Bangladesh’s Ethnic People Safeguarding Forests and Wildlife

Kishore Kumar Chakma, a young man from an ethnic community in Rangamati district, voluntarily guards a village common forest (VCF) so that none can hunt wild animals and fell trees from it.

“I go to the forest every day to check whether anyone is hunting animals and felling bamboo or trees from it,” Kishore, assistant general secretary of the Kodokchari Mon Para VCF committee, told IPS.

He said they have introduced a rule of punishing the people involved in killing wildlife in their locality.

Kishore, who once used to hunt wild animals from the forests, said there are social rules in their community; for example, people who hunt deer in the forest are fined Taka 20,000 (USD 164).

“If one cuts a bamboo from the VCF, he or she is being penalized Taka 1,000 (US$ 8.17). And after the introduction of the penalty, bamboo is recovering in our forests,” he said.

Kishore said he is also advocating among ethnic people to protect wildlife.

Poittaram Chakma (50), a resident of the Digholchari Hajachara area under the Belaichari upazila in Rangamati, said earlier they destroyed forests and biodiversity in their locality although the livelihood of the ethnic communities living in the country’s hilly region depends on forests.

“After getting proper training on conservation, we have understood the importance of biodiversity and forest conservation. Now we realize that hunting wildlife is a crime,” he said.

Poittaram remembered that as they destroyed hilly natural forests, springs dried up, creating a scarcity of water in their locality. Due to unchecked destruction of forests, the aquatic species, including fish, disappeared from springs too, resulting in a crisis of food among the ethnic communities, he added.

Amid the growing problems they faced due to the destruction of forests, the ethnic people from Poittaram’s locality came forward to revive degraded forests and established Digholchari Hajachara Para Village Common Forest (VCF) in 2012.

Within a couple of years after conservation efforts started, the forest started returning to its natural state, and people of the local ethnic community are reaping benefits from it.

“After revival of hilly springs, fish species are now found in spring waters,” Poittaram said, adding, “If someone is found extracting stone or sand from hilly springs, destroying its environment, he or she is being penalized.”

Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Divisional Forest Officer at Rangamati North Forest Division, said the VCF initiative, taken by the ethnic communities, has been playing a vital role in conserving forests and wildlife in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).

‘Predators’ Turn Protectors

Once, Poittaram was involved in hurting wild animals since the ethnic communities have a long tradition of killing animals from the forests to meet their food demand. But now he is working to protect wildlife in his locality.

He said there were many wild animals in their forest when he used to hunt wildlife during his childhood. “I hunted many deer and wild boars before 2008. Now I do not hunt—rather, I motivate ethnic people not to kill wild animals.”

Due to indiscriminate destruction of forests, many wildlife species are disappearing from their habitats for lack of food. Considering the food crisis, the Digholchari Hajachara Para VCF committee planted fruit-bearing trees in their common forests.

“We planted many kinds of fruit-bearing trees in our forests so that wildlife can eat fruits from these trees. We know the wild species need food for their survival,” Poittaram said.

He said now footprints of deer and bears are now found in their village common forests, indicating that the ecosystem of the forests has revived.

Barun Chakma, president of the Digholchari Hajachara Para VCF committee, said they formed the VCF in 2012 and since then, they have been working to protect forests.

“In the past, anyone could fell trees from the forests as per their wish. But now they cannot do so. If necessary, they have to take permission from the VCF committee before felling a tree or bamboo from the forests,” he said.

Barun said the VCF committee planted medicinal plants inside the common forests apart from the fruit-bearing ones. “We get food from the forests now and medicines too,” he added.

Establishing Firebreaks to Save Forests

Ethnic farmers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) practice Jhum cultivation, also known as slash-and-burn cultivation, to grow crops on hill slabs. This traditional farming technique involves clearing and burning land to cultivate crops, which often creates wildlife-destroying forests in the hilly region.

Silica Chakma, a young ethnic woman farmer, said in 2021, a fire broke out in a VCF from the Jhum crop field, which is close to where she lives. The fire destroyed a large area of the forest, putting wildlife and biodiversity in peril.

To prevent fire in their VCF, she said, they now create a fire lines, also known as a firebreak—a gap in combustible material or vegetation that slows or stops a wildfire or bushfire—around their VCF.

“We usually clean up a 12- to 14-foot width of vegetation around the VCF so that Jhum fire cannot engulf our common forest,” Silica added.

Bihita Bidhan Khisa, a community mobilizer with the UNDP, said the VCFs were established with support from a project of the UN Development Programme and they helped the ethnic communities conserve their forests and wildlife.