. It is rapid in freshwater swamp forest ecosystems, since they support disproportionate levels of biodiversity compared to their spatial coverage. The natural swamp forests of Bangladesh have been especially susceptible to climate change as they are limited in range to a few scattered patches in the north-eastern region. We sought to understand how climate change may impact the swamp forests of Bangladesh by modelling distributional changes in Pongamia pinnata and Barringtonia acutangula species, which dominate or co-dominate most swamp forest ecosystems across Bangladesh. We used the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) modelling tool, combined presence-only data of species and bioclimatic variables for two climate scenarios (RCP6.0 and RCP8.5). We compared current, 2050 and 2070 distributions. Results suggest that plant extractable water holding capacity of soil, annual precipitation, precipitation of warmest quarter and mean annual actual evapotranspiration are the key bioclimatic variables for the distribution of both trees. The MaxEnt models indicate that Pongamia pinnata and Barringtonia acutangula trees of Bangladesh face increasing climate stress and may become extinction under both mid-range and extreme climate scenarios.

Who is killing the tiger Panthera tigris and why

We investigated the range of people involved in killing tigers Panthera tigris in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, their motives and methods, and their links to the commercial trade. Using snowball sampling we conducted 141 qualitative interviews with local people. We identified five categories (village residents, poachers, shikaris, trappers and pirates), each with different motives, methods and networks. Village residents kill tigers predominantly for safety, whereas others kill in the forest professionally or opportunistically. Poachers kill tigers for money, but for others the motives are more complex. The motives of local hunters are multifaceted, encompassing excitement, profit, and esteem and status arising from providing tiger parts for local medicine. Pirates kill tigers for profit and safety but also as a protection service to the community. The emerging international trade in tiger bones, introduced to the area by non-local Bangladeshi traders, provides opportunities to sell tiger parts in the commercial trade and is a motive for tiger killing across all groups.

Climate change research in Bangladesh: research gaps and implications for adaptation-related decision-making

In this paper, we present the results of a systematic literature review of climate change vulnerability-related research conducted in Bangladesh between 1994 and 2017 in order to identify trends and knowledge gaps. Our results identify interesting evolutions in the temporal and spatial scales of study and the nature of spatial and thematic associations, suggesting important knowledge gaps in the existing literature that likely limit understandings of scale-sensitive climate change impacts. We also observed a temporal mismatch between the published studies and policy-making processes focused on adaptation and mitigation and a bias towards the economic aspects of climate change, with less focus on social and environmental issues. Thematically, the climate change-related scholarship in Bangladesh would benefit from more integrative, cross-theme, and transdisciplinary studies, potentially drawing on the different theoretical constructs of vulnerability and adaptation. Such studies will be needed to better support evidence-based public policy and also to more accurately reflect the diversity of knowledge gaps and challenges concerning climatic stresses in Bangladesh at different scales and in different contexts.

Contrasting the financial efficiency of agroforestry practices in buffer zone management of Madhupur National Park, Bangladesh

This research contrasts the financial profitability of different agroforestry practices in community-based buffer zone management of Madhupur National Park (MNP), Bangladesh. This park is the second largest in Bangladesh and subjected to enormous anthropogenic pressure and land rights-related conflicts. This paper reports the different agroforestry practices of villagers in different modules of the buffer zone of MNP, identified by a participatory research approach. It then assesses the profitability of each module on the basis of cost–benefit analysis, net present value, internal rate of return, and annualized income. Results indicate three agroforestry systems were being practised in the buffer zone by the participants: agro-silviculture, agro-silvo-horticulture, and combined woodlot and agroforestry. Among these modules, agro-silvo-horticulture was the most profitable, followed by agro-silviculture then combined woodlot and agroforestry. We recognize that not all of the participants can practise intensive agroforestry; our results suggest that the community-based buffer zone management strategy for MNP would benefit from prioritizing agroforestry practices where possible. This will lead to more successful buffer zone management for the conservation of natural forests while supporting the development of local resource-dependent communities.