Mohammed Alamgir

The role of women in traditional farming systems as practiced in homegardens: a case study in Sylhet Sadar Upazila, Bangladesh

Forests cover only 6 to 8 percent of the total land area of Bangladesh. While agricultural expansion continues to massively deplete the natural forests, a well-managed homegarden practice is vital for reversing the existing trend and promoting the ecological balance of the country. An understanding of the role of women in homegarden management within a traditional farming system is important in expanding and improving the practice. This paper seeks to explore the participation of women in homegarden management activities, understanding the impact of homegardens on womens income and livelihoods and assessing womens awareness of homegarden-oriented activities that support forest conservation. The study demonstrates a number of important conclusions: (1) women are mostly involved in homegarden management-related activities (2) women are interested in conserving homegardens because they obtain such substantial benefits as food security, income, health care, and environmental benefits (3) women were found to be aware of home-garden conservation and tuned to motivating husbands, children, and neighbors to conserve the agro-biodiversity of homegardens. Findings suggest that increased involvement of women in a broad range of homegarden management activities is not only beneficial for their own socio-economic well-being, but also imperative for sustaining the livelihoods of their communities and for preserving the agro-biodiversity in homegardens.

Ecosystem services capacity across heterogeneous forest types: understanding the interactions and suggesting pathways for sustaining multiple ecosystem services

As ecosystem services supply from tropical forests is declining due to deforestation and forest degradation, much effort is essential to sustain ecosystem services supply from tropical forested landscapes, because tropical forests provide the largest flow of multiple ecosystem services among the terrestrial ecosystems. In order to sustain multiple ecosystem services, understanding ecosystem services capacity across heterogeneous forest types and identifying certain ecosystem services that could be managed to leverage positive effects across the wider bundle of ecosystem services are required. We sampled three forest types, tropical rainforests, sclerophyll forests, and rehabilitated plantation forests, over an area of 32,000m(2) from Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia, aiming to compare supply and evaluate interactions and patterns of eight ecosystem services (global climate regulation, air quality regulation, erosion regulation, nutrient regulation, cyclone protection, habitat provision, energy provision, and timber provision). On average, multiple ecosystem services were highest in the rainforests, lowest in sclerophyll forests, and intermediate in rehabilitated plantation forests. However, a wide variation was apparent among the plots across the three forest types. Global climate regulation service had a synergistic impact on the supply of multiple ecosystem services, while nutrient regulation service was found to have a trade-off impact. Considering multiple ecosystem services, most of the rehabilitated plantation forest plots shared the same ordination space with rainforest plots in the ordination analysis, indicating that rehabilitated plantation forests may supply certain ecosystem services nearly equivalent to rainforests. Two synergy groups and one trade-off group were identified. Apart from conserving rainforests and sclerophyll forests, our findings suggest two additional integrated pathways to sustain the supply of multiple ecosystem services from a heterogeneous tropical forest landscape: (i) rehabilitation of degraded forests aiming to provide global climate regulation and habitat provision ecosystem services and (ii) management intervention to sustain global climate regulation and habitat provision ecosystem services.

Effect of pre-sowing treatments on germination and initial seedling development ofAlbizia saman in the nursery

Albizia saman (Jacq.) F. Muell. commonly known as rain tree seeds were treated with five pre-sowing treatments to study the effect of pre-sowing treatments on germination and initial seedling development in the nursery. The experiment was established in the nursery of the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Results revealed that Nail clipping in one side of the seed (at the distal end of the seed) (T4) provides the highest (50%) seed germination. The second highest germination (42%) was obtained for the seeds treated with immersion in cold water for 24 h (T1). Germination was completely inhibited when the seeds immersed in boiled water for 30 s followed in cold water soaking for 24 h. Other germination parameter and initial morphological growth and biomass production of the seedlings was also higher for the treatments T4 and T1 in comparison to the control (T0) treatment. Pre-sowing treatments of T4 e.g. Nail clipping in one side of the seed (at the distal end of the seed) and T1 (Seeds immersed in cold water for 24 h) may be recommended for maximum germination and initial vigorous seedlings growth ofalbizia saman in the nursery.

Economic, Socio-Political and Environmental Risks of Road Development in the Tropics

It is projected that 25 million km of new paved roads will be developed globally by 2050 - enough to encircle the planet more than 600 times. Roughly 90% of new roads will be built in developing nations, frequently in tropical and subtropical regions with high biodiversity and environmental values. Many developing nations are borrowing from international lenders or negotiating access to their natural resources in order to expand their transportation infrastructure. Given the unprecedented pace and extent of these initiatives, it is vital to thoroughly assess the potential consequences of large-scale road and highway projects. In appropriate contexts and locales, new roads can promote sizeable economic and social benefits. If poorly planned or implemented, however, new roads can provoke serious cost overruns, corruption and environmental impacts, while generating sparse economic benefits and intense social and political conflict. Using examples from developing nations, we identify risks that can hinder road projects in wet and dry tropical environments. Such risks, we assert, are often inadequately considered by project proponents, evaluators and the general public, creating a systematic tendency to overestimate project benefits while understating project risks. A more precautionary approach is needed to reduce risks while maximizing benefits of new road projects in the tropics.

A review of ecosystem services research in Australia reveals a gap in integrating climate change and impacts on ecosystem services

Ecosystem services (ES) are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. A substantial part of human well-being is dependent on the sustainable flow of ES. Climate change, economic growth and an increasing human population has placed greater pressures on global ES. Australia’s ecosystems are among the most vulnerable sectors to climate change. Hence, a comprehensive review is necessary to explore ES research that integrates climate change impacts. Our review reveals that ES research in Australia, stimulated in the early 2000s, has continued to increase consistently after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Australian ES research has primarily focused on the impact of land-use change and management, policy and governance issues, but less on the impact of climate change on ES. Climate change models show that climate will threaten most of the main ES in Australia by 2050. For the sustainable management of these ES – incorporating climate change – ecosystem and ES specific adaptations are suggested as the best sustainable policy tools for the future. Therefore, further research needs to incorporate climate change and ES for evidence-based sustainable management of Australia’s ES. We provide the following recommendations for future ES research: (i) evaluating the extent and trend of climate change impacts on ES through consideration of different climate change scenarios; (ii) preparing vulnerability maps of important ES that are likely to be sensitive to climate change and (iii) developing ecosystem and ES specific adaptations to climate change that involve key stakeholders.

Study on soils under shifting cultivation and other land use categories in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh

Soil samples were collected and analyzed from 25 sites of three hilly regions (Rangamati, Banderban and Khagrachari) for an understanding of the impact of denudation and land use on soils in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. There were natural forests, bushy land, slashed sites, slashed and burnt sites, and the sites prepared for shifting cultivation, one year after shifting cultivation and two years after shifting cultivation. The soils were generally yellowish brown to reddish brown, sandy to sandy clay loam, strongly acid, and well to excessively drained on steep slopes with considerable variation among the sites and land use categories. Bulk density was the highest in sites of one year after shifting cultivation (1.52 g·cm−3) and the lowest in forested sites (1.38 g·cm−3). Water holding capacities were, however, statistically similar in all sites. Organic carbon varied from 0.54% (slashed and burnt sites) to 1.55% (forested sites) and total N ranged from 0.05% (shifting cultivation for one year) to 0.13% (forested sites). Available phosphorus (Bray & Kurtz-2 P) was the maximum in forested sites (12.32 mg·kg−1), and it did not differ significantly in other sites. Contents of available Ca, Mg and K were also higher in the bushy lands and forested sites than cleared and shifting cultivated sites.

Coping with Climate Change by Using Indigenous Knowledge of Ethnic Communities from in and around Lawachara National Park of Bangladesh

Abstract Climate change is considered to be one of the most serious threats and its impact is felt by the most vulnerable world’spoorest countries including Bangladesh. In particular, ethnic communities, whose livelihoods depend on the use of natural resources, are likely to bear the brunt of adverse impacts. A case study was conducted in a fragile ecosystem of Lawachara national park of Bangladesh, to know the indigenous knowledge of the ethnic communities, how they adapt with the climate change impact by using indigenous knowledge. They use various IK to protect their crops from climate change impact. Thus, government should design policies which will be helpful to make them more resilience to face climate change impact.Key Words: adaptation, indigenous knowledge, climate change, ethnic communities, Bangladesh Received: February 22, 2013. Revised: July 12, 2013. Accepted: July 22, 2013.Corresponding author: Sayma AkhterSchool of Environment, Natural resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor LL57 2UW, United KingdomTel: 447448830982, Fax: 447448830982, E-mail: sayma_sust@yahoo.com

Degraded tropical rain forests possess valuable carbon storage opportunities in a complex, forested landscape.

Tropical forests are major contributors to the terrestrial global carbon pool, but this pool is being reduced via deforestation and forest degradation. Relatively few studies have assessed carbon storage in degraded tropical forests. We sampled 37,000 m2 of intact rainforest, degraded rainforest and sclerophyll forest across the greater Wet Tropics bioregion of northeast Australia. We compared aboveground biomass and carbon storage of the three forest types, and the effects of forest structural attributes and environmental factors that influence carbon storage. Some degraded forests were found to store much less aboveground carbon than intact rainforests, whereas others sites had similar carbon storage to primary forest. Sclerophyll forests had lower carbon storage, comparable to the most heavily degraded rainforests. Our findings indicate that under certain situations, degraded forest may store as much carbon as intact rainforests. Strategic rehabilitation of degraded forests could enhance regional carbon storage and have positive benefits for tropical biodiversity.

Alternative Routes for a Proposed Nigerian Superhighway to Limit Damage to Rare Ecosystems and Wildlife

The Cross River State Government in Nigeria is proposing to construct a “Cross River Superhighway” that would bisect critical remaining areas of tropical rainforest in south eastern Nigeria. We offer and evaluate two alternative routes to the superhighway that would be less damaging to forests, protected areas, and biological diversity. The first alternative we identified avoids intact forests entirely while seeking to benefit agriculture and existing settlements. The second alternative also avoids intact forests while incorporating existing paved and unpaved roads to limit construction costs. As currently proposed, the superhighway would be 260 km long, would intersect 115 km of intact forests or protected areas, and would cost an estimated ∼US

A new estimate of carbon for Bangladesh forest ecosystems with their spatial distribution and REDD+ implications

2.5 billion to construct. Alternative Routes 1 and 2 are only slightly longer (∼290 and ∼353 km, respectively) and have markedly lower estimated construction costs (∼US