Indigenous people should get to manage forest

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Over the years, flawed policies have destroyed a large part of the Modhupur forest instead of preserving it, speakers at a seminar said yesterday.

The speakers urged the government to ensure forest dwellers’ right to their native land and make them a party to manage natural forests on certain conditions.

They said in the name of saving the forest the government has snatched the rights of forest dwellers who are living there for generations and turned it into shooting range, rubber plantations and gardens of alien species.

The speakers said this at a national workshop on “Protect the Sal Forest of Modhupur and Rights of Forest Dwellers” jointly organised by Bangladesh Environment Lawyers Association (BELA) and Joyenshahi Adivasi Unnayan Parishad.

Raja Devasish Roy, special assistant to the chief adviser for environment and forest, attended the workshop as the chief guest, while Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kari, chaired the session held at the Cirdap auditorium.

The speakers presented a dire situation of the use of Modhupur forestland. They said the government has used the 45,000-acre forest in various ways, destroying the forestland.

According to records, the government has established a firing range on 1,000 acres of land, proposed rubber plants on 10,872 acres and social forestry on 7,323 acres. On the other hand, 8,630 families live on 13,718 acres of land. Less than one-third has survived as the forest.

Ajay A Mri in his keynote paper said the Garo communities of Modhupur still hope the government would take measures to save the natural forests. He urged all to settle the land dispute issues with the indigenous people living in the villages of Modhupur.

Raja Devasish Roy said it is not possible to save forestland by filing cases against forest dwellers. The records say the more cases were filed the more the forest was destroyed, he added.

“So the Department of Forest has to bring in a total change in their attitude,” said Raja Devasish Roy.

Pramod Mankin, a former lawmaker belonging to indigenous community, said the government always intends to conduct their development work on the land of the indigenous people.

“Now we, the indigenous people, have become a subject to research but we find no change in our fate,” he said.

Dr Atiq Rahman said saving forests by violating the rights of the people is no more a development concept.

“We have to save the forest and at the same time ensure the rights of the forest dwellers,” he said.

Prof Sadeka Halim presented a paper on “Rights of Forest Dwellers”. She said forestry in Bangladesh has been witnessing continuation of British and Pakistani policy, which was commercial in nature, state-centric and devoid of people’s participation.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, director (programme) of BELA, proposed to engage local forest dwellers in management of forest under certain conditions fixing out their responsibilities to maintain the forest.

She also requested the government to take proper measures to save the wildlife and proper demarcation of forestland.

“The government seems more interested in planting alien verities in the forest under social forestry project, which is also a participatory method. But they don’t take initiatives to manage the natural forest under joint management system.”

Nepal has regained its natural forest implementing community forestry, Syeda Rizwana said, adding, the village forest model will be same as the community forestry.

Sanjeev Drong, Dr Ronald Halder, Suvash Jeng Cham, Dr M Parvez Rahim, Fariduddin Ahemd, Yakub Ali also spoke at the workshop. Representatives from different forest dwellers community, mainly Garo, Khasia, Koch communities, were present.

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