The Genesis and Paradigm Shift in Forest Inventory: Bangladesh Chapter

Abstract

Bangladesh (Indo-Bangladesh to independent Bangladesh) has more than 250 years of history in forest inventory. The Boundary demarcation of the Sundarbans forest in 1764 was the first record of forest inventory. A total of 30 inventories have been recorded that were started to form the boundary demarcation to complex biodiversity, biomass, and carbon stock assessment. These inventories used simple cartographic to complex satellite image processing techniques, software base data/information collection methods, and sophisticated statistical procedures in data analysis. Eventually, the history of the forest inventory of Bangladesh is about 100 years older than the history of forest management. This study aimed to classify the inventories into distinct time frames based on outputs and align them with the motive of rulers, existing forest policy, and contemporary global and national issues. The historical records forest inventory has been divided into four distinct periods, e.g., Mid eighteenth to the late nineteenth century: 1764-1876; Early twenty century: 1905-1924; Mid-twenty to late twenty century: 1958-2000; and Early twenty-first century: 2001-present). The objectives/outputs of each inventory were highly linked with the motive of rulers, policy statements, available technologies, and recent issues from national and global perspectives.