DISCUSSION FORUM

I welcome everybody to my blog. No matter whether you are a student, academic, researcher, community worker or practitioner or whatever position you may hold, you are most welcome to share your ideas, experiences and thought on forestry as well as natural resource management whether it is in Chittagong Hill Tratcs of Bangladesh or any other parts of the world.


Bangladesh is a country, where the rate of deforestation is very high. According to some estimates such as Gain (2002) the forest cover in the country has shrunk to 6%. In spite of rapid deforestation, indigenous communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, have been able managing village forests commonly known as village common forests (VCFs) in and around their villages. Without government support, under the traditional leadership of mouza Headmen and Karbaries (village heads) indigenous communities have been  managing VCFs since long time. However, with the increasing population pressure and privatisation of forests land, indigenous communities are losing control over forests. In this backdrop, for the convenience of discussion, and getting your views on VCFs, I am placing here three questions:

1.  What are the major five problems for managing VCFs in the CHT?

2. Who and how can help solving those problems?

3. What could be done to address those problems?

I look forward to your active participation.

With kind regards
Ashok