Abstract
Forests provide direct and indirect economic benefits to forest-dependent communities in the world, especially in the developing countries contributing to the national economy. The present study aims with the socioeconomic status and factors favoring forest conservation and influencing people’s dependency on forest resources in the Bandarban hill district of Bangladesh. The study was based on Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and socioeconomic survey through a semi-structured questionnaire. The study revealed that peoples’ income from the forest and forest-related occupations were positively related to their forest dependency. However, respondent’s education level significantly reduced their dependency on forest resources. Thus, educating the forest-dependent people and supporting alternative livelihoods may be an option for effective forest management and conservation. This study represents an important pioneer step in taking a holistic view of the peoples’ dependency on forest resources which might be helpful for policymakers in the future to ensure sustainable forest management and conservation in developing countries like Bangladesh.
Highlights
People’s dependency on forest resources is a multidimensional phenomenon due to the evidence that forests give diversified benefits to humans being
Preliminary information about location, accessibility, communication means, and demography was collected from Conservator of Forest (CF) office of Bangladesh Forest Department (BFD), Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Regional Council, different NGO’s, literature and reconnaissance survey to the study area
2.1 Description of the study area -The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh is situated at the southeast region of the country (21°25 N to 23°45 N latitude and 91°54 E to 92°50 E longitude) and comprises three districts: Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachari
Summary
People’s dependency on forest resources is a multidimensional phenomenon due to the evidence that forests give diversified benefits to humans being. Bangladesh occupies diversified forest types (FMP, 2016) ranging from wetlands, evergreen, semi evergreen, moist deciduous and mangrove forests comprising with diverse plants in each forest types (Bhuiyan et al, 2014; Hossain et al, 2019). Among these forest types, the evergreen and deciduous forests are mostly distributed in the hilly districts of Bangladesh.
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