Bangladesh News

The most serious irregularities in the Department of Forest (DoF) take place surrounding recruitments, promotions and transfers of officials and these spawn all other anomalies in the department, revealed a TIB study.

The officials and employees of the department consider the huge amount of bribe they give for recruitments, transfers and promotions as investment and they illegally earn more money than the “investment”. This practice contributes to the gradual destruction of forest, the study said.

The study titled “Transparency and Accountability in Conservation and Management of Forest: Problems and Ways for Solution” of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) was presented by Manzoor-e-Khoda at a roundtable held at the Jatiya Press Club in the city yesterday. The study was conducted between December, 2006 and March, 2008.

Chief Adviser’s Special Assistant on Forest and Environment Raja Debashish Roy was present as the chief guest and Forest and Environment Secretary Abul Hasan Mohammad Rezaul Kabir was the special guest of the programme. TIB Trustee Sultana Kamal chaired the roundtable.

Annually, timber worth approximately Tk 150 crore is smuggled out of the Sundarbans. The officials and employees of the department illegally collect Tk 6.25 crore toll from people living on the forest collecting gol leaves, Tk 23 crore toll from fishermen and honey worth Tk 8 lakh from honey collectors, it says.

The study found out that timber smugglers have to pay Tk 1.25 lakh at 14 stages to officials and employees of DoF and deputy commissioner’s office to smuggle out 1,500 cubic feet (CFT) of timber to Rangamati town from the reserved forest.

“On a single occasion, the government at Rangamati in 2005 was deprived of Tk 27.5 crore as 6.5 lakh CFT of stolen timber was sold ignoring regulations,” it said.

Presently, 2,70,570.98 acres of forest land of DoF remains out of its grip as it has failed to maintain the forest, the study added.

A country should have forest on at least 25 percent of its total land mass but as per DoF statistics Bangladesh has only 17.4 percent. Another survey, however, found the country has only 9.8 percent.

In his presentation, TIB researcher Manzoor-e-Khoda said irregularities regarding transfers include transfers from less lucrative locations to more lucrative ones, suspension or withdrawal of transfer orders, extortion of officials and employees with threats to transfer to remote areas and extortion for making recommendations for transfers.

“During the last 20-25 years, the post of chief conservator of forest (CCF) was regularly put on auction… The last terminated CCF had to bribe Tk 1.10 crore for the post,” he said.

Irregularities in recruitment and promotion to the highest posts at the DoF seriously affect the whole department, Manzoor said, adding, “As a result, transactions of illegal money or extortion also take place for recommendations for promotions of other DoF officials and employees.”

The study said the other areas of corruption in the department include illegal use of timber by saw mills and furniture traders and cooperation in timber smuggling, collecting excessive forest resources, sales of forest resources in auctions, project implementation, filing forest cases, violation of forest policies and laws and failure to prevent robberies in the Sundarbans.

Speaking as the chief guest, Raja Debashish Roy said it is not enough to make the DoF liable for failure in forest conservation and management, changes should be made in the forest policies and laws.

“Filing cases or making threats with rifles will not save the forest. We have to motivate locals and arrange for their livelihood in such a way that they will be the protectors of the forest,” he said.

A clear decision should be taken on the plantation of acacia and eucalyptus trees as there is a debate on their eco-friendliness, Raja Debashish said, adding that the present government has taken a number of measures and the next elected government has to take more to check the irregularities.

Forest and Environment Secretary Rezaul Kabir claimed that political influence contributed to the illegal transfers and appointments in the DoF before but now it is non-existent.

He, however, said changes should be made in the attitudes of the DoF officials, people should be made involved in conserving the forest and alternative livelihood for people in the forest areas should be arranged.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan of Bangladesh Environment Lawyers’ Association said the aim of the present forest law is to collect revenue and resources and it should be changed. A national authority should be set up to preserve forest, she noted.

Philip Gain of Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD) said the forest division’s promotion of creating man-made forest encourages corruption.

Foreign consultants earlier also made such recommendations, which have been implemented in many areas of the country, to destroy natural forests and create man-made ones and that is actually not eco-friendly, he said.

TIB study recommended formulating a forest policy prioritising conservation, reducing dependency on forest resources, establishing community forestry, appointing officials on the basis of honesty, increasing the manpower of DoF, establishing forest court, increasing the salaries of the officials, stopping recreational tours of ministry officials in the forests and keeping records of the properties of the officials of DoF and their families.

Chief Conservator of Forest ATM Shamsuddin, TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman, and Farid Uddin of Arannak Foundation also spoke.