social forestry in rajshahi

1. Introduction:
Social forestry means the management and protection of forests and afforestation of barren and deforested
lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural development. Government is
trying to increase forest areas that are close to human settlement and have been degraded over the years
due to human activities needed to be afforested. Trees were to be planted in and around agricultural fields.
Plantation of trees along railway lines and roadsides, and river and canal banks were carried out. FAO
defined social forestry as 'any situation which intimately involves local people in forestry activities. It
excludes large scale industrial forestry and other form of forestry which contributes to development solely
through employment and wages, but includes activities by forestry industries and public services to
encourage and assist forestry activities at a community level.
For gathering practical knowledge about social forestry we involved ourselves in a tour at Choksimultoli,
Alta Dighi Natinal Park, Dhamoirhat, Naogaon, and char plantation Poba, Rajshahi under guidance of our
course teacher Professor Dr. Md. Enamul Kabir, and also with Professor Dr. Md. Iftekhar Shams,
Professor Dr. Abdus Subhan Mollick, Professor Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam, FWT Discipline and Khulna
University.
Objective of our tour:
 To know about the social forestry activities in Rajshahi.
 To know about the rural development through social forestry.
 To know the status of social forestry in northern part of our country.
 To have knowledge about the constraints what forester has faced during extension activities &
how they have finally managed the constraints & become successful in motivating the local
people.
Description of the places we had visited in Rajshahi Division:
Our sessional tour started with journey by train from Jessore to Rajshahi. We are enjoyed very much on
that day. Our sessional tour journey started at 4:00 pm 0n 16th March finished at 2:00 pm 19th March.
Shimultali Char Plantation
On 17th march we visited Shimultoli Char Plantation which is under Dhamirhat Bon Bit Paikbanda
Range. Here 156.33 hectare land is leased to the forest department for 90 years. Here char plantation was
started from 2010-11. A forest officer LakkhonVoumik first observed that land & proposed the forest
division to give them lease that area.
Then he planned to do community forestry program with the participation of local people. For this he at
first talked with the local leaders, politicians, influential people, teachers.
Then with the help of them he called several meetings with the local people. They tried to convince the
local people, why they should participate in the community forestry, what are the advantages, how they
will be benefited from this program.
Mainly in the charland they cultivated agricultural crops like paddy, corolla, water melon etc. But the
extension worker tried to convince the local people that after 10 years when the area will be harvested
they will get more money than they will earn by cultivation.

2. Some people were not convinced at first and did not participate in the community forestry program. But
later they understood that they should participate in the program and got benefited.
A forest management committee was formed with 9 peoples who are now intended beneficiaries.
Several species was introduced at Shimultali char plantation like
 Bohera (Terminalia bellirica)
 Amloki (Phyllanthus emblica)
 Sal (Shorea robusta)
 Akashmoni (Acacia auriculiformis)
 Jarul (Lagerstroemia speciosa)
 Jam (Syzygium cumini)
 Arjun (Terminali aarjuna)
 Koroi (Albizialebbeck)
 Kadam (Neolamarckia cadamba)
 Neem (Azadirachta indica)
 Ipil-ipil (Leucaena leucocephala)
The growth rate of these species in this land is too good and after the 10 years of plantation, harvesting
operation will be practiced here.
Money made from the trees, will be distributed among the intended beneficiaries according to their
proportion of land and number of trees was harvested from their land.
Money distribution* among the intended beneficiaries of Char land, Shimultali
Forest department =25%
Owner of land =20%
Beneficiaries =45%
Tree farming fund =10%
‘*’ according to the law of plain land plantation
Distribution* for strip plantation
Forest department =10%
Owner of land= 20%
Beneficiaries =55%
Tree farming fund =10%
Union council =5%
‘*’ according to the law of strip plantation

3. According to the law of forest department 1 acre land belongs to one person, the main objective in
selecting the species was for solving the local fuel wood problem and to develop the villagers such as
local people are directly and indirectly benefited from this plantation, they gets certain amount of money
after the rotation period moreover they can collect fuel wood after thinning and pruning operation and
they can also use the sheded leaves in purpose of fuel wood and for the purpose of protecting &
developing the forest condition local people were involved as the care taker or employee.
Besides this involvement there are some problems attach to this management according to the law of
forest department one single person can be the owner of only 1 acres of land on the contrary it has been
seen that one individual person occupies more than 1 acres of land and it is distributed by their power
moreover there are several allegation of the beneficiaries against the power holders of the society in term
of the growth of trees.
Altadighi National Park:
Altadighi National Park is located at Dhamairhat Thana, Paikbanda range, Naogoan District. Altadighi is
a name of a large pond and also a less heard travel destination from our country Bangladesh. This is
situated exactly near at the India-Bangladesh border at the North Bengal. There is a Shalbon exists beside
this water tank that comprises of various trees including Shal and Gojari. We have visited this place after
exploring the Jogoddol Bihar.
Total area: 264.12 ha including a large dighi of 42.81 ha.
The government of Bangladesh declared it as a national park on December 24, 2011. This is one of the
most ancient Dighi of Bangladesh. It is long 1.2 km.
The story behind the creation and naming of the dighi is as amazing as a fairy tale.
Forestry Science & Technology Institute(FSTI), Rajshahi:
We attended a seminar at FSTI. We have gained basic information about the starting of Social Forestry
Program & Forestry Extension Activities in Bangladesh & its emergence in Rajshahi.
Formerly, Rajshahi division was a bit of Dinajpur Forest Division. In 1961, through extension activities,
this division came to Rajshahi. In 1961, through teak plantation in Kaptai, Forestry extension activities
was started in Bangladesh. In 1979, Social Forestry was established in Rangunia, Chittagong. In 1981,
Dinajpur, Rangpur, Pabna, Bogra, Kushtia combined to develop Community Forestry Project. In
1992,Upazila Plantation & Nursery Development Project was developed.
Here the Diploma course in three years. They Trained the foresters on various forestry programmed.

4. Premtali, Godagari, Charbagan:
General Description of this Charbagan: When flooding of 1998 was lowered, the riverside area was
converted to charland. This char is in Foradpurmousa. This was leased for 99 years or 100 years to Forest
Department.
In 2010-11, 50 hectare land was planted with new seedlings, in 2011-12 , 40 hectare land was planted
with new seedlings, in 2014-15 , 6 hectare land was planted with new seedlings & for 2016-17 , 1 lakh 35
thousand seedlings have been produced.
This charbagan holds trees like
 Sissoo (Dalbergia sissoo)
 Akashmoni (Acacia auriculiformis)
 Neem (Azadirachta indica)
 Arjun (Terminalia arjuna)
 Jarul (Lagerstroemia speciosa)
 Dumur (Ficus racemosa)
 Kanchan (Bauhinia acuminata)
 Minjiri (Cassia siamea)
 Pithali (Trewia polycarpa)
 Jau (Casuarina littorea)
 Khejur (Phoenix sylvestris)
 Jam (Syzygium cumini)
We were in Foradpur mousa, there we saw a temporary nursery. The nursery was established there as it is
near the plantation site. It is very economic to have a nursery beside plantation site.
Different sector along with different level of share: Under Social forestry program, the trees which are
harvested & sold have varieties of sector to share the money coming from this selling.
For Charbagan, distribution of share follows 45% to the Government, 45% to the intended
beneficiaries,10% to the Tree Farming Fund (TTF).
For Strip Plantation, distribution of share follows 55% to the intended beneficiaries, 5% to the Union
Parishad, 10% to the Government, 10% to the Tree Farming Fund (TTF), 20% to the owner of the land.
Problems:
In the study area we observed that several problems are faced in running social forestry programme. One
of the major problems is the problem which occurs in land management. The social forestry workers and
rural people face a lot of problems in the land management. There is a shortage of man power of forest
department and other social forestry organization which is causing problems in social forestry
programme. The local political leaders are sometimes interfering in the social forestry programme for
their own benefit by which the real needy people are deprived of the benefits of social forestry
programme. Poor funding is another severe problem in the social forestry programme in the observed
area.

5. Conclusion:
Our tour was so joyful and educative. Social forestry plays an important role in forest resource
production, poverty alleviation, biodiversity conservation, employment opportunities, forest conservation
and development in Rajshahi. Local people have the right to be involved in forest management, and that
community participation also has an important role in determining the success of sustainable forest
management. Local people’s feelings and knowledge which were often neglected before began to receive
some attention after it was realized that indigenous knowledge is also useful and valuable in certain
circumstances. Now Social forestry is vital for mitigation and adaptation to climate change in Rajshahi as
well as Bangladesh.