Assessing land use changes and livelihood outcomes of rural people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, Bangladesh

Natasha Stacey,Terry Sunderland,Ronju Ahammad

doi:10.1002/ldr.3795

Abstract

AbstractLand use change is a pressing concern for the livelihoods of people in tropical developing countries. Changes in land use from swidden (shifting cultivation) agriculture to smallholder tree‐dominated areas producing timber, fruits and cash crops can result in changing livelihood outcomes for rural communities. This paper examines land use patterns of rural households and the association with food production and income across three different zones of various forest proximity across a landscape gradient (remote, intermediate and on‐road) in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh. We conducted in‐depth semi‐structured surveys of households (175–300) and farm owners (30) to collect information on people's perceptions of land use change, present land use patterns and contributions to food production and income. Our research found that more than half of the surveyed households experienced a decline in the land available for food production over the past 30 years. The land use patterns revealed decreasing crop lands (mainly swidden shifting cultivation/land rotation farms) and an increase in areas of planted trees within this landscape. However, household use of the reduced crop land has not affected food production in the on‐road zone, whereas the diversity of food sources has declined. People living in more remote areas engaged in swidden farming and used larger areas of crop and fallow lands, fruit orchard and accessed natural forest lands that provide a diverse reservoir of food sources. The current land uses contribute to variations in annual household income across zones, with remote dwelling people earning less to those living closer to urban areas in the intermediate and on‐road zones. In summary, this transition of land uses over three decades and changes in income and food availability cannot be generalised across the region because of zone specific differences. We recommend a broader and context‐reliant landscape management approach in consideration of the diversity of forest and tree benefits for the livelihoods of people in the region.

Highlights

For many centuries shifting cultivation has coexisted with agriculture to provide subsistence foods and crops for income of rural communities in tropical developing countries
To understand the current land use patterns and the associations with the livelihood outcomes of rural households, this study addresses three questions: 1) how do people perceive land use change and have these changes affected food production over the past 30 years?; 2) what are the land use patterns in terms of planted tree covered lands, crop lands, fruit orchard and fallow land by households across the three zones? and 3) how do forest and non-forest lands contribute to food production and income across the three zones? In this paper, ‘forest’ refers to natural forests and planted forest land is used to represent planted tree cover established by the households
This study explores land use patterns and their association with livelihood outcomes in rural households along three zones in different forest/agriculture landscapes of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh

Summary

Introduction

For many centuries shifting cultivation has coexisted with agriculture to provide subsistence foods and crops for income of rural communities in tropical developing countries (van Vliet et al, 2012; Fox et al, 2000). In the countries of South Asia, South-East Asia and Latin America (i.e. India, Laos, Peru, and Guatemala), land use change from swidden farming practices to commercial crops (i.e. cocoa, cassava) and plantation trees for rubber, palm oil, charcoal and wood products, has contributed to an increase in income for rural households (Behera et al, 2016; Cramb et al, 2009; Dressler et al, 2017) This transition from swidden to mainly cash crops by farmers has been reported to have increased a household’s ability to purchase a wide range of foods, such as meat and vegetables, and improved overall food security (Cramb et al, 2009; Rahman et al, 2017). The changes in land uses from subsistence to commercial crop production has affected the availability and accessibility of lands for uses by people in Latin America and South-East Asia regions (Coomes et al, 2016; Cramb et al, 2009; Vongvisouk et al, 2014)

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