Forest Conservation

lumber saving timbers be one of the ab come on signifi suffert raw(a) imaginativenesss that welcome been en refer abrupt to mankind for their sustained existence on priming coat. With turn out dubiety, they provide us with huge amounts of genuine and nonphysical benefits, without which indeed, wholly life, less(prenominal) to separate military man life, would f every(prenominal) under the run a risk of extinction. Hence, it is vital for us to realize this wideness of quality cloak, preserve them, and ultimately proceeding towards a sustainable delegacy to concur our afwood downs and meet our take at the aforementioned(prenominal) time.In this melodic theme, I bem subprogram pore initially on the barbaric air of us human creations towards timberlands, and how they maintain been and be as that world massacred nigh the earthly c at a timern to meet our ever increasing and innumerable insufficiencys and needs. I shed also concentrate on wh y round of our saving strategies and efforts ar non working out the way they were supposed to be. In doing so, I have attempt to prove that countries wish Bangladesh, who ar still line to transgress should heighten on plant saving.My assumption is that Bangladesh has the capability to both(prenominal)(prenominal) economise its fo quell resources and grow economically at the similar time, and create doer for poverty raise by conserving. In the second lot I have foc purposed on a to a greater extent comprehensive way to sustainable forest conservation, backing up my statements by expert opinions and shield studies, and at the end a bit of focus was charge on biodiver amazey importance and its conservation practices and strategies. I have also mentioned whatever economic, complaisant and policy instruments that can be implemented in order to conserve forests better.I have utilisationd whatever primary data, from specific experts on forests, exactly my ma in data sources argon secondary winding sources, mainly the Internet and books. The in force(p) controversy of references is travel byn up in the work-cited portion at the end of the paper. From the very beginning of civilization, human beings have depended heavily on forests for their survival. Cradles of civilization, places of beauty, sources of ghostly inspiration, and trea legitimate ho personas of natural riches, forests be c relapsely-nigh linked with the physical, economic, and spiritual n archeozoic being of mountain.Man has depended on forests for lumber and furniture, medicine and cosmetics, firewood and food, drinking water and fresh air, easing and recreation. Despite their central role in the well being of people, forests be jeopardise by human actions on a scale and pace faraway beyond natures capacity to adapt. woods argon being finished around the globe at a scale, which has already passed the alarming defend. Reasons such as destroy shortage , urbanization, agriculture, excessive and unsustainable timber blood line have led to naked as a jaybird complicate of miles upon miles of pristine forest defeat.In 2002 alone, 10,000 second power miles in Brazils Amazon region were deforested due to enter, ranching, farming, and infrastructure instruction. In Africas Congo Basin, roads built into legally saved neighborhoods equal national parks by wrong loggers provided access for bush meat poachers and contri buted to an annex in forest fires. (Overview). Although youngly, the importance of forests has been effected to a degree, passable importance has non however been put into the conservation sphere so as to actually confine the remaining percentage of forest cover the humanity has go away.In this paper I have discussed expert how much importance needs to be put on conservation of forests, why this needs to be through with(p), how it can be done in a systematic, sustainable way, and what the af bourneaths of non doing so may be. DEFINITIONS For clarification purposes, a full list of definitions are tending(p) under so that the terms discussed in this paper are clean up and non disunited with separate related terms. FOREST The backchat forests originated from the Greek word foris, which authority out of doors. Generally a large untrained field of force of pour down bearing trees and under developing is termed as a forest.Wild animals are also associated with this term, which includes their interaction with the trees and undergrowth and their abiotic surroundings (air, grime etc. ). L. S Davis delimit forests as a brand of land parcels, which has or could have tree vegetation. (Davis). CONSERVATION AND PRESERVATION These twain terms are a good deal confused with one a nonher, but they refer to ii slightly contrastive concepts. Preservation of anything is fundamentally keeping it in such manner that it cannot or should not be touched or used.For instance, if a fore st is being preserved it means that it is to be kept untouched and cipher is to be extracted from it. It is to be left to its let accord. On the other hand, conservation implies much towards a sustained use, or use in a sustainable fashion. As in the example given above, if a forest is declared as conserved, it means that resources may be extracted in a systematic and accounted way, so as not to agree the forests ability to replenish itself in terms of resources, and so that it may slip away its intangible functions properly.SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The term refers to the existence and maintenance of a system, on its own accord, over a flowing of time, or that a system is able to stand and function by itself for a certain duration. This term and then leads on to sustainable emergence, which the latest of concepts in development of a nation and its entities. Sustainable development means the development targeted at reservation resources available both usef ul yet sustained, so as no to compromise it for future generations. FOREST MANAGEMENTThe golf club of American foresters (1958) defined forest guidance as the application of business methods and skilful forestry principles to the operation of forestry property. (American). Generally put, forest care is the maintenance of forests in such a way that it is protected and conserved at the aforementioned(prenominal) time. In other spoken language it the system by which we puzzle sure that we extract resources from the forest in a sustained way (sustainable yields) and so that the forest does not lose its credibility. Forests come in various types and properties.They range from tropic evergreen seet rain forests a grand the equator of the earth, to temperate and circumboreal forests in northern America and Russia. The humankinds tropic forests, which circle the globe, are interestingly diverse. Ranging from the steamy jungles of the rain forests to the dry forests and savann as, they provide home ground for megs of species of plants and animals. Once covering some 15. 3 one zillion billion million state (6. 2 billion ha), these tropic forests have been reduced with gaffe and change by 210 million acres (85 million ha) between 1985 and 1990. (Louise). This is in fact the story in well-nigh parts of the world.Bangladesh for instance is losing its natural forestland at an alarming rate of 3. 3% a social class, which is the third highest rate in the world after Jamaica and Haiti. (Miller, 641). Although plantations have gone up in percentage during the last a some(prenominal) age, especially strip plantations, which are a recent phenomenon in Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka, natural forests are still on the decrease. This can be seen in the tabulate below, as of the year 2000, which also includes comparisons to Asia and the world as a whole. Yet in all probability the saddest story to be told is that of the worlds tropic forests.Although tropical rainforests cover less than six percent of the earths land sur shell, they are extraordinarily gift with millions of animal species and represent s chargety-five million geezerhood of evolutionary stability. Covering a land knowledge base approximately the size of it of the United States, tropical forests are being rapidly degrade, the equivalent of the combined areas of Ohio and inch each(prenominal) year. agree to some experts, well-nigh half the worlds tropical forests have already been wiped of the face of the earth for good. If we panorama at the table given below, we can get an estimate of what the built in bed really is at present.Data is set as of enquiry till the year 2000. Forest Area and Change Bangladesh Asia (excl. shopping centre East) World Total forest area, 2000 (000 ha) 1334 504180 3869455 innate forest area, 2000 (000 ha) 709 375824 3682722 Plantations area, 2000 (000 ha) 625 110953 186733 Total dry land area, 1950-1981 (000 ha) a 0 107812 1 5059984 Change in forest area Total, 1990-2000 14 % -1 % -2 % Natural, 1990-2000 -7 % -1 % -4 % Plantations, 1990-2000 4 % 5 % 3 % Original forest b as a percent of total land area c 100 % X 48 % Forest area in 2000 as a percent of total land area c 9 % 20 % 29 % FIG table has been walk outn from an name titled Forest Conservation from the human race Trends website. Ecosystem Areas by Type Total land area 14400 2494475 13328979 Percent of total land area cover by Forests 12 % 17 % 24 % Shrublands, savanna, and grasslands 3 % 37 % 37 % mosaic 73 % 34 % 20 % Urban and built-up areas 0. 2 % 0. 2 % 0. 2 % Sparse or needy vegetation s like a shot and ice 0 % 10 % 16 % Wetlands and water bodies 11 % 2 % 3 % The total ball-shaped forest cover has decreased by approximately 4% in unless 10 years, and Bangladesh has lost more(prenominal) than 7% of its natural forest resources.This is alarming in more than just environmental perspective s. Yet, when we look into conservation possibilities, all cheeks, sectors, direct and confirmative reasons need to be assessed to begin with coming to any kind of decision. Since this paper is well-nigh the conservation needs of forests, all such sectors and sides have been touched in the chase sections. Before the dawn of agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, forests and open woodland covered somewhat 15. 3 billion acres (6. 2 billion ha) of the globe. Over the centuries, however, approximately one-third of these natural forests have been destroyed. According to a 1982 study by FAO, about 27. 9 million acres (11. million ha) of tropical forests are cut each year-an area about the size of the States of Ohio or Virginia. Between 1985 and 1990, an estimated 210 million acres (85 million ha) of tropical forests were cut or cleared. In India, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the best commercial forests are gone, and savage is increasing in South America. (J. Louise). several (prenominal) factors are answerable for deforestation unclutter for agriculture, fuel wood nifty, and harvesting of wood products. By far the around important of these is clearing for agriculture. In the Tropics, the age-old practice of shifting, sometimes called slash-and-burn, agriculture has been used for centuries.In this unmannered system, topical anaesthetic people cut a piffling pick of forest to make way for subsistence farming. After a a hardly a(prenominal)(prenominal) years, soil fertility declines and people discover on, comm barely to cut another patch of trees and begin another garden. In the given over plot, the degraded soil at prototypical supports unaccompanied when weeds and shrubby trees. Later, soil fertility and trees return, but that may come across decades. As population pressure increases, the unbroken (rest) period between cycles of gardening is shortened, awkward yields decrease, and the forest region is further degraded to small trees, brush, or eroded savanna. regeneration to sedentary agriculture is an even greater threat to tropical forests.Vast areas that once supported tropical forests are now long-lastingly occupied by subsistence farmers and ranchers and by commercial farmers who produce sugar, cocoa, palm oil, and other products. In many tropical countries thither is a critical shortage of firewood. For millions of hoidenish poor, survival depends on finding plentiful wood to cook the evening meal. either year more of the forest is destroyed, and the blank from home to the forest increases. Not only do people suffer by having to spend much of their time in the search for wood, but so does the land. monetary survey is greatest in dry tropical forests where firewood cutting converts forests to savannas and grasslands.The global demand for tropical hardwoods, an $8-billion-a-year industry, also contributes to forest loss. tropical forests are commonly selectively logged rather than clear-cut. select ive logging leaves the forest cover full but usually reduces its commercial value because the biggest and best trees are re move. Selective logging also damages remaining trees and soil, increases the likelihood of fire, and degrades the habitat for wildlife species that quest large, old trees-the ones usually cut. In addition, logging roads open up the forests to shifting cultivation and permanent settlement. In the past, logging was done principally by primitive means-trees were cut with axes and logs were moved with animals such as oxen.Today the use of redbrick machinerychain saws, tractors, and trucks -makes logging easier, faster, and potentially more destructive. In Bangladesh, it is more or less the same picture. Being a developing country which is yet striving to stand on its own feet, it is still extracting its only, and few available resources such as forests for the sake of rapid economic growth. get along more, the lack of land space is forcing settlers to pass on upon forest land, in order to use it for agriculture and fisheries purposes. The poor are using forests as means for survival, and in that respect is unforesightful the administration (local governments and forest department) can do to stop misbranded advancement in forests.Yet even so, as I have state in my hypothesis, it is possible for a country like Bangladesh to conserve forests and elevate poverty at the same time, and the following sections leave behind consist of exactly how this may be achieved. In his phrase Conservation Strategy Rationale and a Framework, Dr. Mizanur Rahman Khan says, on that point is a difference in perspective regarding what to conserve and how to conserve. One group, often dubbed as base greens, argue that the global environmental problems have already reached a crisis semblance and require a fire trash strategy. On the other side of the fence, there are free-market environmentalists who argue that environmental laws and regulations cut unfair burdens on the economy and on individuals. A balance between the two is what Dr.M Khan calls is required, and he goes on to say that the protection of the environment is an inhering part of development and that this is globally recognized. In this light, when we look at the conservation efforts being made to conserve the forests of Bangladesh, it is al virtually immediately clear that most of the above stated conditions are not being applied. Problems with definitions of protected areas still remain, and hence loop holes give people the chance to illegally encroach upon the land. So the irresolution is now, what is there to be done? What steps should Bangladesh authorities take to prevent such anomalies and protect the forests we have? A simple solution is given by Dr.Abdur pull Khan, a well get it onn economist and research coach at Bangladesh Institute of International and strategic Studies, when he was asked as to what Bangladesh can do. Dr hock says Indeed Banglad esh does have the capability to both conserve and elevate poverty at the same time. To do that, the world-class and most obvious step is to introduce participatory forestry. The station holders have to be determine and given proper priority in terms of their needs and requirements. Second, we have far too less forest cover, only about 6-7% of the total land area right now. This has to be doubled. This can be done by introducing social forestry, homestead forestry and road side forestry.Once these two steps have been undertaken, we can then head on towards poverty elevation, because both these steps will not only help the nation as a whole, but also see to the needs of the local people in and around forests. Other wise, conservation may face an early death, and we may as well lose our forests. The points upheld by Dr. Abdur Rob are to great degrees true. Indeed, the only way to gibe the survival of a resource and the people associated with it is to introduce those people into it s focusing and care. down the stairs I have stated some of the ways to o this and also some other steps towards conserving forests. PARTICIPATORY FORESTRY (Social Forestry) To pack the local people, and to pick out the stake holders, the initial thing that needs to be done is to get to know the social aspects of the people involved.This carry through is called Focus base Discussions Basically authority people have to go to the locality and get to know the social life styles of the local people. This is done by conducting such discussions with selected people from the locality. A questionnaire is made which involves everything ranging from average yearly income to what festivals they have and their matrimonial practices. Once this can be done, stake holders can be place and selected out. They are then involved in to the management regimes, including decision making privileges to resource extraction etc. In abstruseness discussions are then held with the selected people and loc al leaders to figure out how benefits are to be shared. Both tangible and intangible benefits from the forest are then held up to the people.Participatory forestry can be seen in practice in the strip plantations in and around Dhaka along side roads and rail lines. These are basically community based resource management schemes, from which involved people receive benefits in future for their present services, hence support them to conserve the site. ANCIENT FORESTRY PRACTICES In ancient Persia (now Iran), forest protection and nature conservation laws were in effect as early as 1,700 B. C. Two thousand years ago the Chinese practiced what they called iv sides forestry-trees were planted on house side, closure side, road side, and water side. More than 1,000 years ago, Javanese maharajahs brought in teak and began to figure out it. In the African Tropics, agro forestry (growing of food educates n association with trees) has been practiced for hundreds of years. Relatively modes t is known about tropical forestry before the mid 1800s in most places. At that time, the European colonial empires notably the Dutch, English, and Spanish-brought modern forest management practices to Indonesia, India, Africa, and the Caribbean. Centers for forestry and forestry research were established, and more careful records were kept. (J. Louise). SUSTAINABLE FORESTRY Modern forestry has its land in eighteenth-century Germany. Like the Chinese and the Mayan forest practices, German forestry is essentially agricultural. Trees are managed as a crop. Two concepts are important renewability and sustainability.Renewability means that trees can be replanted and seed and harvested over and over again on the same tract of land in what are known as crop rotations. Sustainability means that forest harvest can be sustained over the long term. How far into the future were foresters expected to plan? As long as there were vast acres of virgin (original) forests remaining, this question was somewhat academic. Today, however, sustainability is a vital furnish in forestry. Most of the worlds virgin forests are gone, and people must rely more and more on second- growth or managed forests. Perhaps we now face, as never before, the limits to long-term productivity. In the German forest model, forestry is viewed as a continual process of harvest and regeneration.Harvest of wood products is a goal, but a foresters principal tasks are to warrant long-term productivity. That is achieved by cutting the older, mature, and slow-growing timber to make way for a new crop of young, fast-growing trees. reap REGENRATION METHOD Three examples of timber harvest-regeneration methods (silvicultural systems) deck how foresters manage stands to produce timber on a sustained basis. SELECTION private trees or small groups of trees are harvested as they become mature. Numerous small openings in the forest are created in which saplings or new seedlings can grow. The resulting forest ha s a continuous forest canopy and trees of all ages.Such systems favor slow-growing species that are purification tolerant. CLEAR CUTTING In clear cutting, an entire stand of trees is removed(p) in one operation. From the foresters point of view, clear cutting is the easiest way to manage a forest-and the most economical. Regeneration may come from sprouts on stumps, from seedlings that survive the logging operation, or from seeds that pullulate after the harvest. If natural regeneration is delay longer than desired, the area is planted or seeded. Clear cutting systems are often used to manage fast-growing species that require a lot of light. Resulting stands are even aged because all the trees in an area are cut-and regenerated-at the same time.Clear cutting has become controversial in recent years because it has the potential to damage watersheds and because it tends to turn away species of wildlife dependent on old growth trees. If clear cuts are kept small and the cutting int erval is long enough, however, biological diversity may not be impaired. SHELTERWOOD In Shelterwood systems, the forest canopy is removed over a period of years, usually in two cuttings. After the first harvest, natural regeneration begins in the understory. By the time the second harvest is made, enough young trees have grown to assure adequate regeneration. Shelterwood systems favor species that are mean(a) in tolerance to shade. Such systems are difficult to use successfully and are the least used of the three silvicultural methods described. analytic thinking OF FINDINGSIt seems that the obvious conclusion would be, as Dr. Rob said, that social forestry is the best option available to us at present. This will not only enable Bangladesh to conserve its few remaining forests, but also use those forests efficiently as a legal document to poverty elevation. In fact this is not the first time research on Bangladesh forests has led to such conclusions. Many experts have done simila r such research and have come to find this split up of forestry as efficient means of conservation. pic . form Plantation in Shatchori reserved forest. Bangladesh yet faces many hard steps to the stage we call developed. Even now, it faces harden blockades when the question of conservation arises.Poverty, high population, land shortage, illegal encroachment, political disfucntionings and sheer ignorance of duty are just some of the barricades that hold us back from preserving the few resources we have left in this once lushly rich country. It not as though we are not conserving. Indeed, plantations have come up across the country in what seems hopeful ways. It seems that there is yet hope for us and our forests. Shatchari, Modhupur, Lawachara, Medakochapia are some bright names in our success books concerning plantation forestry. Yet I raise the question to the jury, is this what we really want for us? Do we really want to see some time in the future that the country is devoid of its natural forests and has only plantations left?Plantations, Strip plantations, mono-cultures, botanic gardens are very good in terms of forest cover, but if we lose all our natural forests, what would happen to all the hundreds of species of animals and birds that we have? We would lose them forever. go away it be possible for us to conserve them to? The case stands for the rest of the world as well. Tropical forests are being deforested at a football field size a day. Very soon, mayhap sooner than we think, we will lose what we have left to the voracity of a few ignorant people. Will it not shame us to think that we human beings will be responsible of wiping out all other species just for the sake of our comfort? Is this not a question of ethics?It remains to be seen as to how Bangladesh, less to say the rest of the world acts to save its forests, yet perhaps it is not wise to just sit and wait for some miracle to happen. It is time we put on our thinking caps and stepped out into the field, and tried our best to see to that we leave the few natural pristine forests remaining at peace with themselves. Work cited Mastrantonio J. Louise. CONSERVATION OF FORESTS. Online journal. nd. 18th December 2006. http//www. fs. fed. us/global/lzone/ pupil/tropical. htm Forests of the World. Forestry Overview. Online article. nd. 19th December 2006. http//www. worldwildlife. org/forests/ Davis, L.S 1966. Forest Management. 1st edition. pp 790. Earth Trends. Forest Conservation. Online Journal. nd. 19th December 2006. http//earthtrends. wri. org/ text edition/biodiversity-protected/country-profiles. html Forest Conservation. Enterprise for the Americas in Action. Online article. nd. 19th December 2006. http//www. earthvoice. org/animal. habitat/forest. conservation. htm Khan, Mizanur Rahman. Conservation Strategy Rationale and a Framework. Conservation and Sustainable Development. wonder Dr. Abdur Rob Khan. Research Director at Bangladesh Institute of Internatio nal and Strategic Studies, Dhaka, Bangladesh. twentieth December 2006.